Just after sunrise on August 8, Phoenix firefighter Gary Johnstone, 50, and three teenage boys set up a short rappel (about 40 feet) at an outcrop known as the "Sugar Cube" that is frequently used for rappelling practice. Their anchor was a single...
The Nose of El Capitan began capturing people’s attention well before the first ascent in 1958. Long, aesthetic, and immediately visible upon entering the Valley, it has all the makings of a classic line. At 5.9 C2, the Nose is considered to be th...
After their partial new route on the south face of Illimani, Marco Farina and Marco Majori returned to La Paz with plenty of time left before their flight home. In discussions with Aldo Riveros, a local mountain guide, the three hatched a plan to ...
The south face of Illimani (6,439m) showing the two partial new routes climbed in 2015. (1) Por la Vida (2015). (2) Hubert Ducroz (1988). (3) Original Laba-Thackray Route (1974). (4) Directa Italiana (2015). Many other route...
Manu Chance and I left France with the explicit aim of climbing the south face of Illimani (6,438m). We acclimatized with new routes in the Quimsa Cruz, and then, thanks to the Bolivian mountain guide Aldo Riveros, managed to reach the aband...
Manu Chance and I arrived in La Paz on May 12 and began our acclimatization for an ascent of the south face of Illimani by sport climbing at Las Penas, where there are 100m routes from 6a to 6c at an altitude of 4,300m. We then climbed Huayna Poto...
Situated between K6 and K7, the unclimbed Link Sar (7,041m) derives it name from being the “linking” peak between these two giants. Compared to neighboring peaks, it has seen very little attention, mainly because it is hard to see in its entir...
1 - Don’t Let the Walls Cave in on You (2015). 2 - Recuperated Abandonment (2014). With José Callisaya, a mountain guide from La Paz, I made a new route on the very broad southwest face of Charquini (5,392m). Don’t Let...
Loch Vale is a popular north-facing ice climbing area at about 10,000 feet in elevation. At approximately 3 p.m. on December 21, two climbers began to free solo Mo’ Flo’ Than Go, a short WI2/3 route. They told a group of four climbers who were gat...
Our team of six—Emily Harrington, Mark Jenkins, Renan Ozturk, Cory Richards, and I, along with base camp manager Taylor Rees, headed to the far northern reaches of Myanmar in the fall to attempt the west ridge of Hkakabo Razi, in the eastern tai...
On a mid-September evening, Person 1, age 29, with many years of climbing experience, led the limestone sport climb Pleasant Dreams (5.9+) on Son Tower at the Pit. When the leader reached the top of the climb, the belayer (Person 2, age 30, with s...
On June 6, I was climbing a route near Scary Llamas (a.k.a. Hissing Llamas, a 5.8 sport climb) on the Phoenix Buttress with my wife, Claire, and our friend Mary. My wife and I witnessed a climber fall on Scary Llamas. The climber (age approximatel...
Roger Schäli and Simon Gietl climbed a new route on La Esfinge (5,325m) in the Paron Valley in early July. Chappie (600m, 7b+) is situated on the upper right (shorter) side of the southeast face, between the routes Intuition (AAJ 2001) and Dion’...
After a 20-hour trip in a pickup truck with nine people and three dogs, we made it into Basaseachic very late and rested. The next day, Tiny Almada, José Vega, Oscar Cisneros (our base camp support), and I (all from Mexico) reached Valentin Grijal...
Alexander "Sasha" Ruchkin, along with his climbing partner, Vyacheslav Ivanov, died while attempting a new route on the south face of Huandoy Sur (6,160m) in Peru. The estimated date of the tragedy was August 27, 2015. As reported by the rescuers...
Sarah Hart walks across the Trident Glacier shortly before the author's crevasse fall. Base camp is visible on the right. Sarah Hart, 35, and I, 32, intended to climb the east ridge of 13,832-foot Mt. Hayes, the ...
In April, Hassan Gerami, Farshad Mijoji, and I opened a new route up the stunning right (northeast) arête of Karambony Tower. We mainly aided at first, using hooks and bolts to make progress up the wall, then did our best to climb the route free. ...
After five days of travel from Ecuador, Felipe Guarderas, Nicolas Navaraette, and I reached Antananarivo, Madagascar. We were exhausted and could hardly complete our grocery shopping for the next month of climbing in this exotic place. After sever...
After having climbed some of the classics in the Tsaranoro Valley with Argyro Papathanasiou (Greece) in July, I was joined by Siebe Vanhee (Belgium) in August. He had spotted a major unclimbed line on Tsaranoro Atsimo. The route is located right o...
In mid-September—after I climbed in Tsaranoro Valley in July and August—a local Tsaranoro climber from Madagascar named Rakotomalala Herynony Samuel (a.k.a. Henry) raved to me about an unclimbed wall a few hours away, in the little village of Ambo...