Climbing in the Toulumne MeadowsThomas Higgins“How ABOUT The Coming?” I waited for a reaction. “That’s pretty good.” “See, it’s near Chartres and sorta fits with the spiritual connotations of the cathedral. How about it? Isn’t coming’ spiritual?”T...
HANS MOLDENHAUER 1906–1987Hans Moldenhauer, a Life Member of the American Alpine Club, died on October 19, 1987. He grew up in Mainz, where he studied music. He began climbing in the Swiss-Austrian Rätikon group, making several first ascents, and ...
Yahuarraju and Rurec, Cordillera BlancaH. Adams CarterOur expedition was not so much distinguished for the technical brilliance of our climbing ability as for the advanced age of its members. I sat, securely wedged between the highest tiny outcrop...
JULES M. EICHORN1912-2000Sierra pioneer Jules Marquard Eichom, a 66-year member of the American Alpine Club, died February 15 after a climbing career that left his name indelibly etched on the Range of Light. Born in San Francisco on February 7, 1...
Everest: Kangshung Face. Stephen Venables. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1989. 236 pages. Black-and-white and color photographs, maps. £14.95.Stephen Venables, raised in a somewhat cloistered Oxford milieu (receiving a Masters degree in English ...
Sonam Himal and Karsang Peak (both 6,225m), traverse by Les Bosses à Mary; Le Belvedere d’Alfred (6,226m), possible second ascent; Kumlun Himal (6,365m), northwest ridge, Honorez la Vie. When you return home from an expedition to Nepal, there is a...
The Porcelain Wall, Sarganata. From August 22 to 27, Pep Masip and I put up a new route on the Porcelain Wall. We took six days, with five bivouacs (no pre-fixing), to do 12 60-meter pitches. Initially, we wanted to repeat Pete Takeda and Erik Koh...
New Routes on The Thumb, Little Cottonwood Canyon. Since the first ascent of the Thumb’s south face, it has been felt that a much more direct route to the summit was possible. On July 3 Royal Robbins and I climbed unroped up a low-angle shelf to w...
California, Guadalupe Rock, 15 miles from San Jose—On April 20, a pleasant sunny day, about 20 members of the Stanford Alpine Club were at the practice rocks. The majority of the party was on the larger rock doing some of the easier climbs. Five w...
Exploration of Patagonian Continental Icecap and Ascent of Aguja del Río Túnel. Our expedition was composed of Jenny Morelos, Monica Stalsché, Ismael Palma, Alfredo Fragueiro, Néstor Apráiz, Fernando Bosch and me as leader. The undertaking was def...
NoshaqRichard HechtelWHEN George Barnes and I boarded the plane in San Francisco, each with ice axe in hand, the worried stewardess insisted they go into the cockpit and not under our seats. Well, if they really needed ice axes to fly this airplan...
Bipeng Valley, Peak 5,370m, first ascent. On April 27 Rongqing Su (China) and I (USA) made the first ascent of Peak 5,370 (so named because it is 5,370m) (Lat: 31° 14' 30", Long: 102° 55' 04"). This may be a sub-peak of Peak 5414.Our climb started...
The Theory of BelayingArnold WexlerTHE protection afforded by a rope in mountaineering depends primarily upon the ability of belayer and rope to stop a fall adequately. In a recent article in the Sierra Club Bulletin, some aspects of the art of be...
Early Winter Spires, South Spire, Direct East Buttress. To a degree greater than anywhere else in the Cascades, rock climbing has become a sport in its own right in the Liberty Bell region. Certainly nowhere else in the range are there so many rou...
In July three George Lowes, grandfather, father and son, all climbed the Exum route of the Grand Teton together, which may be some kind of a new record.
FALL ON SNOW, UNABLE TO SELF-ARREST, DESCENDING UNROPED, WEATHERAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressThe Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. guided trip led by chief guide Phil Ershler and assistant guide Chris Hooyman began their expedition on May 21. T...
K2—The North RidgeSteven J. SwensonThe afternoon was fine, and nothing interrupted my view of the great amphitheatre about me. The cliffs and ridges of K2 rose out of the glacier in one stupendous sweep to the summit of the mountain, 12,000 feet a...
Elephant’s Perch or Sawtooth Dome, West Face, Sawtooth Range. On July 18 to 20 Dick Forster and I completed a new route on the west face of this peak, 1¾ miles southwest of Redfish Lake. Our route lies 500 feet to the left of Beckey’s. We approach...
West Fuller Butte, South Face. This route and the next are easily visible from a logging road southwest of the two buttes. Easy Wind climbs a flake which lies flat against the face to the west of a prominent gully on West Fuller Butte. Fourth-clas...
Blue Ridge Section. In 2008 the Blue Ridge Section continued to hold a series of informal meetings at the Rhodeside Tavern in Rosslyn, Virginia. Two particularly notable talks were given by Sandy Fleming, a long-time AAC member, and by Daniel Ress...