Tom Livingstone and Slovenian partner Gašper Pintar have made a first ascent on the south face of Mt. Dickey (2909m) in Alaska's Ruth Gorge over four days, naming the line 'The Great Wall.' The pair are yet to decide on its difficulty.

The mountain is famous for its sheer, mile-high granite walls on its east and south faces. 

Tom and Gašper waited out low temperatues and heavy snow in the first third of their trip and tried several routes in the area, including Ueli Steck and Sean Easton's Blood from the Stone (a direct start to Ruth Gorge Grinder on Mt. Dickey's east face at M7+ WI6+ X A1), and the west face of Peak 7400, amongst others. Tom wrote:

"But when we swung our axes into what we hoped was ice, we found mostly unprotected sugar snow. We pushed it, bailed, then climbed harder."

Despite fickle weather, the pair found a window to try a tempting objective on Mt. Dickey. Tom explained:

"Since arriving, we'd been drawn to a big couloir high on the face, wondering if we could reach it via some 'crazy slabs.'

"After a day fixing ropes, we launched. A subtle traversing line up steep rock led us to the middle of the face, pumpy ice and a cave bivy. Then we zig-zagged higher as snow fell (or rather, rose in the constant updraft and clouds). Many pitches looked like they would turn us back, always hard, always putting up a fight.

"A plush snow arête bivy ended day 3, and Pinti smoked his last cigarettes. The morning brought a short section of overhanging névé between heavy spindrifts. We topped out and walked down in mixed weather."

In their final week, as temperatures rose, the team made attempts on other peaks and routes including Mt. Bradley and Ruth Gorge Grinder, but they were "all too dangerous", as Tom explained:

"Gross falling snow mushrooms, or long steep protection-less pitches were unpleasant. In total we tried six routes, staying busy and psyched! Hats off to everyone that's climbed cool routes in the Ruth."

Happy to have made the most of a poor season with questionable conditions, the pair enjoyed "a great Alaskan adventure." Tom summed up the line's difficulty as follows:

"Gašper said it was the hardest alpine route he'd ever done. It certainly was a hard combination of many different types of climbing, over many different days, with many different tests. We've named it 'The Great Wall' because a) it's a cool wall, b) we spent a lot of time wishing we had a suitable wall to stop our tents being buried with snow."