P 10,910, Second Ascent by a New Route, Hayes Group, Alaska Range. On April 24 Carl Tobin and I flew into the Hayes Group with Doug Geeting. We landed on the Turkey Glacier, which drains the southwestern flanks of Mount Hayes. We then skied to 8200 feet, established camp and fixed rope over the schrund at the base of the 2700-foot-high east-northeast face of P 10,910. On April 25 we started the climb under sunny skies. The first five pitches went quickly on 55° snow-covered ice. The next four were with deteriorating weather in a steep ice gully. The gully ended at the diagonal band which splits the face. This, the tenth pitch, was the crux, involving 75° to 80° hollow verglas over granite. With spindrift sloughs increasing, we were committed to the summit after this section. Carl said it was his most difficult lead ever. Steep snow over ice, steep snow, white-out and persistent avalanches in ice gullies characterized the next four pitches to a prominent ice rib between two major gullies. After one pitch on this rib, we were forced to bivouac. The storm had worsened and we were exhausted after 15 continuous pitches of front-pointing. We scooped a small hole in the shallow snownear the rib’s apex and had a quasi-hanging bivouac off two ice screws. With packs and legs dangling on the face, we spent an incredibly miserable night; legs and packs were hit periodically by large avalanches. The next morning, under blue skies and over tremendous exposure, we climbed the remaining five pitches, including three 70° gully pitches. We reached the summit at ten A.M. on April 26 after 28 hours on the face. We spent two hours on the summit and 28 on the descent. The south ridge was steep, knife-edged and covered with rime. We made two rappels and did much down-climbing to a southwest bowl. From there mixed climbing let us reach the col and make it down to our cache and camp on the Turkey Glacier. We skied to the Richardson highway via the Susitna and Black Rapids Glaciers in three days.

Roman Dial, Alaskan Alpine Club