Sixty Meters to Anywhere. Brendan Leonard. Mountaineers Books, 2016. Paperback, 176 pages, $16.95.Brendan Leonard is a relentless machine. He blogs (semirad.com), designs T-shirts, posters, and memes, and he writes books about outdoor adventures. ...
The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies. Brandon Pullan. Rocky Mountain Books (Canada), 2016. Hardcover, 264 pages, $45.The Bold and Cold is not a guidebook, nor a picture book, but it is essential reading and dre...
Rock Queen. Catherine Destivelle. Hayloft Publishing, 2015. Paperback, 228 pages, £12.Catherine Destivelle’s memoir Rock Queen spins the yarns of her most famous ascents—pioneering a solo new route on the Dru and soloing the north face of the Eige...
The Pen Y Gwryd Hotel: Tales From The Smoke Room. Edited by Rob Goodfellow, Jonathan Copeland, and Peter O’Neill. Gomer Press, Wales (U.K.), 2016. Hardcover, 278 pages, £14.99.Impossible, you say! That the Beatles, George Mallory, Ed Hillary, Tenz...
Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering. Maurice Isserman. Norton, 2016. Hardcover, 426 pages, $28.95.Given climbers’ obsession with meticulously chronicling ascents from 8,000 to 8 meters, it is odd to see how little actual histo...
Above the Reich. David Chaundy-Smart. Imaginary Mountain Surveyors, 2016. Paperback, 231 pages, $19.95.“The Nazis said war was the same as mountaineering. They lied.” Thus speaks Lukas Eichel, orphan turned reluctant German soldier in World War II...
A Place in Which to Search: Summers in the Wind Rivers. Joe Kelsey. Black Canyon Books, 2016. Paperback, 269 pages, $18.In August 1969, Joe Kelsey set out alone to hike eight dusty miles into the mountains from Big Sandy Opening. In this inaugural...
Valley Walls: A Memoir of Climbing and Living in Yosemite. Glen Denny. Yosemite Conservancy, 2016. Paperback, 240 pages, $18.95.Every once in a while, a book poetically depicting the core essence of the climbing experience comes along—books carryi...
In November, Tsuyoshi Nagai and AAC Honorary Member Tamotsu Nakamura (Japan) traveled to southern Tibet to identify peaks along the Yalung Tsangpo River. This region is sensitive and currently strictly restricted, due to its proximity to the India...
“Misha, p-l-e-a-s-e, l-i-s-t-e-n, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y,” I said, holding up the frayed static line to which we were tied. “I don’t want to climb any higher. If you won’t go down with me, I will untie and solo to the bottom.” Misha extended his lower ...
From April 29 to May 1, Teresa Au (my wife) and I climbed a new route on the northeast face of Mt. Barrill (7,650’, a.k.a. Barille or Barrille). This was our first trip to Alaska, and we flew to the Mountain House airstrip in mid-April, planning t...
In the summer of 2015, I learned that a man claimed to have completed the West Buttress Route on Denali three years before the well-known 1951 first ascent by Bradford Washburn and team. Bob Jones, a maverick cement truck driver—apparently 95 year...
Sometimes alpine climbing is all about the adventure, sometimes it is all about the sport, and usually it is partly about both. Adventure is not superior to sport, and sport is not superior to adventure, they’re simply different. In 2016, a place ...
At roughly 10,000’, the Lost Twin Lakes of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains sit right at timberline. Above the upper lake loom two 1,000’ walls: The western Spider Web Wall is closer to the upper Lost Twin Lake, while the Thundercloud Wall sits back a ...
In mid-September, Oliver Deshler and I returned to the Clear Creek drainage in the northern Winds to attempt the south face of Forlorn Pinnacle (11,660’), which is actually a rooster comb of separate spires at the south end of Osborn Mountain. (De...
In March, Walt Hutton, Courtney Purcell, and I did the first ascent of Peak 6,020’, a few miles due east of Checkerboard Mesa, just outside the Zion National Park boundary. We call it the Little Bishop due to its resemblance to the Bishopric, anot...
In March, Matt Mower and I made the first complete ascent of Meridian Tower to its true summit. Meridian Tower (7,332’), visible from downtown Springdale, is a large, flat-topped peak that is part of the Towers of the Virgin, just southwest of the...
Over six days in July, during a cool spell of 90°F, I made the first known ascent of Gregory Butte (ca 7,700’), in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. I had previously attempted to climb the butte via a new aid line on the southwest s...
A climber on Foxtrot in Eldorado Canyon. Photo by Adam Brink March 5 was a beautiful, sunny day in Eldo and I decided that after a good warmup I would put in a few burns on my project: Foxtrot (5.11d PG-13). I had top-...
From November 28 to December 9, Karl Kvashay and I established the first route up the prominent south face of Notch Peak (9,654’), a limestone mountain much better known for its huge north wall. This was our second go at the line after a strong bu...