North America, United States, Alaska, McGinnis Peak, East Face, Hayes Range

Publication Year: 1986.

McGinnis Peak, East Face, Hayes Range. “Cutthroat Couloir” forms the right comer of the east face of McGinnis Peak with the southeast ridge on its left side. Our ascent of the peak by Cutthroat Couloir may be the most difficult climb yet done in the Hayes Range. Chuck Comstock and I started up the couloir on March 23. The couloir is 3000 feet high. The angle at the top approaches 75° to 80°. We had three bivouacs on the ascent, the first on an arête in the couloir, the second in a bergschrund at the notch on the classic Brady route after we got onto the east or northeast ridge and the third on the summit, which we reached on March 26. We made the first descent of the formidable southeast ridge. When a cornice broke under Comstock, to arrest his fall I jumped off the other side of the ridge. He hurt his hand and so we descended the couloir into which he had fallen. We made eleven rappels with a cramped snow-cave bivouac halfway down the face that the couloir avalanched into.

Roman Dial