While many students were sleeping in during spring break, junior Colin Haley took an extended vacation to Alaska for an extreme mountain climbing excursion.

Along with his climbing partner, Jed Brown, Haley flew by ski plane to Tokositna Glacier, located in the Central Alaskan Range in the south-central region of Alaska, where they climbed Mount Huntington.

This mountain range is also home to Mount McKinley and many other mountains with peaks exceeding 11,000 feet. Mount Huntington is one of the major peaks within the Alaskan Range, with a height of 12,240 feet.

"On March 12, we made the first winter ascent of Mount Huntington via the West Face," Haley said. "In addition to making the first winter ascent, we also completed the fastest ascent of Mount Huntington by any route."

According to the Alpinist newswire, other recorded winter attempts on Huntington were made in 1991, 1994 and 2005. None of these were successful.

Haley said the ascent was not challenging compared to others he has done, but added that the winter weather was intense. Nighttime lows reached 60 degrees below freezing for the whole week the two men camped.

Mountaineering in winter presents its own challenges.

"Climbing in extremely cold temperatures is much more difficult than warmer temperatures," Haley said. "This trip was good training for our planned trip to Pakistan this coming summer, [where] we will attempt a peak over 24,000 feet."

This was not the only climbing Haley and Brown did in Alaska.

"We spent a few days winter camping and decided we'd rather go to Valdez and climb waterfalls," Brown reported on his Website (59a2.org). "Colin and I thought some waterfall climbing would be fun, but . . . we remembered that all waterfall climbing is the same."

After one day of climbing frozen waterfalls, they decided to take advantage of the alpine conditions and skied up the Valdez glacier. The two men spent one long day completing the first ascent of the Southwest Face of Abercrombie Peak.

"On Abercrombie we simul-soloed the entire route, which means that we [were] climbing together but never used the rope, so any falls would have been fatal," Haley said. "We did not feel comfortable climbing unroped on Huntington. . . . On Abercrombie we were climbing in about 10 degrees [Fahrenheit] . . . still well below freezing, but much more hospitable than the temperatures on Huntington."

Haley and Brown have more climbing planned for the summer months and will spend their time in Pakistan attempting a first ascent of the Hidden Pillar (Southeast Pillar) of Ultar Sar, located in the Hunza Valley of Pakistan. This pillar has been attempted three times with results short of the summit.

This attempt was granted a Mugs Stump Award, a grant given to climbers who propose climbs "in the spirit of adventure and exploration, and that emphasize light, fast, leave-no-trace climbing," the Award criteria says. "Award applicants are evaluated on the strength of their objective, the strength of their team, and on an objective that raises the bar defining what is possible in alpinism today."

Reach reporter Sarah Greenleaf at news@thedaily.washington.edu.