The Dream: Up Pinnacle, Down South, Up Odells, Down Diagonal, Up North, Down Diagonal, Up Damnation, Down Diagonal, Up Yale, Down Diagonal, Up Central, Down Diagonal.
Climbing all the gullies in Huntington Ravine in one day has occupied my mind for a year. It certainly is no novel idea and has been done many times with different variations. Some think of it as the test piece for the hardened New England alpine climber. Well, I have nothing to prove to others but I wanted it for myself.. and badly. Since March 27th of last year after I had climbed 4 gullies in a day, I had my mind set on accomplishing this. The goal was perfect. I am hungry for new climbing challenges and well.. I can not quite describe in words what Huntington Ravine means to me, only to say that this place pulls me in like nothing else.
Once the ice season hit, all of my climbing plans were centered around getting in shape mentally and physically. I did a lot of solo climbing and a lot of long days. In January, I recruited Kristina Folick and we linked up Landslide and Shoestring Gullies in 8 hours. And a month later, I went alone to do 3 complete laps of Shoestring averaging 2 hours and 15 minutes per lap. And a bunch of other climbs in between.. all with this particular March day in mind.
Nothing made more sense to me than to ask my friend and climbing partner, Adam Wilcox to join me. He would climb Pinnacle and Odells with me. We were hiking in at 5:00 a.m. under fantastic moonlit skies. We reached the floor of the ravine as the sun rose at our backs. The morning was dawning bluebird but the wind was still blowing and I became very aware how cold it was while we were gearing up. My first gully would be Pinnacle for the fact that it is one of the most, if not -the- most, popular climb in the ravine. Conditions and weather were forecasted favorable and I knew that soon there would be throngs of climbers. I was not going to stand in line.
Two Climbers heading for Damnation Gully across the Ravine in early morning.
I knew I'd want to rope up for the first pitch of Pinnacle. We did and Adam was gracious enough to let me lead the whole route. The ice was a little juicy in spots and baked out in others which made placing protection a bit of a challenge. Once we finished the first pitch, we roped simul-climbed the last two pitches and it went fairly quickly. Now the sun was in full force and the winds calmed to zero. I began roasting. All day it stayed super warm.. very enjoyable.
The plan was to descend South Gully but I got a decent look at it while hiking in and saw there was a bit more ice than last year which would have made down-climbing a bit spicer than I wanted the day's menu to be. So we opted for Escape Hatch which I had never been in. It added more area to be covered because of its location, but next thing I knew we were climbing up Odells Gully.
Odells Gully was a zoo. It was around 9:30, 10:00 am by this point and there were 4 roped teams in there. Luckily it's a wide gully and this year it got a ton of ice so there were many routes and lines to choose from. We made our way through the obstacle course and fellow climbers were cool with us solo climbing passed them and over and through their ropes. Thank you.
One of the many climbers in Odells Gully.
The long snow field above the ice was more strenuous than I wanted it to be. I thought I would know how the day was going to play out early in the game but I had no idea at this point who was going to own who. The conditions were prime for fast travel but I didn't know if I was going to be fast enough to get them all done.
Now my focus was the northern side of the ravine, to North and Damnation (the longest gullies) and Yale. I was dreading North because I knew how long it was so that was my next target. We walked across the lip of the ravine to Diagonal Gully and I began my first descent of three that day. It was some tediousness.. from the first step to the last. I had heard someone triggered an avalanche the previous day in Diagonal but I didn't get any details. As I was down-climbing, I didn't see anything of concern and plodded my way down. My route took me over the top of the first pitch of Yale above the ice bulges and I ran into Jeff and Mats. A quick hello and I traversed across and over to the base of North Gully.
Along the way I looked up at Damnation Gully and saw it was in much tougher shape than last year. More ice, more steep. My immediate reaction was that I didn't feel comfortable solo climbing it. So without a second thought to talk me out of the first one, I closed the book on that option and did not attempt to climb Damnation. I still am not looking back on that decision and completely content with leaving the ravine that evening having climbed only 5 of the 6 that I had wanted to. There is no place for error while solo in Huntington as any fall anywhere would be unforgiving.
North Gully was a lot of fun. The upper snowfield was steeper than last year but just as exposed as I remember. I was getting tired and began the routine of 10-15 steps followed by a few second break to relieve my burning calves and keep myself from feeling exhausted in such a precarious place. I felt bad that I was dreading climbing this gully since I enjoy it so much when I'm in there! It was also extra enjoyable because I didn't run into anyone else for the entire length, although I kept hearing the screams "On belay!" "Off belay!" from the crowds in Yale Gully. I wish climbers would use walkie talkies.
Obligatory tool shot on the upper reaches of North Gully.
Across the lip of the ravine again.. a walk I love to do.. and over to Diagonal Gully. I dropped my pack at Central's huge ass rock cairn and started my descent. This time there were two roped teams of two and a solo climber going up as I was going down. I kicked up some small snowballs that tumbled their way as I was climbing and apologized profusely, but of course it was no big deal.
Down-climbing Diagonal for the second time.
Climbing all the gullies in Huntington Ravine in one day has occupied my mind for a year. It certainly is no novel idea and has been done many times with different variations. Some think of it as the test piece for the hardened New England alpine climber. Well, I have nothing to prove to others but I wanted it for myself.. and badly. Since March 27th of last year after I had climbed 4 gullies in a day, I had my mind set on accomplishing this. The goal was perfect. I am hungry for new climbing challenges and well.. I can not quite describe in words what Huntington Ravine means to me, only to say that this place pulls me in like nothing else.
Once the ice season hit, all of my climbing plans were centered around getting in shape mentally and physically. I did a lot of solo climbing and a lot of long days. In January, I recruited Kristina Folick and we linked up Landslide and Shoestring Gullies in 8 hours. And a month later, I went alone to do 3 complete laps of Shoestring averaging 2 hours and 15 minutes per lap. And a bunch of other climbs in between.. all with this particular March day in mind.
Nothing made more sense to me than to ask my friend and climbing partner, Adam Wilcox to join me. He would climb Pinnacle and Odells with me. We were hiking in at 5:00 a.m. under fantastic moonlit skies. We reached the floor of the ravine as the sun rose at our backs. The morning was dawning bluebird but the wind was still blowing and I became very aware how cold it was while we were gearing up. My first gully would be Pinnacle for the fact that it is one of the most, if not -the- most, popular climb in the ravine. Conditions and weather were forecasted favorable and I knew that soon there would be throngs of climbers. I was not going to stand in line.
Two Climbers heading for Damnation Gully across the Ravine in early morning.
I knew I'd want to rope up for the first pitch of Pinnacle. We did and Adam was gracious enough to let me lead the whole route. The ice was a little juicy in spots and baked out in others which made placing protection a bit of a challenge. Once we finished the first pitch, we roped simul-climbed the last two pitches and it went fairly quickly. Now the sun was in full force and the winds calmed to zero. I began roasting. All day it stayed super warm.. very enjoyable.
The plan was to descend South Gully but I got a decent look at it while hiking in and saw there was a bit more ice than last year which would have made down-climbing a bit spicer than I wanted the day's menu to be. So we opted for Escape Hatch which I had never been in. It added more area to be covered because of its location, but next thing I knew we were climbing up Odells Gully.
Odells Gully was a zoo. It was around 9:30, 10:00 am by this point and there were 4 roped teams in there. Luckily it's a wide gully and this year it got a ton of ice so there were many routes and lines to choose from. We made our way through the obstacle course and fellow climbers were cool with us solo climbing passed them and over and through their ropes. Thank you.
One of the many climbers in Odells Gully.
The long snow field above the ice was more strenuous than I wanted it to be. I thought I would know how the day was going to play out early in the game but I had no idea at this point who was going to own who. The conditions were prime for fast travel but I didn't know if I was going to be fast enough to get them all done.
Now my focus was the northern side of the ravine, to North and Damnation (the longest gullies) and Yale. I was dreading North because I knew how long it was so that was my next target. We walked across the lip of the ravine to Diagonal Gully and I began my first descent of three that day. It was some tediousness.. from the first step to the last. I had heard someone triggered an avalanche the previous day in Diagonal but I didn't get any details. As I was down-climbing, I didn't see anything of concern and plodded my way down. My route took me over the top of the first pitch of Yale above the ice bulges and I ran into Jeff and Mats. A quick hello and I traversed across and over to the base of North Gully.
Along the way I looked up at Damnation Gully and saw it was in much tougher shape than last year. More ice, more steep. My immediate reaction was that I didn't feel comfortable solo climbing it. So without a second thought to talk me out of the first one, I closed the book on that option and did not attempt to climb Damnation. I still am not looking back on that decision and completely content with leaving the ravine that evening having climbed only 5 of the 6 that I had wanted to. There is no place for error while solo in Huntington as any fall anywhere would be unforgiving.
North Gully was a lot of fun. The upper snowfield was steeper than last year but just as exposed as I remember. I was getting tired and began the routine of 10-15 steps followed by a few second break to relieve my burning calves and keep myself from feeling exhausted in such a precarious place. I felt bad that I was dreading climbing this gully since I enjoy it so much when I'm in there! It was also extra enjoyable because I didn't run into anyone else for the entire length, although I kept hearing the screams "On belay!" "Off belay!" from the crowds in Yale Gully. I wish climbers would use walkie talkies.
Obligatory tool shot on the upper reaches of North Gully.
Across the lip of the ravine again.. a walk I love to do.. and over to Diagonal Gully. I dropped my pack at Central's huge ass rock cairn and started my descent. This time there were two roped teams of two and a solo climber going up as I was going down. I kicked up some small snowballs that tumbled their way as I was climbing and apologized profusely, but of course it was no big deal.
Down-climbing Diagonal for the second time.
Last edited:
