Mount McKinley, Couloir from West Buttress Route to Kahiltna- horn. Reinhold Messner and I made a new ascent route on Mount McKinley on June 13. We started from the landing area on the Kahiltna Glacier on June 6 and climbed the West Buttress route to the basin at 14,000 feet. From there it took us 10 hours to the summit; Messner descended in two hours and I in four. The couloir we climbed is the Hourglass Couloir, the one down which Saudan skied. We climbed without a rope. Most of the route had good snow conditions, though there were a few places with water-ice covered by snow.

Oswald Ölz, M.D., Österreichischer Alpenverein