THE ART OF FREEDOM: THE LIFE AND CLIMBS OF VOYTEK KURTYKA. Bernadette McDonald. Rocky Mountain Books, 2017. Hard- cover, 256 pages, $32 (CDN).I can’t stand it. Reviewing another dumb climber/hero worship story about rising above oneself in search ...
WILD ADVENTURES WE HAVE KNOWN: MY LIFE WITH WILLI UNSOELD. Jolene Unsoeld, with lectures by Willi Unsoeld. Unsoeldsto- ries.com, 2017. 407 pages, $30.Wild Adventures We Have Known is a trip through the attic of a fascinating family, a trek to the ...
THE OGRE: BIOGRAPHY OF A MOUNTAIN AND THE DRAMATIC STORY OF THE FIRST ASCENT. Doug Scott. Vertebrate Publishing, 2017. Hardcover, 192 pages, $26.72. The Ogre’s first ascent by a six-member British expedition in 1977 might have been “just anothe...
Jordan Cannon, 22, was attempting Bongo Fury (5.12b), a bolted arête in the Joe’s Garage area, in late March. All of the bolts were pre-equipped with quickdraws made with thin Dynex (polyethylene) webbing. When Cannon fell above the third bolt, th...
THE CLIMBERS. Jim Herrington. The Mountaineers, 2017. Slip-cased hardcover, 189 pages, $59.95.When you stand outside, looking to your climbing objective, you study the ridges, the lines defined by the terrain, and you analyze the peak you intend t...
THE PUSH: A CLIMBER'S JOURNEY OF ENDURANCE, RISK, AND GOING BEYOND LIMITS. Tommy Caldwell. Viking, 2017. Hardcover, 352 pages, $27.How to explain boundary-defining climbing to non-climbers? And how to encapsulate the motivation required by top ath...
Madagascar’s Tsaranoro Valley has been described as the Yosemite of Africa. But on its big, mostly crackless granite walls, most visitors have chosen to attempt new lines, running it out as far as they dare before placing a bolt. The few routes ea...
In late 2017, Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, Nima Tenji Sherpa, Pasang Kidar Sherpa, and I obtained a permit for unclimbed Langdung (6,357m), spanning the border with Tibet at the head of the Rolwaling Glacier (a.k.a. Ripimo Shar Glacier). The peak had been...
On July 3 there were two climbing accidents almost identical in nature in the Valley. Both were ground falls, and both resulted from a belayer lowering the climber with a rope that was too short for the pitch.At approximately 7 p.m., Yosemite disp...
Approaching via Yangma and the lakes of Nangamari Pokhari and Pabuk Pokhari, Grégoire Lestienne and Floriane Pugin (France) established base camp on October 24 at 5,400m. On the 28th they moved up to a bivouac at 5,800m on the south face of unclim...
My wife, Muriel Zucchini, and I initially went to the Miyar Valley in the fall of 2015. Our first route was on September 7, when, to acclimatize, we climbed a direct line up the southeast face of Point JAMES (4,965m). This followed a corner (5), f...
In May 2017, Nick Craddock (NZ), David Shotwell (USA), Allison Swintz (USA), and I traveled to the Miyar Valley. We had the advantage of Nick’s vast experience in India. Although he had not been to the Miyar, Nick has spent years working out of Ma...
During September, Spandan Sanyal and I joined our friends Jon Griffin and Tad McCrea (both USA) for an expedition to the Lalung Valley. Base camp was established after a three-hour hike from the road over the Pensi La. The altitude was 4,150m and ...
In May, He Chuan (China), China-based Ola Przybysz (Poland), who led the trip, and I visited the Tibetan village of Zhagana (2,800m) in southern Gansu to explore the surrounding peaks. The area is becoming popular with Chinese tourists, but we lea...
In October, with the support of a Grit & Rock First Ascent Grant, the team of Galina Chibitok (Russia), Marina Kopteva (Ukraine), and Anastasia Petrova (Russia) completed the first route from the north on Kemailong (5,873m), making the second ...
I BECAME AWARE of the Minya Konka massif while looking through Tom Nakamura's book East of the Himalaya. I was so attracted to the pictures of the east face of Mt. Edgar that I decided I needed to see these Chinese mountains myself. On September 2...
Honouring High Places: The Mountain Life of Junko Tabei. Junko Tabei and Helen Y. Rolffe, translated by Yumika Hiraki and Rieto Hotven. Rocky Mountain Books, 2017. Hardcover, 376 pages, $32 (CDN).When Junko Tabei stepped on to the summit of Everes...
Found: A Life in Mountain Rescue. Bree Loewen. Mountaineers Books, 2017. Paperback, 224 pages, $17.95.In this autobiographical work, Bree Loewen describes the hardships, sacrifices, and intense satisfaction associated with backcountry search and r...
The Snyder-Wilcox Expedition on Denali in 1967 was not only North America’s most tragic mountaineering incident—seven deaths—but also one of the most reported, most recently by Andy Hall in Denali’s Howl (2014). Add Jessica Goodfellow’s Whiteout (...
Takanori Mashimo’s six-member Japanese expedition, which made the first ascent of Dzanye II in October 2015 (AAJ 2016), also made an unsuccessful attempt on Lhonak Peak (a.k.a. Rifil Peak, 6,070m, 27.830876°N, 88.054761°E), a summit with no record...