When my friend Brian Smith suggested an attempt on Denali (Mt. McKinley), I wasn't too keen on the idea.  I haven't been interested in climbing Denali since the mid-1970s, due to my misperception that the Washburn Route (West Buttress) was a crowded, littered, slog to the apex of North America.  I was more interested in Mt. St. Elias, Mt. Deborah, Mt Hayes, Mt. Russell, Mt. Kimball, and Mt. Fairweather, Alaskan peaks that are seldom attempted, and, in my view, worthy of more attention. But I figured that it is great fun climbing with Brian, and that this should outweigh the apparent unappealing nature of Big Mac. We invited Tom Randel to join us, and on May 15, 1995, the three of us found ourselves on the Kahiltna Glacier.

It was great fun climbing with Brian and Tom, but I was surprised by the quality of climbing along the Washburn Route. While there were over 500 climbers on the mountain at that time, I never felt that I was part of a crowd, even with more than 80 climbers at the 14,000' camp. Most climbers do a good job of keeping the route clean.  The route is a slog as far as the 14,000' level, but from then on the route is aesthetic; climbing along the exposed crest of the West Buttress itself is like being on the summit all day.  And the route from 17,000' to the summit is intricate.  I really got into the mountain and the route, so much so that I didn't realize that I had climbed the highest mountain in North America until returning to Talkeetna three days after summiting!  I now wish that I had climbed this route many years ago.

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