Lionel Daudet invited me to take part in his Big Seas, Big Walls expedition, and I quickly accepted this incredible opportunity. At the end of June, Lionel and fellow Frenchman Enzo Oddo departed Scotland on Ada 2, skippered by the renowned French...
I have been on 10 expeditions to Greenland since first visiting in 1998. One particular area on the east coast, between Thor’s Land and Tingmiarmiut, has been especially attractive to me, as almost no other climbers have been there. I first travel...
With our two Icelandic mountain guides, Bjorgvin Hilmarsson and Leifur Orn Svavarsson, Mike Brinkworth, James Masters, Dave Minghay, and I established base camp about 33km due north of Tasiilaq on July 21, on the northeast side of the Ikaasatsivaq...
My friend Matthias Konig had mentioned that the characteristic shape of 7,284m Muztagh Tower made it his longtime dream mountain. On July 12, after a five-day trek, we arrived at our base camp (4,400m) on the Baltoro Glacier, just below the tower,...
These climbs were not previously reported in the AAJ. In August 1988, Walter Phipps and I established base camp at Daltanas (3,922m), at the junction of the Hispar and Kunyang glaciers (36.154714°N, 75.123350°E). We had no particular objective, an...
This climb was previously unreported in the AAJ. In July 1989, I walked alone from Hopar village along the east side of the Bualtar Glacier, and then climbed steeply up a side valley. Two days from Hopar, I reached a bivouac at 4,477m (36.162103°N...
In 1895, having attempted the so-called Mummery Rib of Nanga Parbat to 6,100m, the celebrated British alpinist Alfred Mummery, accompanied by two Gurkhas, Gorman Singh and Ragobir Thapa, headed up the Diama Glacier in an attempt to reach the north...
This expedition was not previously reported in the AAJ. In June 1998 my four porters left me alone at Lupdhor, a beautiful spot beside a lake on the north side of the Batura Glacier. My plan was to attempt the first ascent of Beka Brakai Chhok Cen...
On August 22, a 36-year-old female climber and her climbing partner left the Lupine Meadows Trailhead, headed for the south ridge of Nez Perce (III 5.7). The climber’s partner (mid-20s) planned to lead the entire route. The two had met through Mou...
In July 2015, I joined a team of Salt Lake City climbers who were returning to Titcomb Basin with some unfinished business on Fremont Peak. Unlike them, I had no agenda. Luckily for me, my friend Greg Troutman was in the same agenda-free boat, so ...
In mid-August, Scott Kice and I spent a week exploring the extensive walls above Spearpoint Lake in the southern Wind River Range. The formation is identified as Chess Ridge in the Joe Kelsey guidebook. Untold hours of surfing the Web had convince...
After several years of aborted trips, Alex Marine and I climbed a new route on the east face of Cloud Peak (13,166’) in early July. Our route begins about 100’ left of the 1986 route, A Shimmering Abstraction (Ilgner-Petro), the only other climb k...
Cirque of the Moon is the name given to a compact horseshoe of walls and buttresses lying south of the North Fork of the Popo Agie River, between Long Lake and Papoose Lake. (The center of this cirque is at about 42°45'17.93"N, 109° 8'17.68"W.) Th...
In October, Alex Blümel and I trekked to the north side of Kangchenjunga and established base camp at 5,200m, a little higher than the classic Pangpema site. We acclimatized on Drohmo's southeast ridge, spending three nights at 5,900m. I was amaze...
From mid-July to the start of September, Anastasija Davidova and I explored the Rangtik, Shimling, and Denyai tokpos. The first two valleys are northwest of the Haptal, the last northwest of the Mulung.We first spent 20 days in the Rangtik, where ...
In October, the American-Canadian team of Joel Kauffman, Jason Kruk, and Tad McCrea climbed the 1,600m south ridge of Chaukhamba III (6,974m), stopping on the summit ridge just 16m below and some distance from the top. The team spent 12 days away ...
Since 2009 I have been exploring southern Zanskar and photographing many of the unclimbed peaks of the Giabul, Lenak, Reru, Temasa, Gompe, and Haptal valleys. I am pleased to see that many expeditions have been inspired by this information to visi...
In 2014, Sidarta Gallego and I visited Zanskar and climbed a number of new routes (AAJ 2015). I realized the potential of the area, mainly for rock climbs, though there are possibilities for mixed, and returned in July with José Castanera, Alvaro ...
In September, Dmitry Grigoriev, Sergey Nilov, and I climbed a new route on one of the most famous and beautiful mountains in the Indian Himalaya, Thalay Sagar (6,904m). As far as I know, nobody has ever climbed the north face of Thalay Sagar to th...
While probably better known these days to vacationers and trekkers than to climbers, the Kullu region once was popular with mountaineers seeking easy access to its abundant, unclimbed, moderately technical peaks. By the end of the 1970s, predomina...