The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy was the area with the most new routes. The climbs below are described chronologically. During the rainy season, on May 2, Roberto Ariano, Omar Lopez, and Luis Pardo made the first known ascent of Pico Espejo (5,173m), a...
Until this summer I had thought of Madagascar first as the setting for a popular animated film, then as a fascinating island of mysterious pirate tales and strange animals, and only thirdly as a possible destination for a climbing trip. Now, the f...
In May, Javier “Pitxi” Gonzalez (Spain) and I went to Taghia to put up a new line on Jebel Timghazine. On our first day we started up the Akka N’Trafawt canyon with full haul bags, laboring through a few points of aid and fifth-class scrambl...
In January 2015, Barry Watts and I climbed a new route on Molalit Tower in the Gondar Mountains, in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia. French climbers Alain Bruzy and Magali Salle made the first ascent Molalit Tower in 2012 (AAJ 2014). Only t...
When they climbed Yazghil Sar (5,964m) in 2006 (AAJ 2007), Lee Harrison and Peter Thompson (U.K.) believed they were repeating the original route up the peak (AAJ 1988). Later, they learned that the first ascensionists had climbed the northwest fl...
In 2006, Lee Harrison and Peter Thompson made the first ascent of a peak they named Ghorhil Sar (ca 5,800m) on the southern rim of the Lupghar Valley (a.k.a. Lupgar, AAJ 2007). They reached the rim via an east-facing ridge and then headed up to a ...
Murilo Lessa and I visited the Lupghar Mountains in the northwest corner of the Karakoram in July. We approached via the Batura Glacier and made a base camp midway up the Yukshgoz Glacier (Yuksh means ibex; Goz means grass), at a location known to...
Tiny Almada (Mexico) and Cecilia Buil (Spain) completed the second route up Peña Amán, a 400-meter overhanging wall of sandstone and conglomerate in the Hoya de Huesca area, in the southern foothills of the Pyrenees. The first route up the west fa...
Alex Gammeter and I spent April in the Langtang Valley. After traversing Tsergo Ri (5,749m) via an ascent of the southwest face and descent of the north ridge, we made an attempt on Kimshung (6,781m, sometimes referred to as Tsangbu Ri). ...
Gian Luca Cavalli, Pier Luigi Maschietto, Edoardo Polo, and I arrived in Bishkek on July 31, 2015. Giovanni Pagnoncelli joined us at base camp about 10 days later. We flew to Batken, traveled by car to Uzgurush, close to the border with Tajikistan...
Pedra Riscada is a granite dome in the state of Minas Gerais, located in southeast Brazil. In July, Argentine climbers Ignacio Elorza, Horacio Gratton, María José Moisés, and Cintia Percivati established a new route on this wall, just left of Plac...
The climbing potential of the Anti-Atlas Mountains was first explored in 1991 by British climbers Les Brown and Trevor Jones, when the first Gulf War diverted them from a planned climbing trip in Jordan to the ancient market town of Tafraout, on t...
On June 13, near the Hotlum-Wintun Route on the east side of Shasta, a male climber triggered a loose-wet avalanche at about 13,000 feet while glissading. The climber involved had separated from his group at around 3 p.m. and met a group of skiers...
I have been frequenting the desert of southern Utah for over a decade, concentrating mostly on the obscure and wide cracks. Texas Tower had always been on my list, as it is one of the proudest towers in the Southwest, but it was a challenge for ...
I'm a very big fan of solitude. In the Vampire Peaks, there's no hype, no circus of other climbers racing to the base of cliffs. Even the remote Cirque of the Unclimbables, near the Vampire Peaks, sees some 70 people a year, mostly gunning for Lot...
Climbing the south face of Mururata (5,775m) was part of my dream to climb all the high, extreme ice faces in Bolivia via their most attractive routes. On my first attempt, in September 2015, I went with a group of Bolivian guides and friends from...
In June 2015, Guillermo Cuadrado, Gerber Cucurell, Salvador “Muna” Llorens, and I visited the Lofoten Islands with the intention of opening new routes, seeking adventure and unspoiled rock. After two flights and a day by car, we arrived at Moskene...
In late February, Daniel Burson, Chris Guyer, Shawn Gregory, and I visited Senja for a week of mixed climbing. I had been there before, in 2013, with Steve Berwanger and Tanner Callender, and established five new climbs on the island, including tw...
In February 2014, Vincent Perrin, Bas Visscher, and I climbed a possible new line on the southwest side of Grytetippen (890m), near Fjordgård. According to the local mountain guide Bent Vidar Eilertsen, this 600m face had only one line on it, an e...
In September, American climbers Erik Larsen and Ryan Waters twice attempted the elegant south ridge of Peak 6,166m, which lies along the ridge south of Takargo, but were halted by a difficult corniced knife-edge. They then summited the peak on Sep...