Mount Thor, West Face, Rappels and Prusiking. During July eighteen American and Canadian men and women tackled the wilds of Auyuittuq National Park with its variable weather, rugged glacially carved terrain and continuous daylight. We successfully rigged, rappeled down and prusiked up the awe-inspiring west face of Mount Thor. In early May local outfitters drove six skidoos loaded with ropes, rigging gear and stove fuel up the frozen Weasel River to establish a cache. After our arrival, the summit team packed an enormous amount of material up the back side of Thor. We carefully selected the area where to lower our hoist line down the overhanging wall, slightly south of the dead center of the face. We then hauled up and rigged the rope. Utilizing single-rope techniques, we attained an uninterrupted pitch of 3250-feet. Pigeon Mountain Industries constructed a continuous 7/16-inch (11mm) nylon kem- mantle static rope, 5280-foot-long. Modified specifications included a super- tight sheath braid, one extra core strand and no splice closer than 30 feet to the next. Prusiks were accomplished both individually and in tandem, taking from 1½ to 6 hours. Rappels ranged from just over five minutes to 1½ hours.

Steve Holmes, Atlanta, Georgia