The 2023 Teton climbing season saw several incidents involving rockfall and climbers taking shortcuts. One incident occurred on July 30, involving a 26-year-old female climber descending the Southwest Couloir on the Middle Teton (12,809 feet). Th...
At 10 a.m. on July 30, the NPS was notified of a 23-year-old female climber who had sustained injuries the day before during a fall, while roped, on the Valhalla Traverse on the west side of the Grand Teton. The climbing party of two was able to s...
On July 20, the NPS received a cell phone call reporting that a 41-year-old male climber had fallen and was unresponsive. The injured climber had been leading the Owen Chimney feature (5.5) on the Grand Teton (13,770 feet) and had fallen ten minut...
On July 14 at 3:45 p.m., NPS personnel received a cell phone call from two young climbers stuck on Teewinot (12,330 feet). The male climbers, aged 19 and 20 years, reported that they were on a snowfield north of the Idol and Worshipper rock format...
At 5 a.m. on June 13, NPS personnel received an emergency notification from a climbing party descending the Koven Route (3,000 feet, 5.4) on Mt. Owen (12,933 feet). A 57-year-old male climber was showing signs of high altitude illness (HAI) and ex...
In this highly unusual accident, the carabiner on the rope-bearing end of an alpine quickdraw appears to have acted like a belay device configured in guide mode. The load-bearing/climber strand (on top) trapped the belay strand (on bottom, under...
The Tooth is one of the most popular summits in the Cascades and was the scene of a fatal solo fall in August 2023. The climber was probably traversing northwest toward the Fang (sunlit spire on the right) when she fell. Photo: Climbing partner ...
On June 7, Jessi (30) and Tyler (33) were on their way to five days of rock climbing in the Enchantment Lakes area. First, they had to cross Aasgard (a.k.a. Colchuck) Pass (7,841 feet). Jessi wrote to ANAC: It was early season and there would st...
The Northeast Couloir of Colchuck Peak rises through the center of the face. Four climbers were carried to the bottom of the couloir in an avalanche triggered when they were in the vicinity of the yellow circle in February 2023. Three perished. ...
Alden Pellett mistakenly attached his rappel device to the extra-long tail in his figure 8 knot (re-creation in the photo). The result was a 100-foot sliding fall. Photo: Pete Takeda On September 8, Alden Pellett (61) was bolting a new route ...
Photo-topo of Todo lo que se comparte (5.11 A0). Photo: Flavie Cardinal.Photo-topo of Todo lo que se comparte (5.11 A0). Photo: Flavie Cardinal.Photo-topo of Todo lo que se comparte (5.11 A0). Photo: Flavie Cardinal.Flavie CardinalMy interest in A...
After a reconnaissance in February 2023, Diego Diaz Aguilera (Chile), Angelo Contessi (Italy), and I returned to Cochamó in 2024 to begin a project in the heart of the valley. Our plan was to establish a new route up the northwest face of Cerro Tr...
The line of Odissea on the south face of Cerro Tronco. Photo: Gonzalo Robert. In October, Chileans Cristóbal Cament, Nicolás Gutiérrez, and Alexis Rojas climbed the huge, steep south face of Cerro Tronco (5,567m, -33.1796, -70.0652). The peak...
Photo-topo of the south ridge route on Cerro Mono Negro. Photo: Álvaro Zerené. In March 2020, Nicole Siña, Paolo Alarcón, Sergio Aspe, and I, all with the Club Andino Leones de Montaña, made the first ascent of Cerro Mono Negro (4,826m, -32.9...
In March 2024, Federico Caballero, representing the Club Andino Universitario, and I (from the Club Andino Leones de Montaña) opened a new route up the east ridge of Cerro De la Iglesia (4,297m, -32.80097, -70.09844), on the border between Chile a...
Until now, Colombia’s highest mountain was thought to be Pico Cristóbal Colón, surveyed in 1939 at 5,775m. A neighboring peak, Pico Simón Bolívar, 650m to the west, was surveyed at 5,773m and was considered the second-tallest peak in the country. ...
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is considered the Heart of the World in indigenous cosmogony and is among the highest coastal ranges in the world. The general line of AYU on the south face of Pico Simón Bolívar. Photo: Ricardo Rubio. On Dec...
Approaching the northeast face of Pico Cristóbal Colón. The new route climbed in 2023 ascended the most prominent couloir in the face to the right of the climbers, then continued up the easier northwest face to the summit. Photo: Alex Torres. ...
Looking back to Mt. Strachan from the final skin up Mt. Dechen on day three of the Hooker Range traverse. Photo by Anna Keeling. Ruari Macfarlane is visionary when it comes to unclimbed and unskied lines in New Zealand. Our idea for a ski tr...
Sam Smoothy peers down Aoraki/Mt. Cook’s north face during one of 2024’s big ski descents in New Zealand's Southern Alps. Photo by Will Rowntree. Warm, settled weather in the early summer of 2024 led to a steady stream of activity in the rang...