The last obstacle before the summit.

All Locations > Alaska > Interior Alaska… > Denali NP > Mt Frances > Southwest Ridge (5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c Steep Snow)

The last obstacle before the summit.

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Death traverse under false summit cornice.

Traverse along the ridge.

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5.0 from 2 votes

christoph benells

Sep 7, 2015

“The last obstacle before the summit.”

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Nearby Photos

E Harz surfing the wave on the upper ridge.

Death traverse under false summit cornice.

The last obstacle before the summit.

Traverse along the ridge.

Looking back on the start of the half mile corniced ridge traverse.You can make out Aidan as a small dot on the backside of the false summit cornice.
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Artem Vee photo

Team tranquilo en la cumbre

Pulling over the false summit cornice.

Excellent splitter on a direct variation that skips the lower out I onsight soloed, m4+.

The upper ridge close to the summit. Hunter in the background.

Clean granite on tower 1

The route is the left side ridge in this photo. you can see the gendarme and notch you rap into, and the false summit cornice you must traverse under.

Approaching the false summit

tower 4. 5.7

Traversing under the cornice

Approaching the cornice traverse. Sultana in the background.

Scrambly start

Head on view of the SW ridge from the main Kahiltna glacier. False summit cornice is clearly visible. Main summit is just to the left.

Full view of the route from Kahiltna basecamp. Cornice on lower summit is visible at the top. True summit is just to the right.

Traversing around tower 3

Gaining the ridge after tower 3

Foraker in the clouds.

Myself technically in the "technical" crux, but not the real crux of the route. M4 ish was my experience with these pitches, which we found quite to be quite varied in nature (cruxes were steep snow sections - heat affected conditions)
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Aidan W photo

Good Rock

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