Mount Healy 5750′
Pacific Northwest – Alaska
Total Time: 5:00
Distance: 8.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 4620′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Bison Gulch, no services
I had no grand notions that on my family trip to Alaska with a toddler in tow that I would be climbing any snowy technical mountains. But during a 3 day stint to Denali National Park- the highest mountain in North America, I knew I had to climb something. So after scouring peakbagger for options on the east side of the park where we were staying, I settled on Mount Healy, a 5750′ summit with a bit of scrambling and what I thought would be a straightforward use trail to the summit. Being so close to the Arctic Circle in mid June meant I had almost endless daylight to use, and in the interest of family time, wouldn’t start hiking until close to Avery’s bedtime. I ducked away after dinner and drove a few minutes north of our cabin to the unmarked Bison Gulch trailhead.
There were actually a few cars parked as I crossed the road and started up the steep trail. The route charged directly up the ridgeline with few switchbacks, and it wasn’t long before I passed a pair on their descent. They reported the route was snow free to the summit, which was hidden behind a number of false summits on the ridgeline above.
Despite having a belly full of pizza from dinner, I made fairly good progress, climbing near 2000′ in the first hour before taking a short break out of the wind along the ridgeline. I could see a number of crumbly towers on the ridgeline above, the climbing about to get a bit more interesting as the ridgeline began hooking south towards the summit as I passed the first of several towers to the west.
Mount Healy has two summits vying for the highpoint, with the US Topo and ListofJohn noting the southern summit as the higher of the two, and Peakbagger marking the northern summit, with about a half mile of ridgeline between the two. As I climbed higher, the northern summit came into view, a massive bulk of crumbly rock.
At the northern high point was a hiker annoyingly yelling at the top of his lungs for making the summit. As I neared the northern summit, the rock quality very quickly deteriorated into some of the worst rock I’ve ever been on, basically fragile pieces of shale being held together with wet mud. Any small deviations from the use trail would trigger small rock slides, and things quickly became tedious. I followed the use trail as it skirted the west side of the northern summit block, leading to some easier class two slopes that the yelling hiker was now descending. Since my topo showed the southern summit as being higher, I continued past the crumbling summit block, working across talus slopes as the use trail disappeared. It quickly became clear that very few people continue past the northern summit, the use trail basically nonexistent the rest of the climb. At the saddle between the two summits was the first unavoidable patch of snow, not too steep and firm enough to kick steps in the get past.
As I started across a second patch of snow immediately above this, I postholed to my knee on the first step, caught off guard by how inconsistent the snow quality was only a few feet apart. After getting above a few snow patches, I worked around a few more crumbling pillars to the 100 yards to the summit, a lingering snow cornice with no good way to avoid traveling on the snow. I had microspikes with me, but they were ultimately unnecessary- the cornice was the perfect consistency to kick steps and the snow was honestly more solid than the loose talus along the ridgeline anyways.
The views from the summit were outstanding, dominated by Mount Deborah to the east and the entire Alaska Range to the south and west, although Denali was blocked the higher unnamed summit immediately to the west. Looking back at the northern summit, I was surprised to see it actually looked a touch higher.
I had been ambivalent about climbing the northern summit before thinking it was lower, but now with that in question, I became determined to tag both. I followed my footprints back down the cornice and through the patches of snow to the base of the northern summit block. There was a fairly straightforward line up the ridgeline to the high point, although given the poor rock quality, I remained very conservative and avoided any exposure and class 3 rock when I could.
Looking back at the southern summit, it was still unclear to me as to which one was higher. But having tagged both, I was more than satisfied, and overall thought the peak provided some full value adventure between the snow and the tricky rock. Dropping off the northern summit, I was surprised to quickly catch up to the same hiker that had been yelling at the summit despite haven taken about an hour to climb both the southern and northern summits since I had passed him. He was wearing a cotton sweatsuit and tennis shoes, and I surmised he likely did not do this type of thing very often (hence the summit screaming). Still kudos to him for making it to the top. I jogged past him, quickly picking up speed as the use trail improved on the ridgeline.
I pulled my bear spray back out as dropped back into treeline, neared the road and hit the trailhead at just under 5 hours roundtrip. It had taken me about an hour longer than expected largely due to the conditions of the ridgeline between the two summits, but I was pleased with the overall adventure, particularly having crammed it all in after dinner. It was a short 10 minute drive back to the cabin where I took a quick shower before heading to bed a bit before midnight, the sun still shining outside.
