Mooses Tooth Expedition
Pat Luke and Robin DeSota - May 7 - 14th, 2007
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| NCMG guide Jeff Ward planned a trip with two
returning guests to the Ruth gorge area of the Alaska range
in Denali National Park. Their goal would be the "Ham and
Eggs" route on the Mooses Tooth. |
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| Robin and Pat happy to be on the Ruth
Glacier. Our ride and Mount Dickey in the Background |
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| Basecamp on the Ruth Glacier. |
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| Unfortunately, we were unable to fly
in directly to the route, so we had to climb the Root
Canal Icefall with all of our gear. |
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| It was a lot of working moving our gear
up the icefall but the views from Ridge Camp were amazing.
Below camp is the Ruth Amphitheater and Denali. |
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| Looking up at the South Face of Mooses
Tooth. The route follows the gully just out of sight below
the right skyline. |
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| Pat finishing up the easy section of
pitch one. Below was a fun mixed pitch on good granite |
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| Robin finishing up pitch four. |
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| The plan was to climb the first four
pitches of the route for training. It was a perfect training
day. It gave everyone a chance to get into the grove.
We then rapped back down the route and took a rest day.
Unfortunately the weather turned from this... |
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| ..to moderate snow and moderate winds
which caused a few avalanches. Since we were unable to
land on the Root Canal and burned some time approaching
the climb we didn't have enough time to wait out the storm,
so down we went back to basecamp |
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| Luckily we were well stocked with food.. |
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| .and drinks. We actually had enough drinks
to host a little basecamp party. |
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| It was a shame to head back home without
finishing the route, but I think Pat and Robin had a good
time - just check out Robin's expression. I believe that's
laughter, but it could be that he just doesn't want to
leave the mountains. By the time the three of us returned
home we had already made firm plans for next year. Same
time, same place. |
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