Road to Nowhere

I have to admit that after doing the Mitre I was feeling a little bit worked. The combination of that and waking to freezing temperatures, led to Ry and I taking a wood chopping, card playing, leisure type cabin day.



But the next day when we woke up refreshed, it had also warmed up by 20 degrees. We headed up the valley in a similar fashion to the day before.

Ryan Skiing up the Valley



The Road to Nowhere is a beautiful climb pasted to a steep rocky wall. Its on the right hand side of the picture below.

Road to Nowhere



Its amazing how much different a climb can look once your standing directly underneath it. John had pretty accurately described the first pitch as looking like a 70 foot grade two, and it really did. But the perspective quickly changed once the climbing started, it ended up being about 250 feet and grade 4ish...I simul climbed with Ry as he topped out and was looking for an anchor....it was a really long pitch.

Ryan Leading the First Pitch



The second pitch looked even shorter and less worthy than the first, but I was again surprised by the fun grade 3ish conditions and a pitch that was about 180 feet long.

Ryan Coming up the Second Pitch



The third pitch looked super grey and thin,and the threesome that was on it the day before reportedly used up a lot of the available ice. We were happy with our two pitches, and beautful view of the Eklutna Glacier, the Mitre Mite, and big mountains, so we made a v-thread and made it back to the cabin before dark.