Cracked Ice West Ridge Climb

7/20/24

In November of 2023, I began my ski season with a trip to Valdez to squeeze the last few days of decent snow out of an early storm. While out there, we skied lower Cracked Ice, and during my end-of-day research, I was shocked to find an AAC Article covering new rock routes on the massif. These lines were put up by Taylor Brown, a climber whose online paper trail I have followed closely ever since venturing into the eastern reaches of the Alaskan Highway; he is a climber I look up to highly, particularly regarding what he has done in Valdez and the Wrangells. I looked into these climbs and cached them in the memory bank for a future date.

That date came about in the middle of the summer of 2024 when I was talking to a buddy, Nurge, about finding some rock climbing for us to do around eastern Alaska. I mentioned this alpine rock route I stumbled on, and he was instantly fired up on it. We agreed to wait for our weather window and then request a day off.

Miraculously, a gap in both of our schedules lined up with a short window of blue skies across the area. We ran to management and asked for days off together; when they heard our plans they quickly awarded us the time off. With the pieces of a stellar trip in place, we packed our bags and prepped for a solid day in the mountains.

As we got our things together after the workday and prepped to head to my car on the west side of McCarthy, we found a coworker, Tristan, who also had the day off. We asked Tristan if he wanted to join, expecting to hear a no, but ecstatic when he said yes. He hastily packed his bags and within 45 minutes we were heading out of town. We drove to Thompson Pass where we spent the night at the base of our climb.

We woke to slightly overcast skies and ate a quick breakfast. We shuffled our cars a bit closer to the climb and quickly found the trailhead. The trail began through dense rainforest; without a trail we would have been in a never-ending bushwhack. The skintrack I had previously been on was on the same path as the trail, but the sheer amount of brush was hard to comprehend. We remained in the brush for some time but eventually rose above into a scenic tundra. From here the variety in terrain became more apparent. Above us were glaciers and alpine rock, and beneath was a lush forest.

After making our way through the tundra, we approached the snow covered glacier. After a snack break, we roped up and began up the snow. The glacier has obviously receded in recent years, but we were unsure to what degree. We saw sagging in the snow, but it often seemed more like a sign of running water underneath a shallow snowpack than cracks in a glacier. After a bit of an approach on the glacier, we made our way to what seemed to be the beginning of the rock climb. The steep snow travel made me excited for winter and the endless snow climbing that comes with it.

We searched for the dihedral that was shown in the route description, but struggled to find the same one. After perusing a wide span of the wall, we decided to take an obvious looking corner system that had some tat left behind on a piton. Nurge took the rope up for us, struggling to find any good gear the whole way up. After an hour on the pitch, he had finally problem solved the route and began bringing us up. Cleaning his gear was a clear indication as to why he took so long; many pieces were desperate and had walked by the time I came to them. It felt like we were alpine climbing at this point. 

To keep things moving quickly, we had Nurge lead the next few pitches since he had the most experience at placing complex gear. After two more roped pitches with fun rock climbing moves, the route began to ease up a bit. We elected to move without the rope from this point on as everything ahead of us seemed to be a class 4 or 5 scramble. The scrambling varied in difficulty from easy and aesthetic knife edge walking to scary and consequential downclimbing with complex navigation.

By the time we reached patches of snow, we were nearing the peak of Cracked Ice. We carefully walked these patches, sure to not slip as gaping crevasses waited to consume us below. One last steep patch of snow led us to a flat knoll. From there, we just needed to walk up a simple section to the peak.

Upon reaching the peak, we took our time enjoying the views. One of the best parts of summer in Alaska is the endless days. Even though we had been climbing for a long time, there were no worries of daylight running out. Tristan and I marveled at the views of the Copper River, and Nurge was stunned by the scope of our views. We saw the Wrangells, Marcus Baker, Tom White, and all the beautiful Chugach peaks around Valdez. A long moment on the summit allowed us to prepare for the class 3 downclimb.

Tired, we were careful to not get lazy on the way down. We picked our way through loose rock and small cliff bands on the south ridge before reaching the saddle that gave us access to the glacier we would descend. The views of Python Peak were inspiring from the glacier and only elevated our amazing glissade down the glacier. We continued past our climb, sure to admire it one last time. The downhill travel stayed dreamy through the rest of the snow and tundra, but upon reaching the brush I remembered why I like the alpine.
Wet and slippery mud was hidden by dense brush, and I found myself often slipping as we made our way through the forest. The long day did not help my frustration, but I was motivated to get off the mountain both safely and quickly. A focused push by the group kept us moving nearly the whole way down, and eventually, we found ourselves on the road just a few hundred feet from the car. We were excited to be back at the cars and agreed we had earned a beer. We ended the trip by stopping by The Stamp Mill and enjoying wings and pizzas, the natural end to any good day in the mountains.