Mt. Logan, I-TO

North America, Canada, St. Elias Range
Author: Katsutaka Yokoyama. Climb Year: 2010. Publication Year: 2011.

Japanese climbers Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka Yokoyama made the first ascent of the enormous south face of Mt. Logan (5,957m), considered by many alpinists to be the greatest unclimbed alpine wall in North America. From May 4–8 they climbed the face, continued to the East Summit, and descended the East Ridge. They named their route I-TO (2,500m, ED+ M6 WI5), meaning “thread, line, relationship,” partly in honor of Jack Tackle and Jay Smith, who had attempted and long coveted the route, but willingly shared information with Yokoyama. See Yokoyama’s feature article earlier in this Journal.