The Great Wall, first ascent by the Slovenian-British duo Pintar-Livingstone in Alaska.

The Great Wall, first ascent by the Slovenian-British duo Pintar-Livingstone in Alaska.

Slovenian and British alpinists Gašper Pintar and Tom Livingstone climbed the first ascent route The Great Wall in the 1600-meter south face of Mt Dickey between 14 and 17 April 2024 during an alpinistic expedition in Alaska; the face is among the highest rock (and mixed) walls in the world. Their expedition was marked by unstable and cold weather, but with persistence they succeeded in four days in climbing a new route in a wall that has previously attracted numerous great alpinistic names.

Their alpinistic expedition on the remote Ruth Glacier in the Alaska Range, approximately 20 kilometres southeast of Denali, the highest mountain in North America, was marked by capricious and cold weather, when it was “regularly below minus 10 degrees Celsius in the shade. This is really quite an obstacle for any activity; one would rather stay in the tent. The cold also did not help with the formation of climbing conditions – ice in the walls”. In the first days, when they were constantly digging the tents out of the snow, they made several attempts on Mt Dickey and an attempt in a new route in the west face of Peak 7,400, but bad conditions stopped them each time.

An interesting climbing line that caught their attention was a reportedly unclimbed system of gullies in the south face of Mt Dickey. In the lower half the features were less pronounced; possible wind-blown snow in the gullies meant they would also “have to work hard” higher up. “After an unsuccessful attempt at the beginning of the expedition we tried again in the line of incredible slabs in the south face about a week later, this time via a more direct variant. Initially we planned to climb the obvious gully and traverse left to an invisible passage into the upper half, but wind-blown snow stopped us there,” wrote Gašper Pintar (AO PD Ljubljana Matica) in the expedition report Alaska 2024.

“On the first day of climbing we climbed six mostly mixed pitches, fixed three ropes and spent the night in camp. The second day we returned to the starting point; after a few pitches of difficult dry-tooling and a little aid we found a passage through the slabs and spent the first, spatially limited bivouac with a view of Ruth Gorge. The south face proved to be the best choice – we found some ice, and in the given temperatures not much was melting even in the sun. The third day brought wind, light snowfall and similarly unfavourable pitches through the large gully in the second half, but pleasant flat ground for the bivouac. The fourth day we climbed another two pitches and the last 500 gentler height metres to the summit of Mt Dickey. The descent is relatively straightforward on the west side of the mountain, over 747 Pass back to the base,” recalls Pintar, the most successful Slovenian alpinist of 2023.

They named the 1600-metre first ascent route The Great Wall and graded it M7, A1, 6a. “Wall is a classic name for routes in English. We joked a bit, which is always the goal. Our snow walls on the glacier in no way protected us from shovelling considerable amounts of snow every morning, accumulated due to katabatic wind on the glacier. We would need a real great wall. It also seems that the ‘Great Wall’ theme will soon be topical again in America,” explains the man from Ljubljana and adds: “The difficulty of the ascent was contributed to by the fact that it lasted several days, during which fatigue accumulated, and that it was not really clear whether it would succeed, because you don’t know what awaits behind the next pitch. Some will was needed.”

It is precisely the persistence of the duo that is admired by the leading Slovenian alpinist Marko Prezelj, who years ago already climbed above Ruth Glacier: “The first impression after reading the expedition report is that Gašper and Tom were inspiringly persistent and stubborn. In today’s time, when it often goes for all or nothing, they climbed honestly and succeeded in climbing an interesting line in a big wall. The number of serious attempts that did not end on the summit speaks for itself. They were hungry for climbing with a no-compromise approach, even though the conditions were unappetising. Persistent trying up to acceptable risk also shows a high level of responsibility. My respect and congratulations for the ascent and the approach. I hope Gašper will retain the enthusiasm and momentum for new ideas.”

Mt Dickey (2909 m), despite its relatively low altitude, is one of the most impressive mountains above Ruth Gorge in Denali National Park in Alaska. It has a mighty 1600-metre-high south and east face that ranks among the highest and steepest rock (and mixed) walls in the world. The first ascent succeeded only in 1974 to the American trio David Roberts, Ed Ward and Galen Rowell. Word spread quickly, and routes in the mighty wall were added by legends such as the American Jim Donini, the Austrian Andi Orgler and the Swiss Ueli Steck, who in 2002 with Canadian Sean Easton climbed the first ascent Blood from the Stone (1600 m, A1, M7+, WI6+, X) in its east face. In 2023, a new route Aim for the Bushes (1600 m, AI6, M6, X) in the same face was climbed by the American alpinists Matt Cornell, Jackson Marvell and Alan Rousseau.

Gašper Pintar has been climbing at a high level for many years. Last year, among his ascents, very demanding winter routes stood out – the Lesueur route in the north face of the Dru, the English route in the north face of Piz Badile (with Livingstone), and in the home mountains the most resounding was the first solo repeat of Čop’s Pillar in the Triglav north face in winter conditions, noting that he set off for the Vrata valley by public transport and on foot. In 2020, on an expedition in Patagonia with David Debeljak, he repeated the route Titanic on the prominent tower Torre Egger and with French alpinists also climbed the route Supercanaleta in Fitz Roy. In 2017, on an expedition in Kyrgyzstan with Debeljak, he climbed several rock routes (Klenov on Pik Slesov, variant of Perestroika on Pik Slesov, Vedernikov on peak 4810).

“Conditions this year seem poor, but we are glad we made the best use of them, succeeded in climbing ‘crazy slabs’ and experienced a real adventure in Alaska. Gašper said it was the hardest alpinistic route he has climbed. It really was a demanding combination of different types of climbing, days and challenges,” wrote the Briton Tom Livingstone on Instagram. The Slovenian public got to know him in 2018 after the ascent of Latok 1 in Pakistan together with Slovenians Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar, when via the 2400-metre first ascent route in the north ridge of Latok 1 they reached the 7145-metre summit and thus entered history with the second ascent of this Pakistani seven-thousander and the first successful ascent from the north side. For this feat the trio received the golden ice axe award. Livingstone is also a mentor to young promising British alpinists who, among other things, visited Slovenian alpinists in the Julian Alps in January this year, after Slovenians had already visited Scotland in 2022; Pintar was present at both exchanges.