This pic was taken right after the last gear on the route. From here it's a punch to the first of two bolts before the anchor.

This was taken on the second pitch of Toto. Sadly this ended our stay in Archangel Valley, but there's always next week.

Craig works the crux of Festoon 5.9 on an icy September day. And by icy, I mean there were icicles on the next route we climbed. If you wonder about that bolt, it's there because Festoon, like many other Hatcher Pass climbs, is mixed. The crux is unprotectable with gear, so bolts were placed.

Resubmitted under new size limits because granite is so bad at compressing. The background blur I created digitally.

Here I am biting my fav piece of gear on Toto. Mmmm, alien....Photo by coldclimb

Thought this would make a nice profile pic...so here it is. It was a cold day in Hatcher's, and by the end of this pitch, my hands were frozen bricks. Ya gotta love Alaska. And oh, yeah, photo by coldclimb...

Seth is about 3/4 of the way up the first pitch of Toto. With a 60 m rope you can turn three pitches into one, and then walk off. This is recommended as the second and third pitches are short. One can continue up and left from the top of the third pitch to a nice splitter crack 5.8 and get some air under their feet. There is also a bolted 10a above the crack...see the online topo for route info.

Here's Ty (nthisthebesta) leadiing off the belay and into the second pitch of Toto, an Archangel classic. Kelsey (Prezwoodz) and I led ahead of Ty and Will in an attempt to get good pics.

It was a pretty dry day so we went up toto. This was actually my first multipitch route ever and we went up before them. It was great to get that experience!

Ben, John and I happened to hit Archangel on a sunny weekend; we don't get more than a handful of those all summer up here. For some reason, we decided to climb on the Diamond, where we were in the shade all day. Due to a crummy topo, we were only about 80% sure we were on the right route, but John gave it a try anyway. This 5.9 starts on a really cool flake, but finishes up on some tough stemming and vein pinching.

Ben Bates (bigboulderboarderbinerben) rapping off of Toto with the sun nestled behind him in the clear blue Alaskan sky. They say you don't get many days like this in Archangel, but we hardly saw a cloud the whole time we were camped. Paradise!