The following climbers who passed away in 2023 wrote many reports and articles for the American Alpine Journal over the years. Here, we offer brief tributes to these friends and contributors.

DMITRY GOLOVCHENKO from Russia wrote eight articles for the AAJ, describing new routes on Thalay Sagar, Jannu, Muztagh Tower, Trango Tower, and other giants of the Greater Ranges. He died at age 40 in a fall from high on Gasherbrum IV while attempting a new route with longtime partner Sergey Nilov (see report here).

AARON LIVINGSTON, 32, died in September in a solo climbing fall in Northern California. A native of Utah, he was a wide-ranging and multi-talented climber whose most significant report for the AAJ covered the first ascent of The Optimist on Mt. Hooker in Wyoming, a route that was itself a tribute to a fallen friend, Nolan Smythe.

NADYA OLENEVA, 38, was a star of modern Russian climbing, with difficult first ascents in Siberia and Kyrgyzstan, from which she reported two climbs in the AAJ: the first ascent of a beautiful rock spire called Pik Ostryi, with an all-women team (AAJ 2022), and a new route on Pik Korolyova (AAJ 2023). She fell while attempting Dhaulagiri in Nepal.

DMITRY PAVLENKO and his wife, Svetlana, and two clients disappeared during an attempt on Pobeda in Kyrgyzstan. He was a key member of two large Russian teams that climbed big-wall-style routes up the west face of Makalu and the north face of Jannu. His last AAJ report was in 2023, describing a new route, climbed with Svetlana, up the north face of Free Korea Peak in Kyrgyzstan.

ERMANNO SALVATERRA, 68, a legend of Patagonian climbing, died in a fall while guiding at home in Italy. Among his many accomplishments, the climbs of Cerro Torre stand out: the first winter ascent and new routes on the east, south, and north faces. His feature articles describing these climbs in the AAJ spanned two decades, from 1986 to 2006.

JUAN SEÑORET, one of the prolific “Señoret brothers” from Chile, was killed in an avalanche while attempting to ski Volcán Puntiagudo in Chile, along with Christophe Henry from France, who also perished. Juan and his brothers reported numerous new routes in the AAJ, most recently the north face of Cerro Catedral in the Torres del Paine, climbed in January 2022 with his brother Cristóbal. 

LUIS STITZINGER, 54, a guide and high- altitude climber and skier from Germany, died on Kangchenjunga in Nepal, after reaching the summit alone. He had climbed and skied many 8,000-meter peaks, including descents on Gasherbrum II, Nanga Parbat, and K2. He reported on his solo attempt on Hongku in Nepal in AAJ 2023.

SHINJI TAMURA, a Japanese mountain guide based in Zermatt, Switzerland, for decades, wrote about a 2021 attempt on Bondit Peak in the Karakoram for the 2022 AAJ. He returned to the same area for the next two years, and in 2023, during an attempt on Apobrok Great Pyramid, a rappelling accident cost him his life (see report here). 

KACPER TEKIELI, 38, from Poland, filed AAJ reports about new routes in Norway and his home mountains, the High Tatras, where he had climbed hundreds of routes. A veteran of difficult link-ups (including the summer speed record and first winter completion of The Expander link-up in the Tatras, reported in AAJ 2022), he died in May as a result of an avalanche in Switzerland, while attempting to enchain all 82 of the Alpine 4,000-meter peaks.