Video: Big Walls and Splitter Cracks in the Ruth Gorge 2021
Two climbers cope with quickly changing weather and some choss on a few classic and not-so-classic lines
Big wall climbers Tyler Karow and Imanol Amundarain Aranburu recently returned from a visit to Alaska’s Ruth Gorge where they climb and attempted a number of classic alpine lines. Karow shared the story over a number of Instagram posts, which we’ve included below, and one of the best alpine climbing films of the past few years, alos below.
It was around a campfire in Joshua Tree this past November where I met a dude from the Basque Country who went by Ima, short for Imanol. Ima claimed he was an avid climber interested in big walls of the remote variety but I was a bit skeptical being that he had nothing climbing related on him other than a pair of brand new climbing shoes and a chalk bag that was so small a single hand could barely fit in it. We both found ourselves in Bishop and decided to link up for the first time on a day of bad weather in the Owens River Gorge. We were the only people in the gorge that day as we found ourselves climbing in the snow, too stoked to stop until our hands became too numb to grab the wet holds. We spent the entire winter climbing and traveling together as I watched his rack gradually expanded to 5 quick draws and 3 totem cams (which he proudly informed everyone were from the Basque!) We both made the pilgrimage to Yosemite where Ima started off the season with a solo of Zodiac as his first big wall and ended it with a link up of The Nose and Half Dome with our mutual friend Cedar on his birthday. Ima managed to climb El Cap 7 times in spring and stuck to his mantra, “starve the ego, feed the soul” as he roamed the valley, an unassuming crusher with impeccable style. The dude has become my Basque brother and someone who I would want to share a tent with for 3 weeks.
We landed on the Ruth Glacier overwhelmed by beauty and blown away by our plane ride in a completely packed Cessna 185. We started to unpack and set up our tents just as some threatening clouds began to appear on the horizon. It didn’t take long before we found ourselves inside of a ping pong ball as the fog rolled in and it began to rain and snow… for 4 days. We sat in our tent, entertained by books, music and chess while listening to the walls around us avalanche every 10 or so minutes. On day 4, the sun peaked out of the clouds and we decided to attempt a route called Goldfinger. We quickly found ourselves skiing through a maze of crevasses to get to the base of the route and realized how “real” this place was. We were completely new to glacier travel but we found a safe passage and climbed 2 pitches of soaking wet rock before the snow and clouds came back. We bailed. On day 6, conditions were looking ideal so we set off to climb the Cobra Pillar on Mt. Barrill. Our day started off with Ima falling waist deep into a crevasse. We made it to the base of the wall and were forced to start up a new first pitch because glacial movement has caused the original start to sit above a massive crevasse. I led the first 5 pitches and finished my block mentally exhausted. Every pitch contained the worst quality of rock I had ever climbed in my life and I was extremely sketched out. Ima took over the next 4 pitches as I jumared behind dodging constant pebbles and the occasional head-sized stone. I then quested off on more garbage rock pulling my way up the crux offwidth with a single 4 and proudly freeing the 5.9 “splitter” pitch which contained the only decent climbing on route. That brought us to a big ledge just a little past half way up this El Cap sized wall, where I sat down to ponder our options. We had only been climbing for 8 hours and literally had unlimited daylight but my stoke was at an all time low and honestly, I was scared. We made the call to go down. Ima played the flute as we chilled on the ledge and prepared for our bail. The descent ended up going smoothly and we made it back to our camp in time for a late dinner. I was humbled and happy.
The Ruth Gorge can be painted as a wild place that is far out and away from the reaches of human civilization but in reality, it is not. A thriving tourism industry has flourished in nearby Talkeetna in part to daily plane tours that take tourists to see the towering walls we came here to climb from the sky (and also that really big mountain next door called Denali). It is this very tourism industry that allows us to fly into the gorge for a tolerable price, but with dozens of planes flying overhead daily, “far out” is not how we felt even as the only people camped out on the entire glacier for most of our stay. The day after our attempt on Barrill, we spent the morning in our underwear bathing in the sun before we decided to ski north to a large amphitheater to hang out and read our books in view of Denali. Upon arrival we recalled hearing about an old cabin perched on a ridge line that wasn’t too far; so we set out to explore it. As we came into view of the ridge line, we observed a snow airstrip shuttling tourists in and out of a perfect glacial view of Denali along with a 2 story building that looked quite a bit more fancy than the modest cabin I envisioned. We skied over to the cabin, eager to engage in conversation with someone other than each other. We found just that as a welcoming group of 4 offered us beers and a good hang. They were staying in the original “Mountain House” which sits next to the newly built 2 story “Chalet” which we were informed can be rented for $70k for a weekend. We skied up to it of course and spent some time chatting with two mountain guides stationed at the estate who gave us some info on a new route they were working on before being called in for a grilled cheese by the chef. We skied back to our glacial valley and went to bed as air traffic subsided. The next day we skied over to the base of Goldfinger for attempt 2. This time, the route was mostly dry and we romped up 1800 feet of excellent corner climbing to the summit of The Stump in just over 6 hours. Finally, one route in the bag!
The West Pillar of the Eye Tooth is a 2900 foot tall chunk of granite that forms the south end of the Mooses Tooth formation and sits in perfect view of our camp. We got news of a 24 hour weather window from our new neighbors and decided to make a run for it. The first crux of the day was getting onto the rock from the snow and climbing a new first pitch since the glacier had melted 60 feet or so down. Splitter cracks were abundant on the route, and the rock was mostly good but of course there were also ample amounts of alpine choss and wetness. As we quested upward, the views became outrageous. Mt. Denali was unobscured just to our left and the other mountains in the range appeared with a beauty that photographs cannot do justice. When we neared the summit, we couldn’t help but feel thoughts of exposure and insecurity. We were over 5000 vertical feet from the safety of our camp and had with us no bivy or rain gear. Our shoes and pants were soaked from having to step in deep snow on the last pitches, plus it was getting really cold and some storm clouds were brewing on the horizon. We made it to the summit ridge and decided to skip the true summit less than 100 feet higher due to excessive snow and cornicing. We had finished the ascent but we had ahead of us the most stressful part of the day, rappelling 3000 feet in alpine terrain back to our skis. We took it very slow intentionally and managed to only get our ropes stuck once over the course of 25 or so double rope raps. The views became even more outrageous as we watched the sun set over the entire range. Then about half way down, clouds began to flood the gorge and we could tell our weather window was closing… perfect timing. I stepped on the glacier as it started to rain, grabbed my ski boots and booked it through hip deep snow in my climbing shoes to our packs to retrieve the extra pair of socks I brought before putting on my boots. We hooted and hollered as we skied down surprisingly fun snow while dodging crevasses and made it back to our tent at 2:45am. For all we knew, it was 5pm though as it never actually gets dark this time of year. Days like this are what we came here for.
The few days before and after the Eye Tooth were filled with a mix of bad weather and the occasional tease of sun for a few hours. We tried to take advantage of the sun time and went out to climb what we thought was a 200 foot splitter 3” crack on the Gargoyle that we scoped out the week before. After a chossy approach pitch, where a watermelon sized rock landed in my lap, we quickly discovered our perception from the ground was skewed… the crack was actually 5” for the entirety of the 200 feet… arguably the most brutal width of crack for climbing. I jammed my soon to be bloody and bruised knees into the sharp rock while hand-fist stacking my soon to be bloody hands before eventually giving in and pulling my way up on my single #5 to finish the pitch. We rapped back down and it began to rain. Back to the tent! Later, we summited a 1900 foot formation called Hut Tower in a casual afternoon. Good rock, beautiful waterfalls, and actually greenery at the start of the route put smiles on our faces for the entirety of the day.
While rummaging through route topos in the Talkeetna ranger station, we came across a write up in Alpinist Magazine from Cedar Wright and Renon Ozturk’s 2007 Alaskastan Expedition. They had completely torn the place up by climbing 5 first ascents on their trip and provided the ranger station with a collection of artistically appealing topos… some clarifying that they were 2 beers and 3 shots deep while written. We wanted to try at least one of their routes before we left the gorge and opted to attempt a 1800 foot route called Stumpjumper. We quested up on pitches of mostly quality but often scary 5.11 climbing with occasionally marginal anchors before getting to the 5.10r pitch that had behind it the letter a or d… we couldn’t fully interpret the handwriting. It thankfully turned out to feel more a than d, and we topped out with a feeling of relief.
My writing about the Ruth Gorge thus far may imply that the weather sucked and the rock wasn’t very good…. that would be an accurate conclusion which could lead one to believe the place isn’t worth visiting. However, those two items are not what we were seeking on this trip. We came to climb, but more importantly we came to have a unique experience and take time to enjoy life in a beautiful place. Our trip was first and foremost a “gastronomic expedition” as Ima liked to say. We brought a 5 gallon propane tank with a 2 burner car camping stove and set up a tent exclusively for cooking excessively large meals. We ate fresh vegetables, Basque cheese from Ima’s farm, and quality meat through the end of the trip. We learned that avocados never go bad on a glacier and that salads aren’t very appetizing in freezing temperatures. We ended up spending more days in our tent than we did climbing but each of those days was fulfilling and sometimes welcomed. I got through a couple books, we listened to music, sang, danced, I wrote these long captions, and we chatted for endless hours… all in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We learned so much on this trip and I feel absurdly lucky to have experienced this wild place. We dipped out a couple days before planned due to an incoming storm and spent our final 3 days in Alaska hanging out with new friends we had met along the way. Expedition Opa! was a success in my eyes and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to make it happen.
Ruth Gorge 2021
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