Bastion Spire, Slovenian-Alaskan Route; Garvey Spire. Tim Ciosek (U.S.) and I spent 25 days on the Cul de Sac Glacier (a.k.a. Cool Sac) in the Kichatna Spires. We came to the glacier on June 6 and had amazingly good weather and conditions. On June 9 we climbed a new route on the west face of Bastion Spire-the Slovenian-Alaskan Route, IV 5.9 easy mixed, 750 meters. We spent 12 hours on the face, climbing and descending. We found easy mixed climbing in soft snow, with a lot of bad rock sections (5.9) on the lower part of the wall. On the upper part we had solid rock. On June 20 I soloed the southeast couloir (II, 600m) on Sunrise Spire. I started in the middle of the day, so I had soft snow in the couloir. After 40 minutes I reached the ridge but didn’tgo on to the true summit. We also climbed the spire between Bastion and Skuzerian Peak. We had no information about anyone climbing that spire before. We found an easy couloir up to the ridge and grade IV and V on the ridge to the summit. We named the spire Garvey Spire, after the late Steve Garvey, a well-known Alaskan climber. We left the glacier on July 1. It’s an amazing area with tons of possibilities for new routes.

Klemen Mali, Alpine Club of Slovenia