Alan Rousseau et Jackson Marvell ouvrent une voie au Mount Dickey

Début avril, Alan Rousseau et Jackson Marvell ont ouvert une nouvelle voie sur la face Est du Mount Dickey. Ce sommet d’Alaska, qui culmine à 2.909 mètres, a été gravi pour la première fois dans les années 1950. La première de cette face Est date de 1974. Ce nouvel itinéraire s’intercale entre les deux voies de la face : « Blood from the stone » signé Ueli Steck et « the Wine bottle » plus ancienne. Il a été baptisé « Ruth Gorge Grinder » après leurs trois jours d’ascension. Cotée AI6+ M7, 1.520m, cette voie n’est clairement pas une option pour débutants.

Le Mount Dickey en images

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Ruth gorge part 2: After a couple weather days we tried a direct start to our line on Dickey. The sun didn’t get into that cleft as much as higher on the route. The same fear we had for the upper tubes, regarding unconsolidated snow instead of ice, manifested itself low on the route (likely the reason the line hadn’t already been done). The next day appeared to be the last good weather day so with no info other than grade and location we headed to the route ‘trailer park’ on the west face of London tower. We found really fun conditions on the first 1’000’ of the route and even simul climbed most of the ice crux we found in AI5+ condition. The m6 pitches required constant chopping of snow blobs. We joked that we should have had a pedometer on our ice tools because often we had to make 20 swings with the tool just to clear out the next 2 feet of rock. We found the harder pitches were overhung snow mushrooms that required snow pickets for upward progress and usually had a runout mixed exit. I was so caked in snow from spindrift and tunneling that Jackson felt compelled to document in photo 3. When we hit the col at the top of the route, clouds were starting to build, and I had just spent an hour and a half on lead excavating a 60+ meter pitch. Motivation to tag the top of London tower was low. So for better or worse we walked off the coffee glacier and weaved our way back into the Ruth for a 13 hr day Camp to camp (below Dickey). We were pretty happy to have climbed 8,000’ vertical so far and only done 3 rappels. Now it was time to kick back and wait out the storm. Also I put a Topo in for the Dickey line in the last photo if anyone wants more info feel free to reach out. #alpineclimbing #climbing #wearebeal #mountains #alaska #adventure #explore #expedition #ruthgorge #iceclimbing

Une publication partagée par Alan Rousseau (@rousseaualan) le 21 Avril 2019 à 9 :19 PDT

Continuant à grimper dans le même massif, Alan Rousseau a été victime d’une chute de pierre. Blessé au visage, sa vision pourrait être endommagée.

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Lire aussi : Expéditions Hivernales 2019 : Dupre et Marceau au Mount Wood

Illustration © Alan Rousseau