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Spring Break in the Wrangells
by Charlie Sassara, Scree 8/97
Our program for Wrangell 1997 started with a relaxing family trip to a side glacier to the Hawkins Glacier, one valley south of Mt. Bear. Shawn and Michele O'Fallon, Carlos Buhler and Siri Moss and I spent a week ski touring and exploring side valleys near the North Face of Mt. Donna. We broke our self imposed rules of no movement before 1:00 P.M. on April 23rd when Shawn, Carlos and I left camp at 11:30 A.M. and set out to make the first ascent of an 11300-foot peak just to the north of camp. Climbing without a rope and a single ice tool per person for 5000 feet, we stood atop the peak at 7:00 P.M. We named the peak Mt. Benkin after Carlos' lost K2 summit partner from last summer.
After returning to the lodge we helped Paul entertain a North Face marketing team, which was sampling Ultima Thule's Super Cub skiing by leading the pack up a splendid 450-foot Grade III waterfall on the south side of the Chitina River. Highlights included Siri leading a rope team that included Paul's eight year old son, Jay, who kept giving ice beta to the North Face crew.
With decompression from work complete, Siri left with North Face for Anchorage and Carlos and I turned our attention to this year's project, the East Face of University Peak. Depending on which map is used for reference, the summit of University Peak is either 14470 or 15030. Aircraft and personal altimeters put the elevation around 14800. At 8500 the East Face was the tallest unexplored and unclimbed face in the range. The climb involved sustained snow, ice and rock climbing along a rib of ice and rock that defined the route.
Our four bivouacs on the ascent took two to three hours of chopping to secure a platform for our Bibler. The technical cruxes included delicate mixed climbing along the broken rock rib at 11500 and near vertical boilerplate ice through a 400-foot serac barrier at 13500. We took four days of food and fuel, but required seven days (including one storm day) to climb the route and descend the North Ridge. Paul Claus supported our efforts with daily overflights and a pin-point food drop on the summit by ace bombardier Reudi Homberger.
Our summit on May 4th was the third ascent of the mountain. The second ascent occurred on April 8th of this year when Paul Claus, Ruedi Homberger, Dave Staeheli, and Danny Kost made a rapid 14.5-hour round trip ascent of the 4000-foot North Ridge form the basin at 10500, just south of Mt. Bona. The first ascent was in 1955 and followed the Hawkins Glacier along the western flank of University to the 10500 basin, then up the North Ridge.
Alaskan Grade VI-.
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