Mount McKinley, South Face, New Route. From May 13 to 23 we climbed a new route on the south face of Mount McKinley to the right of the Cassin Ridge. Ján Špakula, František Adamík and Ervin Velic helped Tono Križo, František Korl and me from Base Camp to our first bivouac and then they climbed the South Buttress. We had very good weather for the first five days but it was rather bad after that. Bivouac sites caused us great problems. Only on three nights, 5, 6 and 9, could we pitch our tent; on all other nights we had to hack out bivouac shelves. The climbing on the face was UIAA IV to V + on rock and 60° to 90° on ice. We placed 150 rock pitons and 40 ice pitons. We wore out new crampons and ice axes. We got to the summit at two A.M. on May 23. We met our support climbers near the summit and Velic accompanied us to the top. We all descended the South Buttress.

Blažej Adam, IAMES, Slovak Mountaineering Association