Dragontail Peak, Northwest Face, Stuart Range. On October 11 ...

D ragontail P eak, N orthw est F a c e , Stuart R ange. O n O ctober 11, Alan K earney and I clim bed a new route on the northw est face o f D ragontail via the prom inent buttress betw een Serpentine A rête and the Boving route. W e began in the huge corner system ju st to the right o f the toe o f the buttress. A pitch of third class led to a belay in the corner. From there, a 40-foot horizontal traverse brought us to a clean, discontinuous crack system . W e ascended this for two pitches, occasionally diagonaling back to the corner. The second was hard with the crux m oves protected by tied -o ff knife-blades (5.9). From a belay on ledges, we clim bed a crack diagonally left through the steep wall o f the corner to the crest o f the buttress. W e follow ed the crest for the rest o f the route. It

was fourth class for about three rope-lengths, but then the arête narrow s and has four steep headw alls. The first tw o, 25-foot w hite w alls facing right, were turned via hidden crack system s ju st to their left. The third wall is w ider and slightly higher. It is split by a narrow ing fist-to-finger crack w hich leads to a sm all stance (5.9). T hen a short pitch ends on a flat ledge. A bove, we clim bed directly on the knife-edge for 75 feet to the fourth headw all, w here a 15-foot traverse to the left took us to cracks (5.9) up through a notch. The final 200 feet up the arête to the sum m it ridge are pleasant scram bling on solid rock. (1200 vertical feet; 13 pitches; III, 5 .9 .) P eter K elem en