The Moose's Tooth

The Moose's Tooth is a sharp granite peak on the east side of the Ruth Gorge in the Central Alaska Range, southeast of Denali. Despite a modest summit elevation near 3,150 metres, its sheer walls make it one of the most serious alpine objectives in North America.

The rock is granite, forming enormous steep faces and buttresses that rise above the glaciers of the Ruth Gorge, often plastered with snow and ice. The climbing is technical alpinism, combining rock, ice, and mixed terrain on long, committing routes. The celebrated Ham and Eggs couloir is a classic mixed line, while big-wall routes on the flanks reach extreme difficulty, with grades running well into hard alpine and aid territory. Every ascent demands glacier travel, cold-weather skill, and speed to escape objective hazards.

Practical detail: access is by ski-equipped bush plane from Talkeetna, landing on the Ruth Glacier below the peak, so expeditions are self-contained and weather-dependent. There are no facilities; climbers camp on the glacier and carry everything. Storms can pin parties down for days, and the National Park Service oversees the area within Denali National Park.

Season and character: the climbing season is the Alaskan spring, roughly April to June, when cold temperatures bond the snow and ice and the days grow long, before summer melt destabilises the faces. Even then, conditions change fast and retreat is difficult. The Moose's Tooth embodies remote Alaska Range climbing: soaring granite over crevassed glaciers, brutal cold, and a wilderness reachable only by air, where preparation and judgement matter as much as technical skill.