Dan Beard, Mooses Tooth and Rooster Comb, 1978. Jay Kerr, Lee Anderson, John Harris and I flew to the Ruth Amphitheater on about April 1, 1978. We left immediately for our first objective, the unclimbed southeast ridge of Mount Dan Beard. Kerr and I reached the summit after six days of climbing in good weather. The ridge was excellent mixed climbing with three large gendarmes that we had to climb and then rappel down the back side. After a final bivouac in a snow cave on the summit, we descended the southwest ridge in one day. We did 5000 feet of climbing. NCCS V, F8, A2. Next Kerr and I did a two-dayascent of the German route on the Mooses Tooth in good weather. At the same time Anderson and Harris tried a line on the Shield, a 1600-foot granite face which is part of the gateway to the Ruth Amphitheater. They reached a point halfway up the center of the wall before retreating because of rotten rock. They then also climbed the German route of the Mooses Tooth. After a brief rest at Base Camp Kerr and I left for the Rooster Comb, the beautiful peak just east of Mount Huntington. Despite various other attempts, only the French had had any kind of success when they in 1971 had reached the lower northeast summit. (A.A.J., 1972, pp. 50-55.) We climbed to the actual summit via the south face and east ridge. We crossed to the Tokositna Glacier up a 2000-foot couloir near the Mountain House to get in one day to a small basin directly under the south face of the Rooster Comb. We then gained the notch between the French and true summits the next morning. The following morning we climbed the east ridge to the top and back to the bivouac in 15 hours in marginal weather. We descended to the basin the following morning and took a rest day there before returning to the Ruth. NCCS V, A4. We flew out after 35 days of good weather out of 38.

Scott Woolums