Marcus Baker. A three-man Japanese party led by Koichi Okuda flew to the Matanuska Glacier on July 29, 1976 and placed Base Camp at 7500 feet on the glacier on the 31st. Their original objective, the north ridge was abandoned because of falling ice. They climbed the glacier to 11,500 feet on August 1 and ascended the north face on August 2 in a snowstorm. Okuda, Yoshikazu Ueda and Yasuhisa Nakamura got to the top.