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Show Page 6-Wasarcu CANYON camiiaiics November 9-22, 1994 _ Transcending the Purple From the} Cottonwood Despite the contem- — _ porary fascination with Canyons to Denali’s 14,000 foot Wickersham Wal by oe ictal wall in North America, if not the world, remained unskied been skied and may not be - until this past spring. At | 10:30 p.m. on May 24,-1994, Wickersham, a four-mile _ the biggest snow-covered longer anyway. a = skiable lines on the planet, possibly Nanga Parbat’s 'Rupal Face, the south side of Mt. St. Elias, or somewhere in Antarctica, but they haven’t adventure and extreme skiing, te es ee ee _ Alaska range “afternoon”, John Montecucco and I put our Utah ski abilities to the acid test. Sooop a The cliffs, and steep snow fields | We stepped our “Terminator” boots into Voile has been called the Last Big Thing to do in the ski-mountaineering arena. Yet it averages only 35 degrees in steep- classic telemark bindings at ness; it is within the realm of. 19. 470 feet on the north ~ _ summit of Mount McKinley mortal human achievement, providing you don’t get avalanched off! and carved Evolution skis _ It has been the object down 2,900 feet of bullet- of international contention, but it was not to be the prize proof sastrugi (ultra-firm, wind-eroded snow) to com_ plete the first descent of the © | _of French, Italians, or Canadians. Instead it was Wickersham Wall. We had _ already shredded over 10, 500 _ feet of the 11,000 foot Canadian Route, a slightly protruding spur that frames the right ae of the enor-*~ - mous Wall. | | Our unusual approach if skiing the line in stages - _ meant that the highest portion claimed by John Montecucco and myself. We have done the majority of our skiing at | Snowbird, Alta, and the sur- rounding Wasatch backcoun-— try. We have never skied in any movies and we do not consider ourselves “extreme Hans Gmoser, known We had ferried loads to camp- now for starting the CMH: heli-skiing, led the first ascent Sites at 8,500, 11,000, 14,500, and 16,600 then skied down — of the Wall in 1963 but only unencumbered and slept low. Double carrying and sleeping low is traditional in big peak climbing. It enabled us to— acclimatize without a hitch, and ski aggressively, down the fall line, with minimal packs. Having skied all but four rope-lengths (which we rappelled) of the Wickersham Wall, we descended via the standard West Buttress route. _. This concept was my solution to the logistical prob- | "Bullocks on ie naysayers...We Go! ‘Tyson Bradley, as quoted in Couloir Magazine. — best attempt was made by fel- low Utahns Rick Wyatt, Evelyn Lees, Chris Noble, et alin 1983. Wyatt is the Department of Transportation -skiers’’. _ of the route was also the last. avalanche forecaster for Little Cottonwood Canyon. Lees works for the Wasatch skied portions of it. Patrick Avalanche Report, and Noble is a Salt Lake-based photo- Vallencant arrived in Alaska journalist. They submitted, with major financial backing, | but inclement weather and an accident prevented Rick from a filmmaker, and an with big loads at altitude, a situation that I felt had played no small part in previous failures. Perhapsit would have been more fitting to carve up America’s biggest vertical. uplift in one continuous shot, discredit us — “I led into the frozen maze but found holes to the left, right, and one directly ahead. The crevasse had a roof that over-hung like a Roman arch. It’s mouth widened to twenty feet, while the throat dropped hundreds, deep blue to - deathly black...I relinquished the lead.” -Tyson Bradley — entourage of French ski stars to conquer the Wall in 1982. _ trying the elusive ski descent. He encountered rock-hard ice conditions and sustained a ski humans to visit the Wall in _ prohibitive injury at 13,000 feet. An Italian team approached the Wall from the information we'd gleaned from Wyatt was still a great West Buttress route, intending to ski a line they had not climbed. Luckily for them, of this geographic feature they thought better of the idea immediately upon gazing down the icy mega-drop. The There may be bigger We were the first eleven years, but the route bonus. The 24-day expedition began at Kahiltna Airstrip and included eight days to the base of the Wall and 12 on it. We endured a crevasse fall each, a 60-hour — we Solved problem after problem negotiating the heav- endless slogging with 50 Ib. and internal bleeding injury, ily crevassed snow and steep _ ice of the Canadian Spur. In packs and 70 Ib. sleds. _ the clear evenings of eight — A smooth start from high-pressure days we had on 5,900 feet at the base of the the lower wall, we soaked in Wall soon gave way to a> the precious views of our sun- heavily crevassed section. I led into the frozen maze but lit turns. Placed in the broad perspective, our arcs were puny. The magnitude of the Wall dwarfed our proud found holes to the left , right, _ and one directly ahead. The crevasse had a roof that overarch. Its mouth widened to 20 feet, while the throat marks, but we felt honored to sign the headwalls and aprons, if only once, fleeting- dropped hundreds, deep blue ly. to deathly black. ~The wildest moment of the expedition came while © we were established at 11,000 feet on the Wall with a cache in at 14,500. A storm started loading up the huge blue room! The big I relinquished the lead. 3 _ While we traded duties, we also switched modes to ski and skins. believe the sheer magnitude - requires a new set of tactics. tempest, the loss of photogra-. hung like a Roman lem of trying to ski big walls for not doing so. ButI oe __ wide glacial shield composed of countless crevasses, icé- a crystal clear, sub-zero, and some folks Haze: John ni “a f avalanche slopes coming off placed an ice screw on a bulge between the cracks the summit ridge. We decid- before skinning over the. ed to climb despite the white- intimidating void. He led around to the left and hugged out, knowing we couldn't afford to be separated from half our food and fuel in the event of an extended‘Alaska Range blizzard. some steep seracs (ice cliffs) until the route opened into a beautiful wide avenue. Sweet! | This was the pattern of trepidation, teamwork, flexibility, and exhilarating success that repeated itself as _ Temperatures plummeted, snow fell sideways, and visibility deteriorated as we stuck to the relative safety of a sporadic rock line. With |
