McKinley, Entire South Buttress. Parts of the South Buttress of McKinley (Denali) have been climbed before, but starting from the airstrip on the Kahiltna Glacier on May 4, Mark Asprey, Ron Bauer, Marcus Brown, Tahoe Rowland, Mike Vanderbeek and Tom Whalen ascended the mountain along its entire 12-mile length. They took three weeks to complete the route in very unsettled weather.