In early May, Greg Boswell, Lindsay Yule, Paul Prentice, and I flew to the lower Buckskin Glacier with food for three weeks. It was a trip with no set objectives, but with lots of ideas and flexibility in mind. Aware that we had flown in during a ...
In May 2012, I attempted to solo Begguya (a.k.a. Mt. Hunter, 14,573’) via the North Buttress, and in a state of extreme exhaustion I turned around and descended from only 100m below the summit. One hundred meters is not a lot of mountain, especial...
PAUL AND I had been climbing at Red Rock for about a week. On February 7, after a windy rest day, we decided to take it easy and stay close to the ground. We chose the Red Spring area of Calico Basin because we figured it would be somewhat shelter...
THE VISION for an expedition to Baffin Island had crystalized in April 2016, during a solitary walk near the base of Mt. Dickey in Alaska. Severe conditions had forced Marcin “Yeti” Tomaszewski and me to retreat from the east face. Waiting f...
IN LATE JULY, Tito Arosio, Matteo Bernasconi, and I traveled to the Cordillera Huayhuash with high hopes of climbing the impressive limestone wall in the center of the east face of Siulá Grande (6,344m). We had a little information about the place...
THE GOAL OF MAKING the first documented ascent of Sauyr Zhotasy (a.k.a. Muztau), a remote 3,840m peak on the Xinjiang-Kazakhstan border, has been discussed for years. Although its technical difficulties and altitude are not great, its topographi...
On October 11, four climbers and I were cragging in Day Canyon. After warming up on a nearby climb, my partner and I threw our rope down in front of Boognish Tower, a 100-foot chimney climb (5.10-). I tied in on the follower's end and started to b...
CLIMBING HAS BEEN the hub of my life, with spokes of interest radiating in all directions, like a magnetic field. Asked by the editor to write a short piece for this journal regarding the future of climbing, I foolishly accepted. I was honored and...
ABOUT 20KM EAST of Canmore is one of the most impressive rock features in the Bow Valley: the Goat Buttress sector of the Goat Wall. In morning light the buttress appears almost like a spire, towering 1,800’ above the trees and scree below. Althou...
Looking northwest across the Pasu Glacier to (A) Pasu Sar East (6,842m), (B) Noukarsich (6,498m), (C) Maidon Sar (6,085m, Spanish, 1985), and (D) Hiriz (5,550m, Spanish, 1985). (1) The 2016 American route to Maidon Sar. (2) The southeast couloir o...
OVER THE PAST few years, Valhalla Provincial Park—a once-sleepy alpine climbing destination about 100km southwest of the Bugaboos, near Nelson, B.C.—has seen an explosion in activity. Local guide David Lussier has authored about a dozen new ...
At 2,773m (9,097’), Thunder Mountain (Mt. Nirvana) is the tallest peak in the Northwest Territories. Prior to 2017, it had received five ascents, all via the north and east faces. But the biggest face of Thunder Mountain, the 1,000m-tall, 2km-wi...
The primary aim of our trip was to climb summits of the Teri Himal, a small subrange northeast of the Teri La (itself northeast of the Thorong La) in the southern Damodar Range. I felt these 6,000m peaks would offer interesting climbing at a moder...
I live right below La Meije in the Ecrins Massif of France, and it is a pleasure to be able to traverse such a peak in the Alps or in other ranges. Traversing a high summit is like opening the door to a new world. At the point where the trip is n...
FOR MANY YEARS I had dreamed of going to Kyrgyzstan to climb perfect granite walls above green meadows filled with wild horses. The first question was exactly which destination to choose. After much research we decided on the Ak-su branch of the L...
HEART MOUNTAIN is a very popular scrambling peak along the Bow Valley, just an hour’s drive from Calgary. I’d often wondered whether a worthwhile line could go from Heart Creek at the base all the way to the summit. There had been activity on the ...
UNTIL RECENTLY, there has been little exploration by foreign mountaineers of the more remote areas of the East Karakoram. The availability of permits for the region is still not a foregone conclusion. In 2016 we successfully obtained permission ...
(A) Khalkhal West, (B) Praqpa Ri southeast top, and (C) Praqpa Ri (Central), seen from the east across the Savoia Glacier. The Chileans climbed a new route (not visible) on Khalkhal West and made the first ascent of Praqpa R...
After months of waiting—and in the end only four weeks before we were due to leave Italy—Federica Mingolla, Simone Pedeferri, and I received a permit to climb in the Kondus Valley. The idea for this trip had been in my mind for four years, ever si...
In August we visited the Gezart Valley, establishing base camp at 3,550m, not far from the start of the Gezart Glacier. Our campsite was at least 10 hours’ walk to the south (either one very long day or two days’ trek) from the village of Ak Art, ...