Mount McKinley, 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. After a few avalanche scares on the South Buttress, we attained its crest on July 3. From igloos at the col we proceeded 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 Harper very arduous. On the 16th we established our 18,000-foot high camp in igloos in the Harper 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 attempted the North 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.

Roger Robinson

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