Mount Stuart, Direct North Buttress. Fred Stanley and I made a variation of previous routes on this buttress, which consisted primarily of climbing head-on the 200-foot great gendarme high on the buttress. We used a crack system formed by a detached pillar on the first lead of almost continuous direct-aid climbing. From a belay on the pillar, more direct-aid climbing brought us to a recess in the face. After a final lead of free climbing, the relatively flat top of the buttress was reached. Twenty- five pitons were used on the buttress itself, including several "bong-bongs.” The climb was completed on easy, but rather unstable granite along the ridge crest to the summit.

Jim Wickwire, Sherpa Climbing Club