Mount Hunter, Northwest Spur Variant. On April 12 Gary Bocarde, Nick Parker and I started on a new variant on the west ridge of Mount Hunter. After skiing around from the southeast fork of the Kahiltna into the basin north of the west ridge, we set up Base Camp below the prominent icefall and bowl that indents the lower northern part of the west ridge. We worked through the heavily crevassed lower section of the bowl and onto the western face of the northwest spur, where we climbed 45° to 50° stable snow slopes to camp on a narrow platform below the lower rocks of the spur at 8200 feet. The next day we proceeded along below the crest on steepening slopes to 9400 feet, where we cut a narrow platform and slept roped in cold April weather. The next morning we were treated to a spectacular display when a large section of the icefall, just a few hundred feet over on the ridge and level with us, broke and avalanched. Bocarde continued the lead, the last three pitches being 60° to 70° rotten ice, and reached the ridge at the point marked 10,610 feet, where we spent the night on a broad flat area just off the west ridge. Bocarde next led over the cornice problems to the ice slope at 11,000 feet, where a storm stopped us for a day. We left for the summit on the sixth day in unsettled weather. While Bocarde blissfully led the second pitch on ice at 11,200 feet, Parker and I watched ominous lenticular clouds descend on Denali, Foraker and our summit. We retreated to camp in worsening weather and strong winds, decided to descend and stopped for the night at our Camp III. We descended in rappels from the ridge. The lower slope was moderately loaded by the storm, reminding us how unsavory the lower route would be in heavy snow.

Lance S. Owens