Alaska

Making the Most of It in Alaska's Ruth Gorge » Explorersweb

Published

2 years ago

May 2, 2024

Making the Most of It in Alaska's Ruth Gorge » Explorersweb

There’s a tradition of improvisation on Mount Dickey in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge. Season after season, the mountain’s mile-high granite faces draw the planet’s best climbers. And season after season, these visitors watch their main objectives evaporate as Mother Nature forces them to obey.

That doesn’t mean they fail.

Tom Livingstone and Gaspar Pintar are the latest pilgrims in the Mt. Dickey saga. The Great Wall (ungraded as of this writing) slices across lower slabs and up a tenuous couloir to the 2,909m summit. It’s an unconventional line on the mountain’s often-overlooked south face.

Its features attracted Livingstone and Pinter as soon as they arrived in the Gorge, but amounted to Plan B. Originally, they had set their sights on the classic east face route Blood From the Stone — but it didn’t give passage.

“When we swung our axes into what we hoped was ice, we found mostly unprotected sugar snow,” Livingstone wrote on Instagram. He noted other routes stopped them with similar obstacles.

Bad rock, few routes

Pivoting, he and Pintar refocused on the south face. It’s famous for bad rock and generally bereft of routes. But the climbers noticed an opportunity.

“Crazy slabs” protected the couloir and summit access, Livingstone wrote. But the climbers made a bid anyway.

“Many pitches looked improbable, always tricky. The weather was fickle, but we got lucky,” Livingstone reported. “A subtle traversing line up steep rock led us to the middle of the face, pumpy ice, and a cave bivy. Then we zigzagged higher as snow fell (or rather, rose in the updraft).”

Another marginal bivy on a “snow arete” led to pitches of overhanging neve to the top. In their weeks-long stay, this would be the only summit the two touched.

“Conditions seem ‘bad’ this year but we’re happy to have made the most of it,” Livingstone commented — a takeaway that falls directly in line with the recent history of Ruth Gorge climbing.

Failure or opportunity?

For an adroit alpine climber, Blood From the Stone (1,524m, A1 M7+ WI6+X) is a juicy prize. That’s part of the reason Sean Easton spent multiple seasons establishing it with the likes of Ueli Steck. Deterred over and over by ephemeral ice, Easton finally broke through in 2002 with Steck.

The threshold was thin, even though both climbers were at the height of their fitness. (Steck was fresh off his groundbreaking Eiger solo.) Each man took lead falls that would unnerve the masses, and Easton published a breathy report in the American Alpine Journal.

“With moments of doubt, we had ventured forth without certainty…and the path had unwound before us,” he said.

Thin ice and outright difficulty combined to prevent a repeat for over two decades. Livingstone and Pintar are not the first Blood hopefuls to abandon the route and create their own. Alan Rousseau and Jackson Marvell followed the same blueprint to stamp out Ruth Gorge Grinder (1,524m, AI6+ M7 A1) in 2019.

“A pitch and a half up [Blood From the Stone], it became obvious to me there was not enough ice on the route to safely continue,” Rousseau wrote. “If we didn’t feel defeated enough already in that moment, as we rappelled back to the bivy, we saw two ravens fervently tearing through Jackson’s bag of stashed food.”

Defeat, shmefeat. Marvell and Rousseau returned to the Ruth with Matt Cornell in 2023. Another new east face line, Aim For the Bushes (1,600m, AI6 M6X) resulted.

In the Ruth Gorge, one thing’s clear: Just because a rope team backs off doesn’t mean they’re out of the fight.

“In total, we tried six routes,” Livingstone said of his and Pintar’s trip, “staying busy and psyched! Hats off to folk who’ve climbed routes here.”

Source link

Click to comment

Alaska

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

Published

2 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A musician with Alaska Native roots recorded an hour-long live set in Interior Alaska beneath the aurora.

Chastity Ashley, a drummer, vocalist and DJ who performs under the name Neon Pony, celebrated a year since she traveled to Nenana to record a live music set beneath the northern lights for her series Beats and Hidden Retreats.

Ashley, who has Indigenous roots in New Mexico, said she was drawn to Alaska in part because of the role drums play in Alaska Native culture. A handmade Alaskan hand drum, brought to her by a man from just outside Anchorage, was incorporated into the performance in February 2025.

Recording in the cold

The team spent eight days in Nenana waiting for the aurora to appear. Ashley said the lights did not come out until around 4 a.m., and she performed a continuous, uninterrupted hour-long set in 17-degree weather without gloves.

“It was freezing. I couldn’t wear gloves because I’m actually playing, yeah, hand drums and holding drumsticks. And there was ice underneath my feet,” Ashley said.

“So, I had to really utilize my balance and my willpower and my ability to just really immerse in the music and let go and make it about the celebration of what I was doing as opposed to worrying about all the other elements or what could go wrong.”

She said she performed in a leotard to allow full range of motion while drumming, DJing and singing.

Filming on Nenana tribal land

Ashley said she did not initially know the filming location was on indigenous land. After local authorities told her the decision was not theirs to make, she contacted the Nenana tribe directly for permission.

“I went into it kind of starting to tell them who I was and that I too was a part of a native background,” Ashley said. “And they just did not even care. They’re like, listen, we’re about to have a party for one of our friends here. Go and do what you like.”

Ashley said the tribe gave her full permission to film on the reservation, and that the aurora footage seen in the episode was captured there.

Seeing the aurora for the first time

Ashley said the Nenana performance marked her first time seeing the northern lights in person.

“It felt as if I were awake in a dream,” she said. “It really doesn’t seem real.”

She said she felt humbled and blessed to perform beneath the aurora and to celebrate its beauty and grandeur through her music.

“I feel incredibly humbled and blessed that not only did I get to take part in seeing something like that, but to play underneath it and celebrate its beauty and its grandeur.”

The Alaska episode is the second installment of Beats and Hidden Retreats, which is available on YouTube at @NeonPony. Ashley said two additional episodes are in production and she hopes to make it back up to Alaska in the future.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Source link

Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Source link

Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Source link