On April 20, Andrew Fabian and I skipped work and put up a fourth route on the north face of Colfax Peak. I spotted the potential route in February when I climbed to the col west of Colfax to get a cell phone call out to my wife. I’d been itching ...
At the end of the 2015 winter and into spring, I had a little obsession with Colfax Peak, the prominent subsummit on the western side of Mt. Baker (a.k.a. Kulshan). Ever since simul-soloing the Cosley-Houston with Roger Strong back in 2007, I knew...
I (32 at the time, with 20 years of experience) broke my ankle in a lead fall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison as the moon rose on September 25. I had been a bit cavalier when Jack Cody (age 30) and I rappelled off the south rim at sunrise to c...
Scottish winter climbing continues to go from strength to strength and remains a fascinating blend of the traditional and modern. Bolts are not allowed and protection needs to be placed on the lead. Several years ago this was thought to be a limit...
The following climbs appeared on the “Big List” of notable 2015 ascents in the Alps prepared for the annual Piolets d’Or jury by Lindsay Griffin, with help from Claude Gardien.WESTERN ALPSAilefroide Orientale (3,847m), north face. On October 26, A...
The Honboro Group, with a high point at Honboro Peak (6,459m), lies northwest and west of the Hushe Valley, between the Hushe and Thalle (a.k.a. Yarkhor or Thalay) valleys. In 2011, Simón Elias accompanied Ester Fresnada and Berta Terres, two memb...
On August 28, Sublette County sheriff’s dispatch center received a satellite telephone call from a backpacker in the Cirque of the Towers. The caller had witnessed two climbers fall from the northeast face of Pingora (IV 5.8+). Tip Top Search and ...
In September, Mike Abrahamsson, Harry McGhie, Heather Swift, and I set out from Naryn to climb the north face of Pik Kosmos (5,940m) at the head of the western branch of the Grigoriev Glacier. In fact we set out three times, as we had significant,...
In September, Dominik Bednar, Miroslav Dusek, Tibor Majer, Pavel Mezera, Pavel Simandl, Tomas Vemola, Borek Zelenka, and I from the Czech Republic visited an easily accessible but rarely visited valley (even by Russian trekking groups) in the west...
My mother would probably say that going on a blind date to a foreign country like Kyrgyzstan is a bad idea. However, the signs all pointed toward the potential for a productive partnership with a shared desire for adventure. Ben Erdmann is a 27-ye...
Matjaz Cotar, Anze Jerse, Uros Stanonik, and I landed in Bishkek to find one of our rucksacks had not boarded the plane. After three days of waiting, we were left with no other option than to buy the missing gear and move on. Two days’ driving and...
On January 31, 2016, Russian climbers Max Krivosheev, Igor Loginov, and Alexander Zhigalov reached the summit of Free Korea (4,778m), having spent four days climbing a hard new route up the left side of the north face. The route lies on the steep ...
The relatively unknown Fergana Range is over 320km long with an average altitude of 3,800m. The biggest peaks are at the southeastern end, where there is heavy glaciation below the main watershed and snow peaks between 4,200m and 4,819m (the highe...
Having a spare week at the end of August between expeditions, James Monypenny, Heather Swift, and I made a quick exploratory hit in the mountains close to the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. Two days previously, James and I had driven over the Kyzyl-Art Pas...
In July, He Chuan soloed a new route on the south side of Hua Shan’s South Peak. He spent eight days on the route, which he called Climb Like You Are Dying (580m, 20 pitches, VI 5.10+ R A3). In 2014, He Chuan and Zhu Xiaofei climbed the first rout...
Hua Shan is a collection of steep granite summits in southern Shaanxi Province. It is one of the holy Taoist mountains from the time of the Tang Dynasty; Taoist monks built temples on top of high places to be closer to heaven. Eventually a path wa...
In February, after making the first ascent of Chola II in northwestern Sichuan (see report here), Marcos Costa, Kyle Dempster, and I headed to the Kawagebo Range, following up on a reconnaissance that Marcos and I had made in 2014. This range, als...
My main goal for the 2014-’15 winter was to complete the Great Wall of China Project, a link-up of the three most iconic peaks of the Shuangqiao Valley. This would involve making the first ascent of Queen’s Peak (Nuwang Shan, 5,404m), the second a...
On November 10, after four days of climbing, Marcin Rutkowski, Wojciech Ryczer, and I completed the first ascent of San Lian Southeast (ca 6,250m), one of the three Chu Shan summits to the south of Minya Konka.We arrived in Chengdu in mid-October ...
Garrett Bradley, Marcos Costa, Kyle Dempster, and I headed to the Minya Konka Range for our final mountaineering quest of the winter season: one of the unclimbed peaks to the south of 7,556m Minya Konka. In 2014, Marcos, Garrett, and I had found t...