Distal Phalanx, North Arête. O n Sep­tem ber 6-7 John Frieh and I made the first ascent o f the N orth Arête o f Dis­tal Phalanx, a rem ote alpine rock peak in N orth Cascades National Park. We approached from T hunder Creek C am pground, traveling cross-country up the Neve Creek drainage to the base o f the route and reaching the sum m it in 17 hours. O ur route (1,200', IV 5.10) ascended directly up the ridge crest. We found easy 5th- class clim bing dow n low and m ore difficult clim bing near the sum m it pyram id. We spent several hours descending the south side o f the peak and bivied on its southwest shoulder. The next day we climbed Styloid Peak via its west shoulder on our decent east back to T hunder Creek. Distal Phalanx has been relatively ignored since its first ascent, from the south, in 1981. P rior to our climb we believed the n o rth side to be un touched bu t upon our return dis­covered tha t it had thw arted an attem pt a m onth earlier.

C r a ig G y s e l in c k , AAC