August 19, 1986

Jim and Steve split off from the group for a few days and took this shot of The Tusk above unnamed lakes. Dave, Craig and I climbed The Tusk (Also called “The Elephant’s Tooth) on this day. Photo by Steve Sharpe.

“A great day! For once we weren’t “The Crack of Noon Club.” We must have been out of bed by 8 or 9. Blueberries and oatmeal. We packed up for a planned 3 night bivouac up the right fork of Arrigetch Creek (Dave, Craig, Tony, Brett, Mark, Sharon and the Christians). Mark dropped his pack about 1/2 mile out of camp, stripped and swam.” Journal – August 19, 1986

Jim and Steve had parted with us the previous day to explore (and go fishing?) up the watershed that went toward around The Tusk. This was the nature of our modular group. I thought of Jim and Steve as The Fishermen, Tony, Sharon, Mark and Bret as The Alaskans or alternately The Explorers and Dave, Craig and I as The Climbers. …and of course the Christians were The Christians.

“We continued up a way, dropped our packs and headed up The Tusk. Moss, lichen, talus and mud made the climbing treacherous. The Christians bailed out. Craig, Dave and I made the ridge and ate lunch. We rapped off the south side and descended to the 4th class route. I picked up my hat. [I had left my hat at our lunch spot from the previous day]. We roped up the 4th class route and I led. It was a beautiful sunny day and a fine summit. We destroyed a cairn. I regretted not bringing my camera. We descended looking for a way to circle the mountain but it was no go. We saw a ring around the sun.“

An omen for the coming change in the weather, as it turned out.

Here is Craig’s recollection of this day: “We climbed the Tusk which had one sheer (a bit scary) face with little footing, but we scaled and conquered… followed by a rappel back to the base of the peak.”

Craig goes on rappel on The Tusk. Photo by Dave Jones. Thank goodness Dave carried a camera this day. I didn’t.

“So we had to return to where we rapped. There Dave led a 5th class pitch. Craig expressed his doubts, but I really wanted to test our ability at speed. Dave led well. It was 11:30 and starting to get dark. I lost my hat again to the wind. We rapped off the far side and descended singing (Beef-a-Roni!). Dave had seen Tony, Mark, Sharon and Brett head up the canyon. Craig took a 20′ skid in the mud. We picked up our packs and moved up about a mile when we set up our bivi. We made an indian fire and chicken-a-la-king. I started the night out of the shelter but after an hour or so it started to rain. It was getting lighter at 3am when we went to bed.“

Dave raps off the Tusk. Photo from Dave’s camera.

Elmer Fudd descends. Photo by Dave Jones.

I believe this is where we descended to to recover my hat from the previous day. Photo by Dave Jones.

I Love this shot Dave took of me on the summit of The Tusk looking down the length of Arrigetch Creek to the Alatna River.

Ariel and Caliban from the top of The Tusk above Arrigetch Creek. Photo by Dave Jones

The Witches Tits (as Tony dubbed them) or the Sisters or the Maidens – take your pick – from the top of The Tusk. Photo by Dave Jones.

Rough approximation of our track on August 19th, 1986. Jim and Steve in green, Dave, Craig and I in red,

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here are pictures from Jim and Steve’s journey up the canyon behind The Tusk (The green track on the map above. I’d love to include any recollections that Jim or Steve have of their adventure on the 18th and 19th to accompany their photos.