Bear Mountain, North Face. After several days of trail and of vicious brush from our Beaver Creek-Perry Creek approach, Jeff Thomas, Ed Newville, Shari Kearney and I scrutinized Bear’s north face. We spotted a long 2000-foot buttress west of Beckey’s first-ascent route. We scrambled up 400 feet on September 10 to bivouac under the stars. After a false start up and right in the morning, we worked left and up a chimney. Cracks and face climbing got us up the left edge of the buttress. Seventeen pitches later, we watched the sun set minutes after reaching the top of the buttress within easy scrambling of the top. Excellent rock and hard free climbing made this particularly enjoyable. NCCS IV, F9.

Alan Kearney