Deborah and Hess Attempts, Ascent of P 9730. On May 16 Gwain Oka, Ray Brooks, Chris Puchner and I were flown to the Gillam Glacier at 5500 feet. Under clear skies we made two carries to 7500 feet on the north side of P 9730. This north face did not look encouraging. We had originally intended to haul loads up the face and establish a high camp at the base of Deborah’s north spur, but a favorable weather report for the next four to five days persuaded us to try Deborah alpine- style. The next 15 hours changed our minds. At first we were in the middle of the face on good snow, but from there on it was 45° to 50° blue ice with four to six inches of powder snow. We continued to the right and through the rock band. Three more pitches of steep snow and ice put us on the summit ridge. We chopped platforms and slept a few hours. Five hours later we traversed the 200 yards to the summit of P 9730. From there the north spur of Deborah looked appalling: 1800 feet of class-five rock climbing on loose rock covered with sugar snow. The route was unrealistic for our party. We descended via the icefall at the base of Deborah’s north face, terribly threatened by avalanches. We pulled everything down from the camp on P 9730 the next day. A six-day storm dumped five feet of snow. By May 26 the snow had settled enough to try the northwest face of North Hess. Getting a midnight start, we spent the next three hours in the icefall that defends the face. The lower half averaged 45° with two pitches of 75° at the glacier’s tongue. The upper 3000 feet averaged 60°. After 19 hours of climbing, we were at the top of a couloir and came out onto easy ground below the false summit, which we reached in snow and increasing whiteout. We did not do the mile-long slog to the real summit but spent a bewildering night descending the icefall. Once again a storm set in for five days. Finally the weather broke. Oka and I climbed a long, north-facing ridge to the northwest ridge of Deborah and continued up that for five or six pitches. A day later Brooks and Puchner ascended P 9400 from the west side.

R. Dane Burns, L’Equipe de Danse de Coeur d’Alene