Ham and Eggs 04/23/2021
We climbed Moses Tooth Ham and Eggs route on April 23rd with my friends Vasily and Vlad. We decided not to plan exact dates ahead, but closely watch the weather and fly in when we have a good weather window. This tactic worked. The temperatures started raising at Moses Tooth in the end of the second week of April and the forecast showed several days of perfect weather. We called Talkeetna Air Taxi and booked a flight to Root Canal on April 22nd. They told us that the route was pretty "busy", but expected to become less busy when we come. We flew in Anchorage on April 21st, rent Jeep Wrangler, spent a night in Anchorage and started our way to Talkeetna next morning. We stopped in Wasilla to buy some food, propane gas tanks and a plastic box to keep the food secure from ravens. As it turned out, ravens never showed up.
In Talkeetna everything was quick. We got all instructions from Talkeetna Air taxi and weighted our gear. Then we visited ranger station and got our CMC toilet cans. After 2 hours or so we were already flying to our destination, enjoying fantastic Alaskan views. It was really warm in the afternoon at Root Canal base camp. There were several parties camping there. One party planned to climb Ham and Eggs next morning. They insisted they go first, because they were already been waiting for couple of days to the route become free. We agreed that this is fair. They also wanted us to give them head start for at least one hour to reduce the chance of us being hit by ice debris from them climbing.
Root Canal airstrip
Root Canal base camp
Avalanche coming down from Moses Tooth
Bear Tooth on left, Eye Tooth on right
Ham and Eggs
Next morning we started at 4:30, but were delayed by 15 minutes, because I forgot my helmet and returned. It was pretty warm. I climbed in Spantic boots and I felt it was almost overkill. Vasily was wearing single boots and felt Ok, just sometimes a bit cold on belays as he told later. There are many good descriptions of the route and I am not going to repeat them again. The route is pretty straightforward. The pictures below shows main points of the route.
Red line - ascend
Green line - direct rappel variation starting from Pitch 1 station
1 - Pitch 1. 5.6 corner.
2 - Short boulder problem.
3 - Short steep ice wall. Crux 1 when little or no ice.
4 - Crux (left variation)
5 - Series of WI3 ice steps
Pitches 1 and 2 closeup.
Approach
Climbing boulder problem on Pitch 2.
Good conditions mean a lot for this route. On pitch 3 you will find the short steep ice wall. Some description refer to it as 1st crux and some trip reports mention that it can present a real climbing challenge. We found ice there, but it was delaminated and was visibly melting out. Very soon we were started getting hit by small ice debris from the party climbing above. As guidebook mention, Ham and Eggs couloir is a garbage chute. It really is. Nothing big came fell on us, but the stream was constant and made climbing sometimes uncomfortable. One time I even did not use the fixed station which was under fire line and built my own station on another side of the couloir.
Pitch 3. Steep ice wall.
From right to left: Mount Dickey, Mount Bradley, Mount Wake, Mount Johnson, Mount Crosvenor.
We chose to climb the left side of the crux on WI4 ice. The ice was pretty rotten and difficult to find a screw placement. I had to chop a good portion of icicle curtains to reach better ice. Another thing I found - sometimes the ice on this route is really hard to penetrate with ice screw. It require a lot of force which it unusual, because my ice screws are all sharp and go into waterfall ice very smoothly. I don't know how to explain it - it was not that cold.
Crux pitch - left and right variations.
After the crux there is a series of WI3 short pitches. We found there the same rotten ice and finding screw placement was difficult again. We spent more time on those pitches than normal WI3 would require.
WI3 step.
Another WI3 step.
Closer to the col we were delayed for some time when the party ahead of us started rappelling down. When we finally came to the col it was already 4 pm.
At the col with Denali in the background.
The way to the summit did not present many technical difficulties. We mostly use snow pickets for protection. Descending back to the col we mostly downclimbed with belays also on a pickets. After 17 double-rope rappels we descended back to camp after midnight.
On a summit
Next morning we talked to a party that attempted Shaken not Stirred the day before. They were hit by small rocks after 8 am and decided to turn down. From other parties that we talked to we found that nobody finished Shaken not Stirred to the summit this season yet. We decided that the route is out of shape and we already happy that we climbed Ham and Eggs. There was nothing else to do for us in Root Canal. We texted Talkeetna Air Taxi by InReach and flew back the next day.
Climbing Ham and Eggs is unforgettable Alaskan experience. This is a popular route and it is possible that you will share it with party and you need to be cautious. But the great reward is solid climbing pitch after pitch with great exposure and fantastic views. This was my 1st technical route in Alaska and I want to return here again.
Gear notes: