Muir Wall—El CapitanYvon ChouinardJust beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many as the most sublime feature of the valley, is seen through the pine groves, standing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most imposi...
The Mountaineering Club of Alaska. The Mountaineering Club of Alaska swelled to over 650 members in 2000. The club offered 34 hiking and climbing trips and over 20 different training courses to its members during the past year. The vast majority o...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING ALONE, FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF ROPE, UNFAMILIAR WITH DEVICE, NO BACK-UP, FATIGUENevada, Red Rock Canyon NCA, Tunnel VisionOn February 4, a male climber had been rope soloing the 5.9 bolted first pitch variation to Tun...
Gangotri, Vasuki Parvat, west face, attempt. Paul Ramsden and I were turned back high on this year’s objective, rarely climbed 6,792m Vasuki Parvat in the Indian Gangotri. Poor weather and cold foiled our attempt on an aesthetic line up a steep mi...
Blackburn and Regal, Wrangell Range. The Doshisha University Expedition was led by Masao Nishihara and was composed of Yasuichi Kitamura, Ryoichi Hasegawa, Tohoru Araki, Yasuo Kawai, Ro Matsumoto, Masao Tanaka and Shinichi Naito. On July 8 they we...
Mongolian Altai, Huiten, first winter ascent. In winter 1998, we skied 400 km through Russia, Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia—making the first winter ascent of Huiten (4,374m), the highest point in Mongolia, on March 3. We called our expedition th...
The Line of LifeChasing dreams on the alpine~style first ascent of Broad Peak's southwest face.Denis UrubkoThe first ascent of Broad Peak (8,047 meters) was accomplished in 1957 by a small Austrian team from the west side, and this became the norm...
Second Ascent, The Story of Hugh Herr. Alison Osius. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1991. 240 pages. Black-and-white photographs. $19.95. I knew Hugh Herr. First, as a teen-age prodigy smoking his way through Shawangunk test-pieces. (He soloed “...
STRANDED, INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT, WEATHER California, Yosemite Valley, El CapitanOn May 16, 1996, the National Park Service rescued Austrian climbers Christian Zenz (22) and Christian Wassertheurer (27) from The Shield on El Capitan, af...
Konka Risumgongba Range. Englishman Brian Smith and I went to this little-known range in April and May. The Konka Risumgongba snow peaks are a small range located at 28°N by 100°E in Sichuan. The center of the range comprises three 6000-meter glac...
Mount Waddington, South Face, Third Ascent. In August 5 Jack Tackle and I completed the third ascent of the south face of Mount Waddington by a 1200-foot variation of the original route. First climbed in 1936 by Fritz Wiessner and William House, t...
P 13,520 and “Bateman’s Tower” (P 12,880—one-half mile east of the Thumb). In June, 1979 our party made two first ascents in the Birch Creek area of the Palisades. Peter von Gaza and Lars Mollor completed a snowy couloir on the north face of P 13,...
In the face of a tough economy, our club was able to achieve its overall goals. With substantial effort, we met our fund-raising targets and exceeded our membership goals. We also moved forward on many fronts.I his year’s Craggin’ Classic was held...
P 9011, “Leopold Dome”, Burt Miller Route, 1981. After hiking six miles around Courtwright Reservoir, climbing a few pitches and sitting out a rainstorm, Alan Swanson and I were nearing the summit of the “unclimbed” P 9011. Upon seeing a hook hole...
Mountaineering Club of Alaska, Inc. The Mountaineering Club of Alaska, Inc. was formed in 1958 and currently has approximately 250 members. Membership is open to the general public. There are no prerequisites for membership.The M.C.A. holds annual...
Mountaineering Photography—Old StyleW. H. JacksonI am an honorary member of three mountain climbing clubs.These memberships were conferred, however, not so much for mountain climbing alone as, I am led to believe, for what was gained by it. Photog...
Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia.Elizabeth and Nicholas Clinch. Foreword by Christian Bonington.London: Sutton Publishing, 2008. 324 pages. $75.00.Never heard of the Littledales? Neither had anyone else. They were appare...
Lhotse, Second Ascent. The Swabian Himalayan Expedition was composed of Joachim Baumüller, Michel Dacher, Hans von Känel, our only Swiss, Max Lutz, Dr. Wolfgang Schaffert, Hannelore Schmatz, Günter Sturm, Peter Vogler, Dr. Hermann Warth, Peter and...
The official definition of a winter ascent in China and Tibet seemed to have been resolved with the January 2005 ascent of Shishapangma by Piotr Morawski and Simone Moro. They were issued a certificate from the CTMA (China Tibet Mountaineering Ass...
Huandoy Traverse. After acclimatization and training climbs on Pisco, Chopicalqui and Yanapaccha, on May 29 we started on our main objective, a traverse of the Huandoy group. We left our Base Camp on the Llanganuco Lakes and bivouacked at the foot...