Mt. Foraker, Infinite Spur, fast ascent. Steve House and I climbed the ...

M t. Foraker, Infinite Spur, fa st ascent. Steve H ouse and I clim bed the Infinite Spur on June 9 and 10. We carried little in the way o f gear, because we are lazy an d could n o t be b o th ered carrying tents and sleeping bags. This allowed and forced us to move at a steady pace. O u r speed was the result o f such a lightw eight a p p ro ach b u t n o t th e goal. We carried an MSR XGK stove, 33 ounces o f fuel (used h alf), 40 GUs each, eight packages o f soup, som e H alvah (sesam e seed paste), m ap, com pass, altim eter, GPS, radio, an 8 .8 -m m rope, six screws, five cam s, stoppers, slings, biners, a tarp for em ergency an d w ind shelter, an d Polarguard parkas. We each carried a sm all daypack. I led th e first block, w hich was 10 p itches o f rock to 5.6/5.7 an d easy m ixed clim bing. Steve led the second block, m ostly steep snow and m o d erate ice, w ith one sh o rt W I5 pitch. By sim ul-clim bin g we clim bed th e sp u r in six “pitches,” th o u g h one “p itc h ” gained 900 vertical feet. We reached the end o f th e sp u r (at ca 15,000') after 13 h o u rs o f clim bing. We sp en t 3 h o u rs a n d 45 m in u tes at a flat sp o t d rin k in g a n d eating. T h en I led th ree m o re p itches on m o d erate ice. We co n tin u e d ro p ed fo r a w hile, th e n u n ro p e d below th e east su m m it and clim bed on to the top, sto p p in g ju st before the su m m it for a h o t d rin k . We su m m ited at 8:15 a.m ., 25 ho u rs after starting. We descended the Sultana Ridge, w hich took an additional 20 hours, including one m ore brew /hydration break, to re tu rn to K ahiltna base camp. The route proved to be easier th an we expected and involved m uch snow climbing, som e­ th in g I get b ad allergies from . N evertheless, we enjoyed th e clim b, m ostly because o f scenery b eyond belief. The descent o f th e Sultana pro v id ed som e o f th e p rettiest views. A n o th er p air started o n the Spur th e sam e day we did, b u t th ere were no o th e r p arties on th e m o u n tain , w hich m ade the experience rich er a n d m o re special (even m o re so w hen co m p ared to the

D enali cattle drives). However, o u r ap p ro ach was ra th e r u n ro m a n tic , in th a t w ith o u r lack o f eq uipm ent we could n o t spare the tim e to contem plate o u r surro u n d in g s. O u r experience was thus n o t as textured o r rich as it m ight have been. This was th e price we paid for the ease with w hich we m anaged to climb. R o l a n d o G a r ib o t t i,

AAC, Club Andino Bariloche