Moose’s Tooth - West Ridge

If you’ve heard of the Moose’s Tooth then you’re probably a climber. It’s been said that many old school alpine climbing routes make great ski descents and that is surely the case on the Moose’s Tooth West Ridge route. The Moose’s Tooth is one of the most prominent and stand out peaks in the Ruth Gorge with excellent ice and mixed climbing on many sides of the mountain. It’s only on the western side that enough snow connects to make it skiable. From the top descend the corniced ridge traversing along to the northwest. There are some wind features that may create the steepest sections on the route, they are short, but the exposure is out of this world. After several hundred feet of traversing you’ll hit a more fall line slope on the ridge that leads down into the main chute. Things feel a lot safer once you’re in the gut of the line. The pitch remains steep, in the mid 45 to 50 degree range in the upper part, but then relaxes into the low 40’s for the remainder of this section. The couloir tightens for a bit and then opens up wide with tons of room for turns. Don’t forget to make the crucial hard right hand turn through the catwalk. This can often be sid-stepped, or may need to be booted, depending on the year, but it is skiable at times. From here a short climb brings you onto the open ridge, which is just glorious glacier skiing with Denali staring at you complimenting you on your nice turns. There’s several thousand feet of this rolling playful terrain weaving in between and through seracs and some steep gullies until it empties onto the main glacier.

Get yourself to Talkeetna Alaska and book a flight into the Ruth Gorge with one of the flight services, Talkeetna Air Taxi comes highly recommended. No permits are needed since this is outside of Denali National Park. The usual landing strip is a few miles down the glacier from the Moose’s Tooth so you’ll need to drag gear in sleds up the glacier and pick a campsite. The route is one of the 50 Classic Climbs, it starts up a steep section of glacier, till you reach a wide open ridge. You get a great look at the line from this perspective, but don’t worry, it’s not as steep as it looks. Traverse across the ramp and into the main gut. Boot straight up until your forced out to the south on the ridge. Continue along the ridge till you hit the north summit.

Catching it when the rocky traverse is in

Stay the hell away from the edge of the ridge, massive cornices can form and the 5,000 foot drop may be unsurvivable. Also, the face sees a lot of sun and is prone to wet activity later in the spring, get up and down early.