New Alpine Line on Huntington by Ines Papert and Luka Lindic
They climbed the west face of the 3,731-metre peak twice in only a few days
Top alpine climbers Ines Papert and Luka Lindic have made the first ascent of a big new alpine climb on Mount Huntington in in the Central Alaska Range. They named it Heart of Stone, a 1,000-metre M7 that they climbed with one bivy.
They climbed the serious new route after repeating the west face of Huntington via The Colton/Leach, which was first climbed in 1981 by Tim Leach and Nick Colton. Papert and Lindic, who had just visited the Revelation Mountains in Alaska with no luck due to conditions, climbed The Colton/Leach in 12 hours from the bottom to the top.
It was on their descent that they noticed the new climb, which is between the aforementioned route at the west face couloir. About the climb, Lindic said, On the descent/rappel from the summit of Huntington, I couldn’t stop looking into a steep wall… It was clear that there is a possible but quite steep and difficult line. We didn’t know if it has been done before but after two days of rest we went for it.
“Every single moment on the route was simply pure alpine climbing magic. Always interesting and sometimes a bit spicy climbing, bivy in full moon and perfect summit weather the second day. Back in base camp sipping whisky we were definitely felling super satisfied with the line we climbed. After checking out with very trusted sources of information it all seems it is a new route. We had a great moral and weather forecast support from Jack Tackle which seemed like having a special joker in the pocket. Thank you, Jack, for “being with us!” A few hours after descent we just managed to get out before bad weather thanks to one and only Paul Roderick from Talkeetna Air.”
Huntington Routes
1964: French Ridge by Lionel Terray et al.
1965: Harvard Route VI 5.9 A2 by David Roberts, Ed Bernd, Don Jensen and Matt Hale
1978: North Face by Jack Roberts and Simon McCartney
1978: Southeast Spur by Joseph Kaelin, Kent Meneghin, Glenn Randall and Angus Thuermer
1980: The British Route on the east face by Roger Mear and Steve Bell
1981: The Colton/Leach on the west face by Nick Colton and Tim Leach
1989: The Nettle/Quirk disputed FA by Dave Nettle and James Quirk
1991: Phantom Wall on the southwest face by Jay Smith and Paul Teare
2017: Gauntlet Ridge by Clint Helander and Jess Roskelley, five days on route, two nights spent sleeping on summit
2021: Heart of Stone M7 1,000 m by Ines Papert and Luka Lindic
Check out the latest buyer's guide:
