St. Elias, South Ridge Attempt. Willi Hersman, Ray Koleser, Suzy Noldan and I arrived in Yakutat on May 2 in pouring rain. The next day the weather cleared enough for Mike Ivers to fly us to Base Camp at 3500 feet on the southeast side of the Tyndall Glacier. We established Camps I and II at 1400 and 2300 meters in three days of perfect weather. Then, because of a series of storms which dropped several feet of new snow, we were unable to establish Camp III at 3020 meters until two weeks later. The following day, the weather again deteriorated. We descended to Camp II in a whiteout and waited there for two days for the weather to clear enough for further descent. We went all the way to Base Camp on May 21 on the first clear day in over two weeks. We found our cache under over a meter of new snow. We flew out that night and the next morning.

Ken Zafren