December 2013 –
Martin Martinez built a resume around climbing some of the more remote ice of Alaska’s back country. With temperatures cold enough to scare away most of today’s climbers, Martinez put up numerous first ascents with other pioneers of the time like Steve Garvey, Eddie Phay, and Wayne Mushrush.
We have started Martinez’s Ice Gallery with his work to explore, climb, and document one of the new areas of the time, Knik Gorge. He wrote a specific guide that provides detailed information on the ice climbs in this beautiful, remote area of Alaska. He formally documented these first ascents up the Knik Gorge in the 2001 American Alpine Journal.
Martinez’s has also created a critical log of the notable FAs completed across southcentral Alaska during the same time period. Martinez’s Southcentral log book documents FAs primarily in the Knik and Matanuska River valleys completed post Fat City and Urban Ice (Dave Whitelaw, Steve Davis, Roger Pollard, 1989). It includes a wealth of history of the notable climbs in Alaska.
Martinez still resides in Alaska focusing more time lately bagging Alaska peaks and running his agricultural business in the Mat-Su valley.
A list of his first ascents listed on the AIC guide is shown on the left.
