Mount St. Elias, Northwest Buttress. A Japanese expedition was led by Takeshi Okada and composed of Hiraoki Matsui, Yukuo Uozumi, Nobushige Sakazaki, Minoru Oshima, Kunihiko Kamata, Kiyoshi Abe and Suichi Narita. They landed at 6250 feet on the Columbus Glacier on June 6. Base Camp was set up two days later below the northwest spur of the northwest ridge. Camp I at 8850 feet was north of Windy Peak and Camp II was on the ridge between Windy Peak and the Hump at about 11,950 feet. Camp III was placed in the basin just south of the northwest buttress at 13,000 feet on June 20. From there ropes were fixed up to the crest of the northwest ridge and Camp IV was established on June 25 at 16,550 feet. The whole party except for the leader climbed the 2½-mile ridge to the summit on June 27. A map and photos of this new route are published in Iwa To Yuki of December 1978.