Europeans Make First Ascent of Alaska’s Mount Reaper

Hansjörg Auer and Much Mayr made the first ascent of the unclimbed Mount Reaper in Alaska by their Sugar Man M7 A1 750 metres route up the north face.

Mount Reaper was not only unclimbed, but reportedly unnamed and is on the Pitchfork Glacier near Mount Citadel and Berserker. The Austrian climbers sent their route in a 12-hour round-trip on May 17.

Auer told Planet Mountain, “We had lot’s of spindrift due to strong winds higher up and encountered some really challenging steep pitches with bad protection, in particular the crux where a fall was out of the question.

“Some belays were made using only our ice axes and the ice, only just plastered to the blank granite, really couldn’t have been any thinner otherwise our alpine style attempt would have ground to a halt. In the end though we got lucky.”

For more on alpinist Hansjorg Auer, see here.