In and Out on Huntington

In a 23 hour push starting early March 19, Jason Stuckey and John Frieh made

the second winter ascent of Mt Huntington in the Alaska Range (12,240′). The pair

arrived on the Tokositna Glacier on March 18, and climbed the West Face Couloir (Nettle-Quirk: V 85 degrees, 3,250′). They returned to camp by 5am on the 20th, and were

picked up four hours later. All told the pair spent less than 48 hours in the range. “Smash and Grab.”

The first winter ascent of Huntington was performed on March 12,
2007 in a 15 hour (up and down) sprint by Colin Haley and Jed Brown (link). John Frieh has had
Huntington on his radar for quite some time, and was inspired by their climb. For four

years he kept his eyes on the weather in late winter, immediately soliciting

opinions from friends if a window appeared to open. It was only a month before the climb that by

chance Frieh met with Stuckey, a resident of Fairbanks, at the Anchorage Airport. Their

trip was Stuckey’s first to the Alaska Range.

Frieh described the ascent as “fairly tame.” Weather was excellent, and the

overall condition of the route left little to complain about. According to Frieh, the climb
went slower than they would have liked due to the route being almost entirely covered in
glacial ice. The approach slabs, usually snow and neve, were much thinner than usual.

The ice was hard, and after the climb the picks on Frieh’s ice tools looked “to have the

sharpness of a butter knife.”

With their ascent in 2007, Haley and Brown showed Frieh that “you actually

don’t have to sit on the Tok [glacier] for weeks shoveling snow [and] eating pancakes.”

A number of people

made their ascent possible. Frieh believes beer is owed to Stuckey, who agreed to climb with a near stranger, Mark Westman and

Paul Roderick for providing opinions on the weather and Brown and Haley for

their ascent and beta. If you happen to around these guys do them the favor for Frieh.

For more information see Frieh’s trip report on cascadeclimbers.com. See the Mountain Profile in Alpinist 20 for the history of Mt. Huntington.