SAMAYA x TOM LIVINGSTONE

 

 

Back to civilization following an expedition in the Ruth Gorge in Alaska with Gašper Pintar, Tom Livingstone tells us about opening a new, difficult, and technical alpine-style route on the south face of Mount Dickey.

 

"For the first third of the trip, we felt like we were living in a freezer. We cleared the tents of snow every day while watching and analyzing the sharp, snow-covered peaks that seemed to drift through the clouds and light.

 

We had spotted several routes that we set out on, including 'Blood from the Stone' and a direct start to 'Ruth Gorge Grinder' on Mount Dickey. We also started up the west face of Peak 7400, among others. But once on the route, what we hoped would be ice turned out to be unprotectable granular snow. We tried to push through, before turning back as the going was so tough, then we went back, stronger, to try again.

 

During the second third of our expedition, the sun's rays began to reach our base camp earlier. We welcomed this sudden warmth into our two small tents in the middle of miles of glacier, saying, 'Wow, it's here before 11 a.m.!', while frying everything we could eat in butter.

 

I really enjoyed Gašper's company, his humor, and his great motivation. At the bivouac, we shared long conversations, talking and laughing about the world, which made the time pass faster.

 

Upon our arrival, we had been drawn to a large couloir at the top of the face, wondering if we could reach it via some 'crazy slabs.' The weather remained fickle, but we were lucky nonetheless. During a small window of good weather, we were able to open a new route on the south face of Mount Dickey, peaking at 2,909 meters. This opening ultimately took us four days.

 

After a day spent fixing ropes, we set off. A subtle traverse of the steep rock led us to the middle of the face, onto ice and up to a cave for a bivy. We then climbed in a zig-zag as the snow fell—or rather, as it rose in the constant updrafts and clouds. Many pitches seemed to want to turn us back.

 

A bivouac on a snow ridge ended the third day, and Pinti smoked his last cigarettes. In the morning, we traversed a short section of overhanging névé between heavy spindrifts, those ribbons of snow blown by the wind. We finally reached the summit and descended in mixed weather, happy and making immature jokes about the Dickeys...

 

The final week, the weather had warmed up even more. We were drawn to other peaks and tried other routes, like Mount Bradley and the Ruth Gorge Grinder, but all were too dangerous for us. The large snow mushrooms and steep, unprotectable pitches weren't pleasant. In total, we tried six different routes, always remaining very active and enthusiastic! Hats off to everyone who has climbed cool routes in the Ruth.

 

Conditions don't seem to have been "good" at all this year, but we are happy to have made the most of it, to have "crossed the crazy slabs" while climbing our new route, and to have experienced a great adventure in Alaska.

 

Gašper said it was the hardest alpine route he has ever done. It was certainly a difficult combination of several types of climbing, over several days, with many different trials.

 

We called this route "The Great Wall," firstly because it's a cool wall, and secondly because we spent a lot of time wishing we had a wall worthy of the name to keep our tents from being buried under the snow."