- The Moose's Tooth
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The Moose's Tooth Elevation 10,335 ft (3,150 m) Location Location Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA Range Central Alaska Range Coordinates 62°58′09″N 150°36′48″W / 62.96917°N 150.61333°W Climbing First ascent June, 1964 by Welsch, Bierl, Hasenkopf, Reichegger (German) Easiest route Ham and Eggs: rock/snow/ice climb The Moose's Tooth (or simply Moose's Tooth, Mooses Tooth) is a rock peak on the east side of the Ruth Gorge in the Central Alaska Range, 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Mount McKinley. Despite its relatively low elevation, it is a difficult climb. It is notable for its many large rock faces and its long ice couloirs, which are famous in mountaineering circles, and have seen a number of highly technical ascents.
The peak was originally called Mount Hubbard after General Thomas Hamlin Hubbard — the president of the Peary Arctic Club — by Belmore Browne and Hershel Parker[citation needed]. This name was revoked by the United States Geological Survey, which named the peak "The Mooses Tooth," a translation of the Athabascan name for the peak.[1] The official USGS name does lack the grammatically correct apostrophe.
The Moose's Tooth is located just to the east of the northern end of the Ruth Gorge, across from Mount Barille and Mount Dickey. It is the chief in a complex of rock peaks with names such as "Eye Tooth", "Sugar Tooth", and "Broken Tooth." On the east side of this complex lies the head of the Buckskin Glacier, which provides access to climbs on the particularly large and difficult east face of The Moose's Tooth.
The name of the peak comes from its structure: its summit ridge is a long, low angled ridge running roughly east-west for about a mile, with steep drops to the north and south. This gives the mountain a vague resemblance to a moose's tooth. It also makes climbing to the true (east) summit from the west ridge (the least technical route) very difficult. The summit is more normally reached by steep couloirs on the southwestern side of the peak.
The first ascent of The Moose's Tooth was in June, 1964, by four Germans, via the Northwest Ridge. In June, 1974, Gary Bocarde, Michael Clark, Charles Porter, and John Svenson climbed the lower Southwest Summit via the Southwest Face, for the second ascent of the massif, though not of the main summit. They found a great quantity of rotten rock.[2] In July, 1975, Jon Krakauer, Thomas Davies, and Nate Zinsser made the second ascent of the main summit, via a couloir on the south face which they called the "Ham and Eggs Route." This is the most popular route on the mountain today.
Contents
Notable ascents
- 1964 Northwest Ridge to main summit: Welsch, Bierl, Arnold Hasenkopf and Reichegger (all German).[2]
- 1974 Southwest Face to southwest summit: Gary Bocarde, Michael Clark, Charlie Porter and John Svenson (all USA).[2]
- 1975 Ham and Eggs, couloir on the south face: Jon Krakauer, Tom Davies and Nate Zinsser to main summit, July 16-18th.[3]
- 1981 Dance of the Woo Li Masters, East Face (VI 5.9 WI4+ A4, 1520m) Mugs Stump and Jim Bridwell[4]
- 1997 The Toose's Mooth (north face), Alaska Grade 6: FA by Seth 'S.T.' Shaw and Scott Simper, May 1, 1997.[5]
- 2001 The Beast Pillar, direct start to Dance (VII A5 5.10b WI4+ M6, 1500m): Jim Bridwell and Spencer Pfinsten[6]
Notes
- ^ That "Moose's Tooth" is a native name for the peak is attested by Bradford Washburn in "Mapping McKinley's Southeast Approaches", American Alpine Journal, 1956, p. 49.
- ^ a b c Bocarde, Gary (1975). "Moose Antler Ascent: Moose's Tooth". American Alpine Journal 1975 (New York, NY, USA: American Alpine Club) 20 (49): 28–31. ISBN 0930410726.
- ^ Krakauer, Jon (1976). "Ham and Eggs on the Moose's Tooth". American Alpine Journal 1976 (New York, NY, USA: American Alpine Club) 20 (50): 285–293. ISBN 978-0-930410-73-5.
- ^ Beckwith, Christian (September 1, 2004). "Gods and Monsters". Alpinist (Alpinist Magazine) (8). http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP08/editors-note-monsters. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
- ^ Shaw, Seth (1998). "The Toose's Mooth, Mixed adventures on the north face of the Moose's Tooth". American Alpine Journal 1998 (New York, NY, USA: American Alpine Club) 40 (72): 99–103. ISBN 0-930410-78-5.
- ^ Drozdz, Piotr. "Climb and More dot com Climbers - Jim Bridwell". http://www.climbandmore.com/climbing,134,0,1,climbers.html. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
References
- Joseph Puryear, Alaska Climbing, SuperTopo, 2006.
- Michael Wood and Colby Coombs, Alaska: A climbing guide, The Mountaineers, 2001.
- American Alpine Journal, 1975, 1976.
- Moose's Tooth at Fodor Travel Guide
External links
Categories:- Landforms of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
- Mountains of Alaska
- Denali National Park and Preserve
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