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Ryan Driscoll, Justin Guarino and Nick Aiello-Popeo Send The Medusa Face on Mt. Neacola Chris Kalman [Photo] Nick Aiello-Popeo From April 18-25 2021, Ryan Driscoll, Justin Guarino and Nick Aiello-Popeo made the first ascent of the north face (or Medusa Face) of Mt. Neacola, in the Neacola Mountains of Alaska's Aleutian Range. They followed the line of Topher Donahue and Kennan Harvey's 1995 attempt for the first roughly 3,500 feet, before adding more than 800 vertical feet of new sustained M6 and A2 climbing on decomposing rock. The final six pitches took 12 hours to climb. It didn't bother t...

Print article When Ryan Driscoll, Justin Guarino and Nick Aiello-Popeo woke up in their tents on Easter morning, they were tumbling uncontrollably down a slope in the Neacola Mountains of the Aleutian Range in Southwest Alaska. For what Guarino described as the longest 20 seconds of his life, the tents were propelled down Mount Neacola in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve by an air blast from an avalanche above them. The climbers, all experienced, had set up camp several days earlier and were waiting for weather to improve before they attempted to reach the roughly 9,350-foot peak via ...