04 Aug 3 new routes in Southeast Alaska

 
Blake Herrington and Jason Nelson climbed three probable new routes and repeated a fourth line at Mendenhall Towers of Southeast Alaska.
 
The duo started up an obvious line on the highest of the seven towers. This turned out to be the previously climbed southeast ridge, on which the two may have added a 5.10+ headwall pitch. 
 
On day two, the pair climbed a new line on the Curtain, the broad steep wall that stretches between the main summit and the fourth tower. The Iron Curtain (IV+ 5.12a) went in eight pitches to the top of the wall, with a crux thin-hands crack through a roof that Nelson managed to onsight.
 
Then, after a day rest,  they climbed Resisting A Rest (5.10+R) on the Curtain; their  third new route in four days was Resignation Arete (IV 5.11+) on the southern arête of Tower 4. Eleven pitches of steep climbing — five of them 5.11 — gained the summit. 
 
The trip was sponsored in part by a Mountain Fellowship grant for young climbers from the AAC.
 
Blake Herrington  has climbed in the mountains of North America, Argentina, and New Zealand, establishing more than a dozen new alpine routes in the past four years.
 
ms
 
Source: D.MacDonald climbing

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