Tyree

“We did it—by an incredible series of fortuitous guesses, strenuous efforts, and—most of all—dumb luck.”—John Evans, 1967

For seven days, Marts and Evans met difficult conditions on every route they tried up Mt. Tyree. In his trip report in the AAJ, Marts reflected on the challenges the team faced:

“The descent to the Gardner-Tyree col looked easy, but we had a rude surprise. Instead of the gentle snow traverse we expected, the slopes were steep and of very hard ice. Crampons would not bite and the entire route had to be belayed from rock pitons driven into the ice since our Salewa screws would not start in the brittle ice. The climb to the col took many hours longer than anticipated. It was obvious that a camp would have to be set up at the col before another summit try was launched. We returned to Camp II to find a full house—seven men in three two-man tents.

The next few days were stormy and cold. Great snow plumes ten miles in length flew from the summit of Tyree. Winds at our camp were about 30 m.p.h. with the temperature at about minus 30° F. On the 2nd of January Barry and John tried to fix ropes down a 500-foot cliff that permitted access to the glacier leading to the col but gave it up because of the difficulty in hauling loads over the route. The rest of the party climbed Gardner that day.

On the 3rd of January, John, Barry, Eiichi and Bill made a carry to the col. John and Barry remained there as the assault team. Everyone except the support party of Dick and Sam returned to Base. On the 5th John and Barry attempted the two-and-a-half-mile ridge of Tyree directly from the col but gave it up quickly as too hard and too slow.

They started again early on January 6, by a different route. Angling left on the north side of the ridge they traversed broken rock and snow to a gully that gave easy access to the ridge crest about 1,000 feet above the camp. From here they could follow the ridge to the summit pyramid. The ridge forced them towards the right onto the south face that drops for 8,000 feet to the plateau. They angled right and up, leap-frogging over fourth- and fifth-class rock and snow. They continued in this way for fifteen leads.

At six p.m. on January 6 Eiichi, Pete, Bill, Nick, and I stopped the motor toboggan to make our scheduled radio contact. We were on our way north along the range to try Long Gables (named for Bill Long and his brother Jack, another Antarctic veteran). Barry’s voice came through the radio clearly. It was obvious that he was having trouble talking to Dick at Camp II. Finally we heard, "Look on the summit, you lunkhead!” Tyree had been climbed! We were ecstatic but could not relay our feeling to the summit pair due to the caprices of radio communication. What an expedition! We had now climbed the first, second, third, and fourth highest peaks in Antarctica and were not through yet. Elated, we continued on to camp beneath Long Gables (13,620 feet).”