Lucania, Steele, Sluggard, Macauly.* On June 16, Robbie Babb, Bob and Richie Kyrlach and I, all from Albuquerque, were flown by Jack Wilson to Base Camp at the head of the Chitina Glacier. Although the highest peaks had been climbed from other directions, we were the first party on the Chitina. Our group first tried to reach two unclimbed peaks to the west but narrowly escaped an early morning flood of avalanches which carried away our packs. We were fortunate, on descending, to recover a pack, a telephoto lens, and an outer boot, but had to make do from then on with only two packframes and two pairs of crampons. A few days later we began relaying loads up a steep, but not difficult, 4500-foot face to the Slaggard-Macauly saddle. We were hampered by almost continual bad weather which at one point forced us to camp for four days in a crevasse at 13,000 feet. In a break in the weather on July 4, we made the second ascent of Mount Slaggard (15,575 feet) and two days later, in a storm, the second ascent of Mount Macauly (15,475 feet). We then returned to Base for more supplies and set off for Mounts Steele and Lucania. Our route followed an obvious rib and the tracks of the California party but again we had difficulty with weather and the extra work of relaying. At one campsite the wind snapped the top six inches from the tent pole of our one remaining tent, a 6 x 6½-foot Logan. With time and food running low, we reached the saddle between Steele and Lucania and next day set out for Steele (16,644 feet). Richie Kyrlach had to turn back due to trouble with his feet and his father returned with him while Robbie Babb and I completed the ascent. The next day we moved camp and Bob and Robbie made the first ascent of the east summit of Lucania. On July 17, the three of us left for Lucania. In the usual snowstorm, we lost the route and climbed the central summit, also unclimbed, before being able to go on to the main summit (17,147 feet) which we reached at six p.m. We were back in camp after 18 hours of climbing, very pleased with the third ascent, and reached Base Camp on the evening of the 19th. Ten days of storm were made more bearable by food left by the Californians and an informal mathematics seminar until Jack Wilson was able to fly us out on July 29th.

Robert G. Biersted, New Mexico Mountain Club

*Also spelled Macaulay on some of the Canadian Government maps.