Split Thumb

July 2015. I have been looking at Split Thumb for years. You can see it from town but I have never got up there. For several years my plans fell through for one reason or another.

On July 4th, I climbed Split Thumb with four other climbers. I have made more attempts to climb split Thumb than I can count. The Thumb is visible from the boat ramp in North Douglas.The Thumb is the quintessential Juneau climb. You experience it all yet none of it is particularly troubling. The Thumb has a hike up an alpine ridge, a glacier crossing, and a rock climb but none of those pieces are particularly heinous, , unless you fuck up. I’ll get to the prepositional phrase ending the last sentence later.

The Thumb is center

The Thumb is a nunatak in the Juneau Icefield. A nunatak is a spire sticking out of a glacier or icefield sort of like a rock island in the midst of frozen. The ice erodes the bottom making the spire increasingly steep over geologic time. Split Thumb is 5,523 feet tall and made of granite. It’s surrounded by the Lemon Glacier on the west and to the east Death Valley, a branch of the Norris Glacier. We accessed over Lemon Glacier.

The Lemon Glacier in the evening with shadow of Split Thumb 

I spent Saturday morning working the deck with my wife. We also walked our dog. At 4:30 PM I met our climbing team at the trailhead and climbed to Camp 17. We got there about 9 PM. Ryland and Ryan didn’t get there until 10 because Ryan had a problem with a boot that fell apart. In addition to that, we had a bit of a snafu there because Camp 17 is a research station, though it’s usually vacant. There is a public cabin there. This time it was occupied by some fifty students and glaciologists. As we approached the students were raising the flag for the Fourth of July.
It was a nice view but I didn’t even bring a sleeping bag because we planned to sleep indoors on a pad. It was cold outdoors. It was also extremely beautiful. We drank Alpine Margaritas and watched the sunset.  I finally got some sleep and awoke at 5:30. However, Ryland and Ryan didn’t wake up until 7:30. I made and drank a lot of coffee and that’s good because it became a long, long day. After waiting for more than an hour Ryland and Ryan said they still weren’t quite ready because they were trying to fix the boot.

Kevin, Allison and I set out across the Lemon Glacier and Ryland said they would catch up. After we crossed the glacier we climbed onto Whistlepig Ridge that leads to Split Thumb. We slept up there in the sunshine for an hour until Ryan and Ryland showed up. They tried but never fixed the boot. Ryan had a pair of skate board shoes so he headed across in skater shoes.

They woke us from our nap and we headed toward Split Thumb. All went smoothly until we got the base of the mountain. Trip reports describe having to ascend a steep chossy rise to big flat snow field, above which is an obvious ramp to the summit. The chossy rise was fucked up climbing. I told you I would get that part. I chose the wrong path up and about 50 feet off the ground I realized I couldn’t climb back down and I had 150 feet more to go. The route wasn’t that steep but everything under foot was coming loose. I was creating a rain of boulders and my compadres moved quickly out of the way. They chose another more sane route. It was all the concentration I had to not freak out and make the top of that 200 foot pitch. I rejoined my compadres on the big flat landing. Then we climbed Split Thumb and it was an incredible summit. Unlike the chossy shit below everything was solid and easy climbing. We didn’t get there until 3:30PM with all the delays. Also, five people in a climbing team is three people too many. Yes, Ryan made to the summit of Split Thumb and wore Vans most of the way. He bummed a pair of climbing shoes for the technical pitch on the Thumb. He made it back too. On steeper snow slopes he followed the rest of us in our kicked in steps. Also, Whistlepig Ridge is a rocky ridge and Vans were better than our mountaineering boots.

Our route is the ridge on right. .

  

Me. 

 Kevin

Alli and Ryan

Ryland

I envision the pilot turning to his clients and saying, "On your right is Split Thumb with a team of climbers on the face." 

Summit

The remainder of the story is retracing our steps and heading back to the car. We got back at 12:45AM. The last bit involved hiking down a steep trail with heavy packs and tired legs.  Two of us had flashlights.. In all we walked about 30 miles and negotiated 15,000 feet of elevation. Sitting in the creek near the trailhead was a six pack of beer I left there the day before. Allison tasted her beer and said, “Half an hour ago I was wondering why I do this stuff. This is the best beer I have ever had.”  There is a Mexican saying I have known for years. Hambre hace la salsa mejor.” Hunger makes the best salsa. Indeed. 

Our Route.