Mount Huntington, West Face. In April Denny Hogan, Vic Walsh, and I climbed an ice gully to the left of the 1965 Harvard route on the west face of Huntington. We placed our “High” Camp in the protection of a small cliff at around 10,000 feet, fixed three pitches of steep ice, then aborted our first “all-out” attempt at the top of our fixed ropes in a flurry of snow and heavy spin-drift. After another day of poor weather, Denny and I made one more “all-out” attempt. Nine ice pitches brought us at about four P.M. to the Japanese fixed lines at the start of the traverse on the Harvard route. Although not very well prepared for a bivouac, we decided to go for the top—directly across and up the summit snowfield rather than following the Harvard route along the left edge—and bivouac on the way down. Night caught us well below the summit and we traversed left to the rock where Dave Roberts et al had bivouacked in 1965, arriving about ten P.M. We aborted our dawn push only slightly above that point in threatening weather, returning to the High Camp about five P.M. with neither time nor energy for another try.

John Evans