Major New Climbing Route on Alaska’s Mt. Dickey

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At the beginning of April, John Frieh from Portland, Oregon, and
Doug Shepherd from Los Alamos, New Mexico, completed a huge new ice line
on the northeast face of Mt. Dickey in the Ruth Gorge of the Alaska
Range.
The two climbed the ca. 5,000-foot face in two long days, and then descended during the middle of their second night out.

The new route, No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise (Alaska Grade VI, WI5 M6R), crosses over a 2008 French route up the northeast ridge called Move Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow, but is completely independent of that line.

Frieh and Shepherd flew onto the Ruth Glacier on March 30, started
climbing on April 1, and flew back out on April 3, the morning they
returned to base camp. Frieh has succeeded on a couple of such
wait-for-the-weather, “smash and grab” ascents in recent years,
including two new routes on Burkett Needle in southeast Alaska.

Below is Frieh’s account of the Dickey climb:

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