IDIOT PEAK

From base camp on May 9, 2005, Will Mayo and I climbed the first 1,000
feet of Mt. Huntington’s Harvard Route (Alaska Grade 5: VI 5.9 A2), and
then traversed and descended for several thousand feet under
Huntington’s Phantom Wall to reach the base of its south peak. Three
hundred feet of low-angle ice and rock and 600 feet of unprotected
climbing up to (very thin) WI4+ and 5.8 brought us to what we had come
for: 1,200 feet of beautiful seventy-degree ice in a narrow runnel that
led directly to the summit. In the grand tradition of naming mountains
after presidents, we named this one Idiot Peak (10,700′). Bush’s legacy
will live on forever now. After reversing our line on the way down, we
completed our route, The Mini-intellectual (WI4+ R/X, 5.8) in a
twenty-three-hour push round-trip.