Mt. Williwaw - West Buttress to NW Ridge 1-21-12

After a ski trip up to Black Lake on the north side of O'Malley last weekend a plan to climb the West Buttress of Williwaw was formed. Using the time it took us to get to Black Lake and guesstimating on how long it would take to hike the slope to the buttress we decided to start the hike in at 3:30AM.

We arrived to the base of the route well before dawn; unfortunately we had no idea where the line would be so we were forced to sit and wait for 1.5 hrs until it got light enough to see. Time seemed to stand still as we brewed up, put any and all insulation material between us and nature and stamped around in circles in an effort to keep some level of warmth. Finally dawn broke and we were off.

Mt. Williwaw at top of valley. At 5,445' it is the tallest peak
in the Chugach Front Range. - by John Giraldo

Headed up the West Buttress - by Eddie Phay

Traversing a ledge near the top of the buttress - by John Giraldo

Sunshine! - by Eddie Phay

Keeping warm - by John Giraldo

Eskimo Eddie with salmon strip - by John Giraldo

From the top of the buttress we followed the NW Ridge to the summit. It is graded at 4/5th class scrambling and required some pretty exposed moves around obstacles on the ridge line. 

-by Eddie Phay

NW Ridge - by John Giraldo

Sharp arete - by Eddie Phay

Eventually we made our way to the summit, tired and wanting to be back to our skis asap. However we still had to descend the mountain by the South Coulior and then wrap all the way back to the NW corner where we had stashed the skis.

Summit view - by Eddie Phay

Reflecting on the day - by Eddie Phay

- by Eddie Phay

Red line shows our loop of Mt. Williwaw

We made it to our skis by dusk and started the painful, seemingly endless trip back out. It was a hard, cold training day, leaving us completely wiped out by the time we made it to the cars.

Trip Stats:
16.5 miles
4,300' elevation gain
17.5 hours