Mount Drum

Doug Buchanan, Dave Dausel, and Carl Tobin essentially crash landed on a small glacier at the foot of Mt. Drum's west ridge on 24 Dec. 1976. I say crashed because the pilot misjudged the slope of the surface in the shadow and landed very hard. Luckily, there was about 5 feet of soft snow. We put camps at 8,200 ft, 10,000 ft and between the two summits at 11,450. Days were really short at that time of year.

We reached the summit on 31 Dec then descended the northwest face and skied down to the Sanford River. Shortly before reaching the Copper River, our pilot flew in to pick us up since the river was open and running.