Mt. Barrill (Climb)

Rock pinnacles surrounding the Ruth Gorge and Sheldon Amphitheater are a climber's paradise. Sheer rock and ice offer a limitless array of challenging multi-pitch climbs. The terrain is sufficiently challenging that new routes are still being pioneered, from mile-long rock climbs up Mt. Dickey to traverses of the ridge that includes Moose's Tooth.

Ruth Gorge; Mt. Barrill is on the left

Some of these routes can be climbed with a guide: The Alaska Mountaineering School offers one-on-one guided trips up classic lines like Ham and Eggs. However, nearly all the vertical routes are too technical for your average backcountry skier and peak bagger who likes to get vertical without multi-pitch exposure. Two exceptions to this rule are Mount Barill and Mount Dickey, both of which are located in the northwest corner of the Ruth Gorge.

Mt. Barrill, view from the Gateway of the Ruth Gorge (our ascent route was on the glaciated/snow covered north face)

Mount Dickey can be climbed by climbing up to 747 Pass out of the Ruth Gorge, then following the skyline over glacier to the summit. This route is non-technical by climbers' standards—Woods and Coombs' Alaska—A Climbing Guide rates it Alaska Grade 1, the easiest rating--but has the hazards normally associated with glacier travel and avalanche terrain. This summer, a group of ski mountaineers set off a massive avalanche in the vicinity of 747 Pass and called for a rescue after concluding they could not safely descend. Both Alaska—A Climbing Guide and Joe Stock's The Alaska Factor provide detailed route descriptions.

However, the 747 Pass route up Mount Dickey may be unsafe in the late spring, as the freeze line creeps up the Ruth Gorge and southern and eastern slopes become prone to wet slides. When a group of friends and I were at the Mountain House this spring, we thought it was too warm to make our way up and down 747 Pass safely, as the sun was baking slopes directly above where we'd ski. The visually appealing route up Dickey from the Mountain House—directly up to Pittock Pass—involves serious icefall hazard, and was not a viable option. Nor was the Japanese Couloir route, a traditional line up Mount Barrill, which becomes particularly hazardous when warm weather sets loose rock and ice fall.

Without a safe route up Dickey, we looked at the north face of Barrill more closely. Its snowy and partially glaciated north face was mostly protected from direct sunlight. It appeared to have less icefall hazard that the ascent up Pittock Pass, though a small hanging glacier meant that there still was some danger from icefall. Without exposed rock spires and chossy rock on the north face, it was not being pounded by rockfall like so many other couloirs and faces of other mountains around the Sheldon Amphitheater and Ruth Gorge. After taking all these variables into account, including the ever present variable of wanting to climb something, two of us decided to give Mt. Barrill's north face a shot.

It took about ten minutes to get from the Mountain House down to the base of the climb, a quick mellow ski down largely crevasse-free snow fields. The beginning of the climb does have what climbers call an “objective hazard,” a danger beyond one's control, for the first couple hundred vertical feet, which were belong a hanging glacier. We stayed to the very edge of the path on which ice would fall and climbed as quickly as we could. After this brief exposed ascent, we ascended roped up over a few small crevasses toward the base of Barrill's largest north face chute. This chute did present some degree of avalanche hazard, which we hoped was minimal during a freeze-thaw cycle, in the early morning before the snow warmed up. After a few minutes in the bottom of this chute, it was possible to cross over to a subridge of the mountain and climb up steep but stable snow toward the summit.

The steep snow portion of the climb seemed to take forever. Most of the route was not particularly dangerous, though a few pitches were steep enough to present falling hazards. We protected the steepest parts with pickets, and used pickets as protection when crossing a couple bergshrunds. The most exposed stretch was right near the top, where it was necessary to cross a large snow lip directly above the stop of a steep face and chute. Once on top, we were back in the sun, with a humbling view of the Ruth Gorge and Mount Dickey.