M ount M cKinley, South Buttress-Thayer Basin-West Buttress Tra­verse. Jim Carpenter, Greg Kallio, Bill Laxson, Steve Lyford, Jim Miller, Dick Morse, Jeff Thomas and I began on June 18, traveling up the Kahiltna’s East Fork. A fter a few avalanche scares on the South But­tress, we attained its crest on July 3. F rom igloos at the col we pro-

NOTE: All dates in this section refer to 1975 unless otherwise stated.

ceeded down a ramp into Thayer Basin. Here we followed Thayer’s route up to the junction of Karstens Ridge, where near the top of P 17,425 we chopped out a large ice cave. At our cave we were plagued with four days of storms, making carries to the upper H arper very arduous. On the 16th we established our 18,000-foot high camp in igloos in the H arper Basin. The next evening all eight reached the summit of the South Peak, descending in a storm. Bad weather per­sisted until a break on the 20th when we attem pted the N orth Peak but we were turned back in the upper plateau. We descended the mountain over Denali Pass and down the West Buttress in three days.

R o g e r R o b in s o n