THE NEWS THAT I’d been hired to work in the emergency department of a large trauma center was bittersweet. My friends Brian Prince, Adam Ferro, and I had been planning to travel to the Arrigetch Peaks to attempt the unclimbed west face of Xanadu. ...
On June 25, at approximately 3:25 p.m., a male climber (age 27) fell while leading Black and Tan, a 5.10a trad line in the Fantasy area of Endless Wall. He was approximately 40 feet up the route and took a short fall onto his fourth protection pie...
On the morning of October 28, and with rain forecasted to begin by midday, my girlfriend, Liza Mindemann (age 33), and I (Sam Janis, age 39) decided to get an early start on our third day of a two-week climbing road trip. We were eager to get back...
On July 23, an experienced male climber (age 24) was leading Reaching Conclusions, a 5.10a sport route at Reed’s Creek (near Petersburg, WV). The climber was attempting an awkward move, squatting on a ledge with his left hand on a hold between his...
In March, I finished a new free line on the west face of the Watchman called Surf’s Up (1,000’, IV 5.12-). Jason Nelson and I first spotted the highlight of this potential route while climbing the Central Pillar of the Watchman—surely a crack of t...
Over the course of several years, with myriad different partners, I established a new route on Johnson Mountain (6,120’), just south of the Watchman formation in Zion National Park. True Believers (800’, III+ 5.11 C2) follows an obvious corner sys...
The sound echoed off the cliffs, intermittent yet consistent. I kept hearing it over and over but could not place it. Something natural yet foreign, like whales talking. Matt finally reached me, and I asked if he heard the sound as well.“I don’t h...
Less than a week after my friend Hayden Kennedy’s death, I headed to the Uintas to scout for ice. It had been a good fall and I'd already climbed ice a few days in September. I've been watching Hayden Peak (12,479’) for years, as there are many po...
Tharke Kang (6,710m) is a newly opened summit that sits on the northwest ridge of Hungchi (7,029m). This ridge rises from the Nup La (5,844m) and forms the frontier between Nepal and Tibet. A guided expedition led by Garrett Madison (USA) made the...
At 10:24 a.m. on October 3, I reached the summit of Nangpai Gosum I (7,321m, see editor's note below) all alone. This peak on the Nepal-Tibet border, southwest of Cho Oyu, had been considered the fourth-highest unclimbed mountain in the world. As ...
ON JULY 28, Micha Rinn from Germany and I flew by helicopter to the col between Monarch Mountain and Page Mountain at the head of the Empire Way Glacier, deep in the Coast Mountains. Our objective was the pronounced spur that runs up the center ...
"Is OK? Is OK?” The heavily accented voice crackled in the worn headset protecting my ears from the rattle-hum of the floatplane as we circled through dark clouds obscuring the peaks below. Judging from the firm grip on my knee, Spanish climber En...
Just open a map of Dolpo and look at the far top, along the Nepal-Tibet border. There are very few peaks named, but one of them is Danphe Shail (6,103m, 29°40'18.38"N, 83° 0'29.10"E). When approaching Upper Dolpo, a pointed summit can be seen from...
In August, an American-Chinese team likely became the first to stand atop the highest point of the Chola Shan. There has been much confusion in the past as to what has been climbed in this group.Chola I (6,168m, 31°47'7.24"N, 99° 4'21.47"E, Google...
ROBERT JOHN SECOR, mountaineer, guidebook author, and adventurer, passed away on October 26 at the young age of 61. R.J., as he was known to all, authored four well-known climbing guidebooks: Mexico’s Volcanoes: A Climbing Guide; Aconcagua: A Clim...
The northeast face of Split Mountain, near Terrace, B.C.,presents an outrageous prow of granite rising out of the mist from a deep, narrow chasm. (This formation is just south of the Skeena River at 54°22'19.00"N, 128°59'37.57"W.) Nick Black, Gary...
In January 2016, Jim Donini and I climbed a new route on Puño Este (ca 2,050m), a peak just east of the Hielo Continental Norte in Chilean Patagonia.We base-camped at Jim’s lake house by the shores of Lago General Carrera while waiting for good we...
In February 2017, Trevor Boley, Kyle Kent, Rhane Pfeiffer, Cooper Varney, and I established a new route on Trinidad Sur. I first spotted this line while climbing the neighboring route Alendalaca (450m, 5.12b) on Trinidad Sur on December 23, 2016. ...
Through our constant pursuit of discovering overlooked places in our majestic backyard cordillera, Max Didier, my brother Diego Señoret, and I found a large granite wall in Chile’s Parque Nacional Puyehue (Puyehue means “stone forest”) on Google E...
Paolo Marazzi and I (both Ragni de Lecco members) traveled to Argentina in February with the goal of climbing Cerro Mariposa. We arrived in Bariloche on February 16. From there, local alpinist Sebastián de la Cruz helped us with logistics, as he’s...