On July 15, Juvenal and Sergio Condori left Condoriri base camp at 3 a.m., and after ascending the glacier toward Pequeño Alpamayo, they crossed the watershed between Pico Tarija and Wyoming (a.k.a. Huallomen), descended the far side, and traverse...
Imagine sailing to Yosemite, amid an array of glaciers, with the ocean lapping the base of rocky slopes. Enzo Oddo and I had arrived at Renland aboard Isobelle Autissier’s yacht Ada II, and before our eyes lay more virgin rock faces than we coul...
On September 29, Gregg Beisly and I succeeded on one of the remaining unclimbed gullies on the south face of Pico Triangular (5,600m), topping out more or less at the summit. Our route was left of the 2011 Baker-Beisly line called Baked. We climbe...
In June, as usual, I traveled to Bolivia to team up with New Zealand expat Gregg Beisly, who has been based in the country for the last five years. On June 2 we acclimatized by making the first recorded ascent of Pico 5,540m (Bolivian IGM 5946 III...
Over two months of a Lofoten winter, a couple of friends and I managed to add a few new routes to the Magic Islands’ collection—I think. I say “I think” because the nord-Norwegian alpinist is a tight-lipped creature, and information regarding wh...
Mountain Rescue Aspen was called on a rescue mission on the afternoon of Saturday, August 15, 2010. A climber on the Maroon Bells near Aspen reportedly had fallen and tumbled down the Bell Cord Couloir, separating North and South Maroon Bells. Thi...
In July and August, Vaughan Snowdon and I climbed above the Palgov Valley, where we were fortunate to make the first ascent of Pik 5,602m, one of the highest unclimbed summits of the range. We named it Pik Palgov, since it is the highest of the bo...
After the discovery by two Australians in 2014 of an exciting area of big granite walls north of the Arctic Circle (AAJ 2015), Hansjörg Auer (Austria), Jacopo Larcher (South Tyrol, Italy), Eneko and Iker Pou (Spain), and Siebe Vanhee (Belgium), ac...
Somewhere above us the walls were making their presence felt, unfriendly and brooding in the impenetrable mist. Tantalizing photos of granite formations—the Commander and General—towering over the Siberian tundra had drawn us more than halfway aro...
From July 23 to August 30, Australians Chris Fitzgerald, Natasha Sebire, and I completed several routes on the previously unclimbed rock wall of Finger Crack Cirque, and also made the first ascent of a rock tower. Our expedition almost didn’t ha...
On August 25, my climbing partner and I had decided to try a seemingly simple mountain named Mt. Cory. [The south ridge of Cory is rated an easy/moderate scramble in Alan Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies guidebook.] After much evaluation w...
A party of two decided to climb the 3/3.5 Couloir (so named because it lies between peaks 3 and 3.5 in the Valley of the 10 Peaks), located at the far end of Moraine Lake. It was July 15 and had been a fairly warm and dry summer in the Rockies, so...
On June 6 a climber was struck in the lower right leg by a large falling block while climbing Missionary’s Crack (5.10) . This was roughly in the area where a major rockfall occurred in August 2009. Two Kananaskis Public Safety personnel were heli...
On the morning of March 15, two very experienced climbers set out to attempt a series of climbs in the Ghost River Valley. After starting up the first pitch of Malignant Mushroom (WI5), the lead climber fell while placing his first ice screw. He f...
On February 27 a party of two was climbing the classic multi-pitch ice route up Louise Falls (WI4/5). They had climbed the crux pillar and were on the easier last pitch. The less experienced climber attempted to lead this pitch but found it was to...
On August 14 two climbers set out from Lake O’Hara to climb the Grassi Ridge on Wiwaxy Peak. Late in the afternoon, light rain began falling, which made the quartzite very slippery and slowed their progress. As they were approaching the final pitc...
On July 28, two experienced climbers planned to ascend the southeast ridge (4th class) of Mt. Sifton from their Hermit Meadows camp. The weather conditions were perfect and the climb proceeded as planned. The pair topped out on Sifton’s east ridge...
On August 30, a 31-year-old man was rappelling his third climb of the day (Fortuitous, 5.10d, on the Fortress) when he fell about 20 meters to the ground and sustained massive trauma. Three local climbers, two of whom were nurses, immediately atte...
On June 6, at 11 a.m., the Parks Canada Visitor Safety team in Haines Junction received a call regarding a male climber in medical distress and requesting evacuation. The initial call came in via the Delorme InReach coordination center. Fortunatel...
During the early afternoon on September 1, Ben Lee (28) fell while rappelling Burn Crack (5.10c) on the Practice Wall. He was on rappel with an ATC when one of the ropes on the double-rope rappel pulled through the device, causing him to fall 15 t...