Mount Redoubt. Bob Gerhard, Larry Van Slyke, Mark Skok and I had planned a winter ascent of Mount Redoubt (3108 meters, 10,197 feet), but bad weather and other commitments delayed our departure for a month. On April 4 Lowell Thomas, Jr. landed us at 200 meters on the Drift River. We spent one-and-a-half days skiing with sleds to our high camp at 1500 meters on a northeast ridge. The next three days brought over a half meter of heavy snow, followed by strong winds. Shortly after seven A.M. on April 10, the wind died enough to try the ascent. We reached a point 20 meters below the summit, which was composed of ice hummocks which we elected not to climb because of the late hour, 4:30 P.M., a windy -26° C temperature and fatigue from swimming uphill on long leads of bottomless snow. Our route involved a gently rolling traverse of 1.5 kms south to the east ridge and a rising traverse of almost the same distance north to 1800 meters, where we left our skis. Above this we worked up a series of broad valleys and icefalls with some crevasse problems to reach the north ridge at 2700 meters, which we followed to the summit area.

Ken Zafren