From January 11–26, 2017, Marek Raganowicz (Poland) made the first solo winter ascent of any route on Trollveggen (the Troll Wall) when he reached the top of Suser Gjennom Harryland (18 pitches to east pillar, Norwegian 6 A3, Hagen-Ostbo, 1996). T...
On June 17 and 18, Mišo Bado and I made the first ascent of Corona on the south face of Jastrabia veža in Slovakia. After a pitch of UIAA VIII, climbing through an overhang and a corner, with two bolts, the crux pitch overhangs 4m in its 38m lengt...
Austrian climbers Hansjörg Auer, Alex Blümel, and David Lama attempted one of the great unclimbed prizes of the Nepal Himalaya, the southeast pillar of Annapurna III (7,555m), in early May. They approached base camp by helicopter, and after three ...
A few years ago, Daniel Jeffcoach and I spotted an unnamed and apparently unclimbed formation above North Dome. The approach starts from the Road’s End parking lot, and to our surprise it took no longer than three to four hours to reach the base. ...
In June, Brian Prince, Alaina Robertson, and I set up a camp below the northeast face of the Gambler’s Special and Dark Tower to celebrate Alaina’s birthday with some exploratory climbing. The Dark Tower is a subsummit of the Cleaver (13,382’), an...
During what was likely a record-breaking summer for park visitation, three-hour traffic jams edged slowly in a counterclockwise loop around the Valley floor while El Capitan’s mostly empty walls flickered through the exhaust and idle air of 102° J...
On November 21, Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic completed the second free ascent of the Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d), the 32-pitch El Capitan route generally regarded as the world’s hardest big-wall free climb. The route on El Cap’s southeast face, fre...
Deep in Tenaya Canyon is a slabby dome hidden by Mt. Watkins to the west and Yasoo Dome to the east. In late September, with no knowledge of any previously established climbs on the formation or the best way to approach, Mark Westman and I hiked t...
The majority of new-route activity in New Zealand during 2016 occurred during the summer period, with a number of new alpine rock climbs. Starting in the Darran Mountains, in January, Conor Smith and I climbed the northeast face of Pyramid Peak (2...
The 9th Grade: 150 Years of Free Climbing, by David Chambre (Mountaineers Books, $50). A large-format, comprehensive history of free climbing; Eurocentric with terrific color photographs.My Old Man and the Mountain, A Memoir, by Leif Whittaker (Mo...
On April 29, Nik Mirhashemi and Mark Pugliese established a 1,500’ alternate start to the French (Northwest) Ridge of Huntington. Their line begins near the start of the 1984 route Polarchrome and climbs straight up to the ridge, reaching it below...
Readers may be interested to know about Chunkurchak, a sport climbing area close to Bishkek, with both single- and multi-pitch routes, possibly useful for a couple of days at the beginning or end of a Kyrgyzstan expedition. Directions to these gra...
Before joining the estimated 1,000 climbers at base camp for Pik Lenin in August, we went by jeep to the next main valley west, the Mindzhar, where there were no mountaineers. At the head of this valley, the Mindzhar Glacier rises west to Mindzhar...
We spend the night half-sitting, half-standing, one butt cheek each, hanging from the anchor. We are freezing and our bivy sack keeps sliding down our bodies; it’s impossible to zip it completely, and snow keeps blowing in through a hole at the to...
On April 3, Craig Pope, my wife Priti Wright, and I climbed a new ice route on the north face of Dragontail Peak, a direct line up the north buttress that we dubbed Iceline Bling (250m, WI5 M4). This is an alternate start to the classic Triple Cou...
On September 9, I made a free ascent of King Kong (IV 5.11+), a line on the west face of Mt. Stuart that I had completed the week before, after five years of attempts. This linkup climbs the first four pitches of Gorillas in the Mist before moving...
In late 2015, Matt Leslie, Jeremy Luscher, Alan Semrau, and I finished a three-year project on the Illusion Wall, in the Squire Creek area of Darrington. Darrington is home to some of the best multi-pitch routes in Washington, but the 2,000’–3,000...
On January 28, 2017, Tim Bemrich, Jacob Oram, and I made the first ascent of a feature long known as the Pencil, a steep, very narrow ice line on the north face of Mt. Hood, between the North Face Gully routes and the Eliot Headwall.We approached ...
Up to now there was not a single established alpine route on Uløya Island, only three icefalls that friends had climbed a year before. The faces rise to a maximum of 550m, and we decided to go for the biggest prize, the central pillar of the east ...
In early May, Timmy ONeill and I climbed a new route on the South Face of Pontok 3 in the Spitzkoppe Range. This huge, clean granite slab is wonderfully featured, but with essentially no cracks for gear, bolts are the only option. Placing bolts on...