| 2000
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Cordes/DeCapio—East Face
of Mount Dickey
Kelly
Cordes & Scott DeCapio
Thanks
to a Mugs Stump Award grant, Scott DeCapio and I were dropped
by Talkeetna Air Taxi on May 10 at our new home below Mt.
Dickey in the Ruth Gorge. Despite much base camp laziness,
we made numerous attempts (as defined by at least carrying
our gear to the base of nine different climbs and actually
getting off the ground on many before cowering away) and managed
three ascents (one new) during our four-week sojourn.
The first ascent was an easy, fun Bugaboo-esque rock route
on Hut Tower, a relatively small peak on the lower east side
of the lower gorge. A 1,000-foot easy snow couloir led to
the 800-foot South Ridge route, which went at about 5.8, but
was mostly easier, with snowy rock to gain the summit. We
rappelled from fixed stations.
 Serious
thought and soul-searching followed Seth Shaw’s death,
before we decided to stay and climb. On May 27, we climbed
a 3,200-foot new mixed line on a relatively unknown peak called
“London Tower” (Peak 7,500’; square 29 Talkeetna
D-2 map) in the lower east side of the Ruth Gorge. The route
ascends a rocky couloir on the west face, left (north) of
the summit and the 1990 Neswadba-Arch rock route. Of course,
the groveling proved considerably harder than it looked from
the glacier. In the conditions we found, the five crux pitches
felt like one WI6, two M6, and two M6+. Some were without
protection, but most were fairly short and appeared to have
soft-snow landing zones. Many pitches of moderate, fun mixed
climbing, often with good gear, and a snow slog in the middle
rounded out the route. We mostly simulclimbed, taking 12 hours
‘schrund to summit.
 After
an awesome hour on top relaxing, we found easy downclimb off
the backside (east) to the Coffee Glacier. An easy walk southwest
led around and up to the col south of Hut Tower (where the
south ridge of Hut Tower begins, mentioned above). We butt-slid
back to our skis, arriving in camp 18 hours after leaving.
With thoughts of our friends, rest-day antics, and the appearance
of our camp, we named it The Trailer Park. Like our existence
in the Ruth, the climb proved a bit surly at times.
 From
midnight until 4 a.m. on a day in early June, we repeated
the 1996 French route Wake Up, a 3,100-foot snow/ice climb
to a subsidiary peak (Pt. 8,130’) on the shoulder of
Mt. Wake (near the Wake-Bradley col). Zack Smith and Aaron
Martin had also climbed the route a few days earlier, between
attempts at a new route on Dickey’s south face. The
route gave us the willies, felt spooky, and proved more dangerous
than we had anticipated or wanted. We simulclimbed the route
in two pitches, finding mostly easy climbing with a few tricky
sections up to about WI4. The bad vibes continued on the descent,
as I blew the bergschrund jump and was launched down slope,
ass over tea kettle. Scott, a baseball player in his pre-climbing
bum days, saved the day by fielding me and making a tackle.
Fortunately, I only tumbled 50 or 60 feet. The Ruth had grown
weary of our foolishness, so Paul Roderick picked us up later
that day and delivered us to the bustling metropolis of Talkeetna.
Kelly Cordes
Used
with permission of the author and American Alpine Journal.
Originally published in the 2001 Edition of the AAJ,
p 212-213.
Photo key (in order of appearance):
Photo
of the west face of London Tower, showing our new route,
The Trailer Park. Kelly Cordes photo.
Scott DeCapio beginning the descent after climbing the first
ascent of The Trailer Park (3,200' M6+ WI6), London Tower,
The Ruth Gorge, Alaska. Mt. Dickey (L) and Mt. Barrill (R)
are the prominent background peaks. Kelly Cordes photo.
Scott DeCapio taking in dawn in the Alaska Range after a
four-hour ascent of Wake Up (3,100' WI4) on the shoulder
of Mt. Wake. Kelly Cordes photo.
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