Washington, Mt. Erie. On April 8 a group including Robert Wiley was descending the mountain. The group of five lost the trail, and they were descending a rocky gully with some brush. They were close together. A rock was dislodged and the warning c...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE BELAY, POOR COMMUNICATIONCalifornia, Yosemite Valley, Lower Yosemite FallsOn June 24, Raj Dhingra (39), my brother Hugh (34), and I—Dan Sakols (37)— decided to tackle Commitment (three pitches, 5.9), one of the “Five Open ...
Higher Cathedral Rock, East Face. In June, Chris Fredericks and Jim Bridwell made the first ascent of the east face of Higher Cathedral Rock, which they rated at NCCS VI, A4, F9.
AVALANCHE—BACKCOUNTRY SNOWBOARDING, POOR POSITIONAlaska, Mount St. EliasOn April 7, John Griber was carefully working his way down a 45-degree ice face on Mount St. Elias. He turned at the sound of a “swish” above. Forty to 50 feet away, he saw co...
Annapurna IV Attempt, 1979. We were Jaume Serrat, Kim Prunes and I, Catalans, Felipe Uriarte and Martín Zabaleta, Basques, Carlos Buhler, American, and others. We began our approach march from Dumre on the Kathmandu-Pokhara road on October 3, 1979...
Central Tower of Paine, Macaroni-Porridge Junction. Our team was composed of three members: Filip Šilhan, Marek Holecek and David Štastný. We left for Patagonia on January 26 with the aim of climbing one of the routes on the 1200-meter east face o...
Wapama Rock, South Face, Hetch Hetchy Valley. Hetch Hetchy Valley lies a scant 15 air miles from Yosemite Valley, still within the confines of the park, but until April, Hetch Hetchy had never heard the blow of a piton hammer. Both climbers and hi...
McKinley, South Buttress Alternate. Our route may be a valuable alternative for attaining the crest of the South Buttress from the Kahiltna east fork. Our choice was based upon a desire to avoid the objective avalanche hazards to be found on the J...
RAPPEL ERROR, NO BACKUP, NO HARD HATAlberta, Kananaskis Country, Barrier Mountain, Barrier BluffsOn April 30, a climber fell 15 to 20 metres to the ground while rappelling off a 5.8 sport climb, at Barrier Bluffs, “One Way to Wangland.” The 30- ye...
Annapurna IV, Northwest Route, 1978. We were Chun Byung-koo, leader, Yoo Dong-ok, Byun Myu-keun, Lee Myung-ho, Chun Doo-sung and I, deputy leader. We left Begnas village on March 14, 1978 with 73 porters. During a heavy snowstorm at Chame village ...
Alpenbock Climbing Club. Owing to a general lack of snow in the Wasatch Range, some climbing was possible throughout the winter. A route on the "Tension Trap” in Little Cottonwood Canyon required the month of March to find. Fixed ropes were left o...
Dhaulagiri II Attempt. French climbers led by François Imbert attempted Dhaulagiri II by a new route, the south ridge. They established four high camps. They reached 22,300 feet on October 19 but gave up because of too much snow which threatened a...
Manson Icefield, ascents and exploration. From the village of Grise Fjord we made a month-long unsupported ski tour and exploratory mountaineering trip from April 28 to May 24. Our group consisted of Marek Vokac and Lars Tore Ludvigsen from Norway...
Toilsome Peak, first ascent; Worrisome Peak, northwest ridge. Ross Noffsinger, David Stchyrba, and I helicoptered with Pollux Aviation to a 5,500' saddle on the ridge northwest of Troublesome Glacier, in the western Chugach, on June 26. We scrambl...
Indian Peak Descents: Ski Mountaineering and Snowboarding in Colorado’s Indian Peaks. Ron Haddad and Eileen Faughey. Sigma Books, Boulder, Colorado, 1996. Paper, 13 topos and 90 photos. 147 pages. $15.95.Comment: Describes 56 spring and summer ski...
Iowa Mountaineers. The club was unusually active in 1965. Fourteen week-end climbing outings were sponsored to the Mississippi Palisades in Illinois and to Devils Lake in Wisconsin. The annual banquet attracted 130 members from five states to hear...
Mount Cook, Caroline Face. The “last great problem” of New Zealand, the 7000-foot Caroline Face of Mount Cook was finally climbed in November by Peter Clough and John Glasgow. Details appear in Mountain of May 1970 and January 1971.
Shishapangma. It was reported that Goran Kropp (Sweden) led a 12-member expedition to Shishapangma on which Renata Chlumksa became the first Swedish woman to climb above 8000 meters and Cyril Destremau managed to make the first snowboard descent f...
Cerro San Francisco, Central Andes. Two local climbers, Mario Alfaro and Iván Vigoroux, and the Frenchman Philippe Grenier made the first ascent of the southeast buttress of Cerro San Francisco (14,698 feet) on February 2. The climb, some 2300 fee...
El Mocho, Aguja del S and Cerro Adela Sur. Giancarlo Grassi, M. Rossi and R. Pe climbed in the Fitz Roy region in November and December of 1986. They climbed the “Todo o Nada” couloir on the southeast face of El Mocho on November 18. The face has ...