Mt. Foraker

Scouting info. for Mt. Foraker. Any suggestions on guide services or any experiences. Thanks

Heiko

Suggest you go to Andrew McLean's blog.. Straightchuter.com.
He just completed his triumvirate ( Hunter, Denali and Foraker)  by climbing and skiing the Sultana Ridge last spring.

The standard route for Foraker is the Sultana Ridge and starts at the Kalhiltna Glacier same as the West Buttress route on Denali. Many guide services do Denali but few do Foraker. Foraker although lower is very committing and the success rate much lower. You fly in with the air taxi services out of Talkeetna. Try TAT( Talkeetna Air Taxi)

Two Canadians recently climber Foraker and skied the Archangel Ridge a route that had only been climbed a couple of times and never skied. There is an excellent thread on TGR about it if you use the search function. Noah Howell of Powderwhores fame, also tried the Archangel Ridge but gave up a few weeks before the Canadians succeeded, I think due to bad weather.
He also has a blog. Search for Noah Howell on Google.


Good luck, I've seen it up close and its a monster of a mountain.

Thanks for the reply. I have alot of things to consider. I am by no means the alpine climbing stud. My humble goal is just to experience high altitude, without the big crowds. My friend who worked as a guide on Denali in the seventies suggested Mt. Foraker among others. Thanks for the info.

H

i climbed denali with the guy that did the first winter ascent sultana. agree with every thing scottsman said.
it is very big up there.
best of luck

if you want to get high without crowds and for less money check out south america

If you go to Denali in mid-May the weather will be colder than during the heart of the climbing season, but the crowds arent that bad yet on the West Buttress route. Another one you might want to consider which is a high, remote, big mtn that technically isn't tough is the Kings Trench route on Mt.Logan.

AAI out of Bellingham may run a Foraker trip. Give them a call. Also I have a bunch of photos from a trip several years ago on my blog. alasdairturner.blogspot.com/ Scroll down a bit. I just scanned these old slides a few weeks ago.