Update– It seems as though the accuracy of this post has come into question.
Over a month ago, I heard about this descent via an email from someone who saw ski tracks on the route, as well as hearing about it thru Facebook and Twitter posts. More recently, I saw it posted on some other blogs and I received another email saying they also though the claim of the first descent was accurate. I guess we’ll wait and see if this is truly the case. For now, I will leave the rest of this post as it is. More details as they become available.
About a month ago, I was informed that the Archangel Ridge on Mount Foraker got it’s first ski descent this past June. While not totally sure of the source and not wanting to spread bad information, I’ve been trying to confirm it for the past few weeks. Just last night I was informed that it is true.
The Archangel Ridge (or North Ridge) on Mount Foraker is a big line.
It rises 11,500′ up from the Foraker Glacier and has a mile long knife edge ridge referred
to as “Angel’s Way”. Photo courtesy of Powderwhore.com.
Now, there is not much information out there about the descent (maybe it will turn up in a magazine this winter) but word is that two Whistler ski patrollers, Ryan Bougie and Marcus Wharing, made a successful descent of the Archangel Ridge soon after the Sultana Ski Team got off the mountain after their descent of the Sultana Ridge on June 8th. Congrats to the Canadian duo on a successful first, we all sure would love to hear more about it. Any of you Canadian visitors know these guys?
Very impressive decent. Andrew had a partial shot of the ridge in his photo trip report from Sultana.
*descent. Should proof my typing before I post!
“Just last night I was informed that it is true.” Any details on that aspect of it?
Well Andrew, I had a friend that was doing a ranger patrol up there and saw ski tracks on the route with a spotting scope in mid June. He didn’t know much about the trip (who,when), but got in touch last night and said he has seen the descent publicized in some other areas.
That’s about all I can tell you bro!
Steve, I just pm’d Ryan…sent him your link and asked him if he can comment..
TS
VERY much appreciated TS! Since the Archangel Ridge is such a HUGE line and BIG achievement in the word of ski mountaineering, it would be nice to hear at least a word or two from Ryan and/or Marcus, stating that they did or did not ski it. Right now, from what I can tell…it’s all just hearsay and third hand information. I may be guilty of adding to the hype, but after many other websites posted about it, I figured it was legit.
I finally put together a trip report for our recent ski descent on Foraker’s Archangel ridge. Here is the link http://www.doglotion.com/blog/archangel . My apologies for the delay. If anyone has any unanswered questions feel free to get in touch. Thanks for the interest Teton AT. It’s great to see that there are other skiers out there that share the same passion.
Marcus Waring
Thanks for putting the questions surrounding this descent to rest Marcus. I know a lot of people were wondering about the accuracy of this post and logistics surround the descent itself. Nice work and congratulations on such an amazing ski run.
stoked to see Marcus’ TR. Epic trip, nice one boys. I upped’ the blog to a feature story at http://www.doglotion.com/archangel-ridge-first-ski-descent-mt-foraker but same content.
thought I’d let everyone following this thread know that Ryan posted a video of the Archangel descent http://video.doglotion.com/node/30844 pretty sweet.