Base Camp: Denali's South Buttress, A Historic Perspective

Activity Notes

Welcome to our first Base Camp of 2025/2026!

Retired 40-year Denali Mountaineering Ranger Roger Robinson will compare and contrast the remarkable 1954 first ascent of Denali’s South Buttress with his 1975 climb where eight students from OSU spent over a month on this rarely-climbed route. He will begin with images and audio of the original team that tackled the route in 1954. This group of four hiked in from Curry along the Alaska Railroad, proceeded up the Ruth Glacier and eventually reached the summit via the then-unclimbed South Buttress. Tragically, the leader Elton Thayer lost his life on the descent down Karstens Ridge. What followed over the next week was a major rescue involving the first helicopters used in a Denali rescue.

Roger was hired as a Denali National Park climbing ranger for the 1980 season. In 2000 he tested a theory to remove all his NPS patrol’s human waste. With the success of this experiment he developed a portable toilet which became the Clean Mountain Can (CMC). He holds a degree in Resource Recreation Management from Oregon State, was the 1999 recipient of the American Alpine Club’s David Brower Award for conservation and preservation of mountain regions worldwide, and is a recipient of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Stewardship Award. He is also the co-founder of the Sustainable Summit Initiative, international conferences on environmentally sustainable solutions in mountain areas, sustainablesummits.org.

Roger retired from Denali after working 40 seasons. His life is chronicled in the 2017 book, Denali Ranger: A Life of Drama and Adventure on America’s Tallest Peak, by Lew Freedman.