Climbers David Lama and Dani Arnold , blasting up the 10,335-foot peak and returning to camp in just two days. Their new line, Bird of Prey, travels straight up a previously unclimbed headwall on the peak’s steep east face.
“There is not a particular hard pitch, but it’s very sustained and exposed,” Arnold, a Swiss guide who set the speed record on the Eiger’s north face in 2011, told . “We needed all skills of alpine climbing. Ice, rock, mixed and aid-climbing.”
Neither Arnold nor Lama had ever been to Alaska before their visit earlier this month. They didn’t decide to tackle the route until the day after they flew into the area.