1989 Denali West Buttress

While we successfully traversed Denali during 1988 Muldrow Trip, Marcia did not have a summit to her credit.  After being stuck with 5 guys for nearly 5 weeks, she decided to go the other extreme and organize a trip with 4 woman instead. 

Three of the members, Cindy Luksus, Debbie Wolf and Billie Butterfield were friends of Marcia from The Mountaineers.  The fourth member of the trip was Mary who came recommended by John Arnold one of our Muldrow trip mates.  They chose to attempt the West Buttress route (the most popular) in June when the weather is warmer (by Denali standards).

They chose the expedition name of “Seattle Women’s Alpine Team” (aka, SWAT).  There was another all-women’s team on the mountain, “Chicks on Pricks” (the “pricks” being crampons) with whom they were occasionally confused.

They got off on a rocky start when after flying on to the glacier, it turned out that Mary brought along a severe cold.  Not wanting to slow the rest of the team down, Mary flew off the mountain after a few days but not before passing her respiratory ailment on to the others. 

They continued on with the expedition but each of them came down with the “crud”.  Between battling illness and poor weather, they abandoned their trip after 2-1/2 weeks having spent many days at the 14,000 camp and making a carry to the West Buttress at 16,200’.