Harrington and Hayden Open Big Alpine on Devil’s Paw

Brette Harrington and Gabe Hayden have established a big new alpine line on the West Face of Devil’s Paw in Alaska, about 30 kilometres east of Juneau.

Their new route is called Shaa Téix’i and climbs 1,300 metres of steep mixed terrain up to 5.11a above the Juneau Ice Cap.

The peak is part of the Boundary Range, which sits on the border of Alaska and Canada.

The pair climbed for 12 hours and topped out in the evening, they were forced to bivy at 3 a.m. on their descent.

The name translates to Heart of the Mountain and it’s just one of many new routes Harrington has established this year.

Devil’s Paw has four summits and there are a number of routes up the various peaks.

The main peak was first climbed by its northeast side in 1950 and the southernmost summit was climbed by its south couloir by Fred Beckey and team in 1977.

There’s some steep climbing on our new line on Devils Paw. The rock is an old dark granite with many spidering crack and blocks. The mountain is underlaid with the newer white granite we climbers are familiar with. @arcteryx @dmm_wales @lasportivana @julboeyewearna #devilspaw ❤️ to @mdre92 @akicebum #climbalaska #alpineclimbing #juneaualaska

A post shared by Brette Harrington (@bretteharrington) on Sep 16, 2018 at 10:27am PDT