After five failed attempts with several partners, I joined with Dan Petrus to complete the first ascent of the north face of Heritage Point (3,600', VI M6 WI6 A2) in the Chugach Mountains. We took the most obvious ice smear in the center of the face for 14 long pitches. This put us on top of the big snow ledge at mid-height. We then traversed right for 400' to the large dihedral that splits the upper wall and followed it up and left to the top of the wall. Very sustained climbing! Out of 29 total pitches, 25 were M5 or harder. Over a dozen pitches were hard, runout M6. From the top of the face we traversed up left to the couloir separating Heritage Point from Little Bear. We descended this couloir on the last day of calendar winter of 2005. No summit.

In early April of this year, 2005, Dan Petrus and I climbed a line on the north face of Yukla in the Chugach Mountains. It’s the obvious couloir that tops out on the northeast ridge to the left of the summit. This may have been the line taken previously by Richard Baranow. If so, I think Dan and I made the second ascent of both the face and the line. Anyway, it goes at VWI5,3,600'.

John Kelley