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The Norwegians responded to o u r c o m plaints. “Yah, that’s just the Alaska Factor kicking in,” laughed Nils, quoting Mark Twight. “We tried that route last year. Too much snow.” So it was time to go to the Moose’s Tooth; at least we had a guidebook for that! Like the Norwegians, we went for it Too cool for school! Mike Wejchert and Joel Irby enjoy the summit of Mt. in a single go from Wake. -self portrait the Ruth, bringing two liters of water and some snickers bars each. (The snickers bars had Indiana Jones on them and coconut. Seeing as the last Indy movie came out a good year before our trip I was intrigued where Joel found them.) We were exhausted before we even started up! Joel led the initial pitches, most of which we simul-climbed. By my block we were mostly up the route. After about five-hundred feet I again relinquished the lead to Joel, who battled with the vertical, sugary, unstable crux for a while. Enough is enough. Within sight of the Englishman’s Col, having ended the technical climbing, we began the long rappels down 2500 feet of terrain, then down the root canal before skiing back straight to camp across the glacier in full-on zombie mode. 22 hours on the go—not so hot. I vomited up what little calories I had while Joel made some water. On the 19th we attempted a line that Joel had spotted on the Stump, which actually did yield a pitch of great Rocky Mountain National Park style mixed climbing that Joel led. He kept yelling things like “this is awesome,” so I knew it must be the type of scrappy, trad mixed we both really love. No gear on the next pitch forced a retreat. In the meantime the Norwegians had been busy on Mt. Wake. After illness, about seven false starts and the like, the pair finally succeeded in climbing Wake Up on the north face. They skied past our campsite as we were reading and told us how great the route had been: perfect ice runnels weaving through crazy, giant snow mushrooms: classic alpine climbing in a pristine setting. We had some days left, so we grabbed our snow picket back from Nils and Eiliv, and two days later followed their tracks towards the beautiful north face. The route is stellar, and went without incident except for Joel losing a skin on the ski. I think it was one of the most fun climbing days either of us had ever had. The next day we called TAT, who informed us they’d pick us up the next morn-