Cathedral Spires

A trip to the Cathedral Spires with several possible objectives of new hard routes on North Triple Peak and/or Mount Nevermore. Commercial flights to Anchorage and Talkeetna were followed by a thrilling trip to the Tatina Glacier by Talkeetna Air Taxi. A reconnaissance on skis showed that conditions were best on North Triple Peak, so that became their target. After several days of heavy snow the weather cleared, and they set off for a single push on a route following ice smears to the left of the NW Couloir. After several pitches of AI 4+/5 things became more serious, with a crux of AI 6, and they summited in a white-out at about midnight. They managed to make a call by satellite phone to book their flight out before an abseil descent. They named the route ‘No Country for Old Men’.