Mount Cairnes, Kluane Range. Our ascent of Mount Cairnes (9150 feet), east of Vulcan, was, I gather, not a first ascent, but I have not found out who made the first. On August 31, Martyn Williams, Selmyn Hughes and I made an exploratory climb onto the main ridge west of the summit. We climbed several varied pitches of good ice and snow and so decided to attempt a magnificent line on the north face leading directly to the top. We began the 2000-foot climb on ice which became snow higher up and avoided a buttress of rotten rock in the middle of the face. A long ice ramp took us around a second buttress and onto a snowfield which led to the top.

Hector Mackenzie