Mt. Barille's Japanese Courloir: Successful Climb in Alaska Range

The following two dispatches were received by satellite phone from AAI guide Kurt Hicks and climbers Mike and Ryan Guffy on Friday and Saturday evenings:

May 22

“Hello everyone.  It’s 7:34 pm and we’re calling from the Ruth Gorge.  We’re going to get a few hours of sleep and then get up at about midnight and make our attempt on Mt. Barille’s beautiful Japanese Couloir.  We practiced rescuing a few crevasses today, successfully I might add, and now the sun is slowly setting, if you can call it that, and all is peaceful here in the Ruth.  We call when we get back from the climb, so that’s it for now.”

 

May 23

“Hey there.  This is Kurt calling after another beautiful day, and a fantastic climbing day in the Ruth Gorge.  I’m happy to tell you that Mike, Ryan, and I were totally successful in climbing the Japanese Couloir, summiting around 10:10am.  It was a lovely day, though soft snow made the climbing a little challenging.  We got back to camp early this afternoon, and we’re now all settled in at about 7:00pm our time.  We’re drying out our gear and watching the sun slowly dropping a little.  We tried to send you a photo on my new iphone, but I don’t know if it went through.  But we’ll have a full photo report later regardless. 

 

Tomorrow we’ll take it fairly easy, working on some expedition climbing skills and practicing some more crevasse rescue skills, and we’ll work in some rest time.  OK, we’ll keep you posted.  By for now.”