M o u n t M c K in le y , W estern R im and. Cassin R o u te o f S o u th Face.
O ur group of eight divided evenly to climb these two routes. My brother Alan, Paul (Tut) Braithw aite and Paul M oores and I climbed the Cassin route while D on W hillans, G ordon (Binke) Blakie, John H ow ard and the C alifornian Bob Schneider did the W estern Rim. Both teams reached the sum m it alpine-style on June 26 only 12 hours apart. O ur foursom e set off on the m orning of June 21 and w ent to the Cassin NOTE: All dates in this section refer to 1976 unless otherwise stated.
Icefield at about 14,500 feet. The next day we cam ped at 16,000 feet and were storm bound for 24 hours. On June 24 we climbed to 17,300 feet, where the route regains the final ridge leading to the summit. Twelve hours of bad w eather m eant that we started for the sum m it on the evening of June 25, climbed through the night to reach the top at 5 :3 0 A.M . and descended 8000 feet before eating and sleeping. U n fortunately the descent down the West Buttress was crawling with people and garbage. A drian B urgess , A lpine Clim bing G roup