On May 27, a 53-year-old male, climbing solo, sustained frostbite injuries to all ten of his fingers while ascending from the 14,200-foot camp toward the 17,200-foot camp on the West Buttress. At 9:10 a.m., he made a satelite phone call requesting...
AT APPROXIMATELY 6 p.m. on September 16, I responded to the report of a fatal rock climbing accident at the Lower West Bolton climbing area. I was directed to anambulance where the two subjects who had been climbing with the deceased (20-year-ol...
THE PEAKS of the Kondus and Kaberi valleys are mostly virgin. Some rise above 7,000m. The valleys are part of the Gilgit-Baltistan region, once in the ancient kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir and nowadays in territory disputed by Pakistan, India, and ...
AFTER LEADING the first Korean Way project in 2016, climbing the south face of Gangapurna (AAJ 2017), I led a second expedition with the concept of fostering a younger generation of Korean climbers, developing their skills and experience. I was jo...
IN JANUARY 2018 a team of five from the elite Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne (GMHM) visited the Pirrit Hills, an isolated group of sharp granite peaks, around 13km in length, sitting on the icecap around 160km south of the Antarctic Logistics ...
From December 1–17 our team of seven climbers, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-50s and comprising Jimmy Chin, Savannah Cummins, Pablo Durana, Alex Honnold, Anna Pfaff, Cedar Wright, and me, visited the Fenris Kjeften (Wolf's Jaw) in the mountai...
It was 1998 when I first landed in Greenland. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a long love affair with grand rock walls and towers, majestic polar bears, giant diamond-like icebergs, unique Inuit friends, and an endless list of wonde...
THE TRIP STARTED as a 10-year-old dream of Luke Holloway's, one of my longest climbing partners: Boat the Little Nahanni and South Nahanni rivers to Brintnell Creek, hike into the Cirque of the Unclimbables, then boat the Nahanni for another 100 m...
More than two decades ago, Bernd Arnold and friends traveled to Madagascar in search of big cliffs. They had hardly any information, only an illusory description of rocks from a missionary. In the Tsaranoro Valley, the party found impressive walls...
Frederick O. Johnson died on November 1 in his Berkeley, California, home of heart failure, following dinner with his wife of 67 years. A fourth-generation Californian, Fred was born in Los Angeles and was a longtime resident of Berkeley. During h...
Paul Beatty Crews, pioneer Alaskan climber and founder in 1958 of the Mountaineering Club of Alaska (MCA), died in Anchorage on July 20. He was just 18 days shy of his 100th birthday. He had led an active, exciting, and inquiring life, and as a na...
Fred Beckey had three favorite subjects that he enjoyed talking about: challenging mountains, the weather, and the pursuit of women. His photographic memory of mountains and challenging new routes was amazing. His obsession with climbing made him ...
In July 1938 the north face of the Eiger was finally climbed, after many attempts and multiple fatalities. It was Europe’s greatest prize in climbing at the time and a widely celebrated ascent. During the same period, a similar race was taking pla...
In September, Juan Diego Amador and David Pérez (Spain) made the first ascent of Tetleh Kangri (6,025m altimeter reading; 33°12'45"N, 76°51'20"E), toward the head of the Tetleh Nala, one of the three main offshoots of the Raru Valley. The peak had...
In December 2015, Marissa Bieger and Marcelo Mascareño made the first known ascent of Cerro Cremilda (1,980m), the northern point of a chain of rocky spires northwest of Monte San Lorenzo. They approached via old horse trails, following the river ...
British climbers Ruth Bevan, John Crook, John McCune, Will Sim, and Paul Swall spent several weeks in the Avellano Towers, north of Lago General Carrera, in early 2018. The climbers made several first ascents, notably the east face of South Avella...
The North Patagonian Icefield has enormous potential for exploration and mountaineering. The area can be divided in three zones: The northern section is mostly within the basin of the San Rafael Glacier and is dominated by Monte San Valentin (4,03...
At 2:40 p.m. on May 26, Alpine Ascents International (AAI) guide Stuart Robertson reported that a climber on an independent team had fallen into a crevasse while traveling unroped at 8,300 feet on Denali’s West Buttress Route. Robertson and fellow...
I WOULD BE VERY HAPPY if every reader of this book would make a simple three-step pledge. Doing so might save a few lives. A few of your own lives.This year’s edition reports a worrying leap in the number of accidents while lowering or preparing t...
In May, Americans Chris Figenshau, Jim Morrison, and Hilaree O’Neill climbed a variation start to the 1991 New Zealand route up the west face couloir on Papsura (6,461m) and then skied back down it, completing the first ski descent of the mountain...