British Hunter Foraker

by Ben Silvestre

Since becoming interested in Alaskan alpinism, one route above all the others seemed to stand out to me as a formidable test of commitment and nerve. Although the technical challenges on the south face of Denali have always appealed to me, the Infinite Spur on Foraker seemed to me to embody what alpinism is about. Totally committing, astoundingly long and, away from the Denali crowds, the route quickly became one of my biggest goals. The stories, including Michael Kennedy's account of the first ascent, only compounded this. Will Harris, Pete Graham and myself would spend a month in the range in the summer of 2016, trying to climb this route.

Foraker sunrise

Before attempting the Infinite, we decided to try and climb a new route on the Thunder Glacier, south of Hunter, but our initial attempts were thwarted by bad snow and ice conditions and we decided to focus our attentions on the main goal. We flew over to base camp and immediately set off up Denali to acclimatise. A week at a 14,000 foot camp, with several forays to 17,000 feet saw us feeling well prepared, and we took the next available opportunity to descend back to base camp. Thus far the weather had been very unpredictable, and we were unsure whether we wanted to commit. But a semi decent forecast offered a glimmer of hope and, on May 25, we set off with food and fuel for a week. To access the south face of Foraker requires a day on skis from base camp, with a roped climb over a pass. By the time we arrived at the camp below the face, we already felt incredibly lonely. Above us the face loomed in the cloud and, setting off the following morning, nerves were high. Stories of parties waiting out storms in positions of total commitment were at the forefront of our minds, but, as we warmed into the climbing, we began to enjoy ourselves. All around us huge serac avalanches crashed down the south face, and we were glad to be on such a prominent spur feature, away from the danger. After an uncomfortable and short bivvy 900m up we continued up the ice rib, which we felt was the point of no return, especially after climbing up a few hundred metres of steep, awkward and unprotected snow, with strong gusts blasting us from above. Above us loomed the black band, a band of horribly loose diorite with a terrific reputation. At this point super alpinists Colin Haley and Rob Smith overtook us, on a recce for Colin's astounding solo the following week. We waited in a safe spot and brewed up and, once they were gone, climbed on through melting ice and awful stone. The black band passed, we plodded up several hundred metres of exhausting blue ice, finishing up on the knife edge ridge. By this point we had grown extremely dehydrated, having not stopped to brew enough, and we gladly collapsed into the tent at the top of the ridge after 24 hours on the move. The following day we climbed the final 1000m or so of easier but exhausting snow to the summit plateau. Here we were blasted by freezing winds, and became genuinely concerned for our survival. But the winds died just in time and we finally made the summit at sunset, crying tears of joy at this apex of the vast Alaskan wilderness.

Half way up the first rock band

The descent across the multi-mile Sultana ridge still waited, and we stumbled down until we found a crevasse to sleep in 1500m lower. The following day we dragged ourselves across the ridge, the weather finally breaking and, after ascending the 300m to the summit of Mt Crosson, we had a minor epic finding our way down the other side in a whiteout. We slept a final short hour before descending to the glacier and, after getting a bit lost in a crevasse field, finally made our way back to base camp, and people. Our ascent was the 10th of the route (Colin and Rob making the 9th while we were on it), and the first British ascent. Several months later, we can still feel the immense impact climbing this route has had on our lives. For the three of us, climbing a route like this was a major step up, and we look forward to finding the next step.

Near the end of the first rock band

Thanks to AAC(UK), The Alpine Club, The BMC, The Mount Everest Foundation, Rab, Mountain House Europe, DMM Climbing for helping us achieve this epic climb.

On the knife edge ridge
Photos by Ben Silvestre

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