Mount Alverstone, Northeast Face. During the closing days of a long spell of excellent weather toward the end of July, John Rupley, Henry Mather, George Lowe and I made the second ascent of Mount Alverstone (14,500 feet) by a completely new route on its north and east faces. From Base Camp, which we reached by helicopter from Kluane Lake, we snow-shoed with two relays to the head of the branch of the Lowell Glacier that fringes the summit walls of Mounts Kennedy and Alverstone. Near its head was a large bergschrund, followed by three pitches of steep blue ice that required step-cutting and fixed ropes. From a camp at the pass at its top, we broke trail up slopes averaging 40°, hurried beneath a great ice cliff, and climbed to a picturesque campsite on a small bench between two crevasses, close to 11,000 feet in altitude. On July 25 we climbed to the summit by a route, rather tedious at first, on which we followed a secondary ridge north and crossed a monotonous glacier basin to the final 2000 feet of steeper and at times quite spectacular climbing. Rupley and I, who did all the trail-breaking and step-kicking on the final day, found a most interesting route along the last 600 feet of the upper northeast ridge. After returning to Base Camp, we made the long march out to Kluane Lake in three hard days.

Fred Beckey