Mt Hunter N Buttress 1999

On arrival in Anchorage, Parkin's intended companion received bad news, so returned home, leaving him to continue alone. The originally intended route on the left (E) side of the N Buttress of Mt Hunter, 4,442m, was obviously out of the question for a solo attempt, but during a previous visit another possible new route had been spotted up the face to the right, close to the 1994 route 'Deprivation'. After climbing grade 6 ice and A1/2, dangerous conditions - a 5cm gap between snow layers - caused the first attempt to be aborted with probably only a couple of hard pitches left. After a week of storms, a second attempt was mounted but this too had to be abandoned due to very variable weather conditions. Ironically, early May had seen a long period of very stable weather.