Bracey and Helliker on Alaska´s Moose´s Tooth

by Jack Geldard – Editor More Photo´s: Day 2 on the Face The awesome East Face John Bracy reports from Alaska: Matt Helliker and I are back in Talkeetna after a brilliant trip on the ´Buckskin Glacier´, Alaska. We climbed a new route on the amazing East face of the Mooses Tooth. ?There´s a Moose Loose aboot this Hoose? climbs the obvious big fault line to the right of Arctic Rage (Mahoney-Gilmore, 2004) Setting off on the 3rd May in good weather we found excellent conditions enabling fast progress up the initial easy ground before the line narrowed into a series of steeper pitches on snow ice. By midday the weather had deteriorated and we suffered an alarming bombardment of constant spindrift for nearly two hours with Matt almost suffocating at one point. Thankfully this eventually eased allowing us to continue. Above the gully reared up into an overhanging amphitheatre with spooky snow mushrooms hanging threateningly all around us. Some cunning route finding by Matt followed by a hard pitch of mixed and aid climbing saw me at the lip of the roof. After an eternity psyching up I eventually committed to the thin ice curtain above and somehow avoided a big lob into space. The difficulties continued above with Matt pulling of a very hard and serious lead that thankfully found us a small snow patch out to the left to bivi on. Tired after an 18 hour day we brewed up for a couple of hours and sat in our sleeping bags for a bit before continuing. The morning greeted us with ok weather and the crux of the route. A sustained overhanging pitch up less than perfect rock, which Matt dispatched in good style. After 3 more pitches we gained the upper snow slopes of the North ridge and stashed most of our kit to continue on. We were unfortunately stopped c. 100m below the summit by a menacing serac. Happy with our efforts we started the long descent and made it back to our skis by 1am after another 18 hour day. ´There´s a Moose Loose aboot this Hoose´, (1400m, ED 4, M8, A2, AI 6) FA Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker, 3rd and 4th May 2008 The expedition would like to say a huge thanks to the support and assistance from: The Mount Everest Foundation British Mountaineering Council/ UK Sport DMM Patagonia Osprey Packs Maximuscle Sport Nutrition Scarpa Mammut Adidas Eyewear

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