Pyramid Peak, North Face. On March 29, James Ruch and I completed the first ascent of Pyramid Peak’s north face. The climbing was almost entirely on good ice and snow with occasional mixed sections. In surmounting the difficult band via an ice ribbon, we encountered five rope-lengths of superb ice. The fourth surpassed the vertical for a three-meter section before easing back to a comfortable 80°. This concave pitch, as we called it, provided the only two placements in its entirety before a semi-hanging belay from a lone knife-blade piton. Though I would not dare to rob anyone of the exhilaration I sensed when leading this pitch, I might suggest that future parties carry more than two ice screws. (III-IV.)

Robert Cotter, Unaffiliated