Yet another alaska range timing question - huntington early may

Thinking about going to try some route(s) on Huntington in the first 2 weeks of May. Is this too late?

• WF couloir: All recent ticks are in April
• Colton Leech: 
  • The FA was in April 12 1982; 
  • Aaron mulkey was attempting it apr 2013; 
  • This report likely climbed late march or early april. 
  • Ines Papert climbed sometime prior to May 1 2021
• Harvard: Most ticks are in early May, but this is probably the longest shot and lowest priority of the routes for us. (just too hard for us)

On the other hand, last year we were on the Root canal late april, Kahiltna in early May and it was still pretty wintery. Things were nowhere near melting out, and that was at lower elevation than Huntington is. Albeit we were climbing on north aspects, but it's not like it was warm in the sun at base camp either. The more springlike consolidated snowpack that started to happen in the last couple days of our trip (May ~8) would've certainly benefitted us climbing on hunter earlier in the trip.

Why is it that the WF couloir and colton leech don't seem to get climbed in May? Do they melt out, or become garbage chutes? 

Do they get a lot of sun exposure and is it usually a bad idea to be on route in the sun? shademap says sun noon to 10pm on May 1, but that doesn't account for micro terrain.

I realize that every year is different and it depends more on the specific weather events at the time. but just talking probabilities -- are those routes usually out by early May, and why? April is probably not happening for various reasons, so if May is a bad bet then we'll just focus on other ranges instead. 

I have only been into the tokisitna once but it was in May and those routes were very much still in. It is probably more a factor of a good window not coming in May, the weather is quite bad on the Tokisitna. Budget more time out there if you can to improve odds of getting a good window!

We were on the Tok mid-May 2024, and climbed the Harvard to intersection of WFC that we then descended. WFC was in icy condition and certainly climbable at that time of year. My hunch having been there exactly once:) is the WFC is generally “in”, it just varies year to year how icy vs snowy it is. A guided party climbed it to within a few pitches of the summit a couple days after we came down. If I had to guess we were past the midway point of the season but by no means too late- I know of a couple parties whose successful expeditions were finished well before we were there, and when we flew off a group of four got off the plane, starting their trip (not sure how it went). So I think May could work! And yes agree what Christian said, plan for more time in the range than you think you may need- better to come out early after sending than have to fly off because you’re out of time and could’ve tried for another go. 

Thanks John. That is interesting given that 2024 seemed to be more of an "early" season. I guess I already knew that basically nothing got climbed in April 2025 due to it dumping snow nonstop. 

TAT said april at first but then started saying april and may once I pressed about May

the rangers seemed pretty optimistic about May. 

My partner and I climbed the Harvard second week of May back in 2014. It was quite warm. We went with just a tarp to bivy at the nose pitch and actually spent the whole afternoon there after arriving around noon because it felt too warm to be climbing. summited the next morning and then elected to rappel the Harvard route rather than chance garbage chute of the WFC in the heat of the day. On the one hand it felt very pleasant, weather wise, on the other hand, the warmth made us rightly nervous about rock fall, of which there was plenty in the heat.