More Details from the Cassin to NWB to Wonder Adventure

The Emergence Episode (ep: 10) from The High Route Podcast elicited emails and texts requesting route information and potentially more photos. This is the follow-up.  

Think of it as a supplement to the podcast and our first piece about Sam Hennessey, Michael Gardner, and Adam Fabrikant questing up Denali’s Cassin Ridge, topping out on the South Summit (20, 310’) traversing over to the North Summit (19,470’) clicking into skis, onsighting a first ski descent down the mountain’s Northwest Buttress, picking their way down the Peter’s Glacier, and walking out to Wonder Lake. 

On the move for roughly 64 hours, the trio began their adventure at the standard “Base Camp” on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. From there, they skied up the East Fork of the Kahiltna and accessed the Cassin. 

Note: We’ll not be doing a blow-by-blow—you can find lots of good information on the web about the Cassin. Yet, we’ll provide some basics and links to some notable information about the route. As far as a published detailed photo of the ski descent line, we’ve not come across one. Our stance on that: it’s pretty cool. However, on the American Alpine Journal’s site, Hennessey presents a semi-detalied map of their excursion, providing just enough info to pique one’s interest and just enough of a mystery for others to have their own onsight adventure. My guess is that any of these three individuals would gladly discuss the ski descent route in detail if asked. Otherwise, there’s no Mountain Project/Powder Project beta, or, for that matter, a GPX track to sniff from digital crumb to digital crumb.