Alaska – Deeper, A Big One Goes Down…

Ticked a big one off today. It was the North West Face of the biggest peak in the area and has been on my mind since first seeing it 12 days ago. The face was clearly holding the best snow in the area and was one of the few spined up faces we have seen this trip. The hang up was that it spilled into some big open cracks. They were far down the outrun and after many looks at the face we had determined that it would take a major slide to make it to the cracks.

           We have been hammering the snow-pack hard the last couple of days and have seen no activity. Our multiple pits also concluded we had a bomber snow pack. With a big storm in the forecast, I knew today may be my only chance to get this line before the stability changed. The other factor was heating. I had to traverse a west face with multiple cornices looming over head. My plan was to start the traverse/hike early in the day when everything was locked in and crusted over. I left my final island of safety at 11:30AM and the race was on. At exactly  2:00PM, I was standing on top of my line, just as the first rays of light hit the face. By 3:30PM I was back to my safe spot. The whole process took about 20 well thought out steps, but with proper planning I was able to mitigate my hazards. It was a huge physical test, because I was racing the clock and there were no real safe spots to rest. I was forced sprint most of the hike. I was exposed for over 4 hours and the physical and mental test was like nothing I have felt before.

        The anti was way up today and I have never felt that small in my life. It was great to have Tom backing me up today and reconfirming that I was not crossing the line of good judgement.

**The was the first good look I got at the face. I started my hike from the saddle traversing the sun/shadow ridge and on up to the lookers right peak.**

**Earlier in the day Johan, photog Dan Milner and Jonaven left do to fears of being stuck out for another 10 day storm and to restock camp.**

**Peace and Solitude again. The airplane heads away through the clouds**

**Enjoying the view of Mount Fairweather and taking a breather before setting out for an afternoon of exposure.**

**The key to riding this line was hiking it in the shade. Check the ocean in the lower right.**

**The last 200 ft was so steep I had watch from knocking my teeth out on the edge of my board. If it was not for my verts I would have had to turn back.**

**We fought off weather through the day and at times it seemed like I was going to loose the battle. I kept pushing on because I knew this would be the last chance to ride this safely. Just as I reached my final island of safety the weather final closed in around us.**