Dungeon Peak, East Face. Of the three principal Ramparts of Tonquin Valley, Oubliette, Dungeon and Redoubt, the face of the central one was the last to yield to the climber. Dennis Eberl and I made the route on August 30, beginning the day with a short rowboat trip across Amethyst Lake. To minimize rockfall danger, we gained the quartzite of the central buttress as soon as possible, keeping out of an obvious snow couloir below the Dungeon-Redoubt depression. A chimney system with a key pitch that included tight squeezing was the secret to this part of the climb. We skirted the edge of a hanging glacier, where we found fresh running water from cliffs above and had to dodge rockfall. Above the great transverse band, the rock was so firm that we climbed unroped for 500 feet. A few key pitches brought both the rope and pitons into use; the hardest spot was an inside corner that had an F7 move. A dry summer had cleared most of the upper rocks, providing such excellent conditions that we elected to complete most of the upper sections unroped.

Fred Beckey