On June 27, Nadine Lehner and I flew from Talkeetna to the Pika Glacier, prepared to glacier glamp with copious amounts of fresh comestibles. Paul Roderick of TAT dropped us off about a mile down-glacier from the busy flight-seeing landing zone,...
On October 30, Dana Drummond and I walked five miles to South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex to attempt a line I had previously spotted on the northwest side of the mountain. (Formerly known as the Suicide Peaks, North and South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex were officially renam...
I’m not sure why, but I don't like the smell of airports. And yet the smell of duty-free is always synonymous with great adventures to come. So I rejoiced when that familiar scent hit my nose while passing through the Anchorage airport, the gate...
From April 11–21, Fred Caloggero and I climbed off the Cul-de-Sac Glacier in the Kichatna Mountains. Initially we attempted a beautiful line on the west face of Sunrise Spire. We climbed three pitches of thin, narrow ice to gain a snowfield and ...
Ethan Berkeland pausing along the Aquarius Traverse. The snowy peaks in the background, including Xanadu in the center of the frame, lie at the head of the Arrigetch Valley. Photo by Tristan O'Donoghue. In 2022, I was working in the central B...
Away from the crowds, beyond the big trees, and 1.5 miles above the famed Valhalla sits Tamarack Lake, from whose shores myriad rock climbing objectives rise. These include Mt. Stewart (12,205’), whose almost mile-long north-facing behemoth of a w...
Besides being one of the more beautiful places in the Sierra to camp, Tamarack Lake is surrounded by the impressive north face of Mt. Stewart (12,205’) and several striking domes, including the Prism. In 2007, Neal Harder, Chris LaBounty, and Bran...
Josef Maier making the first free ascent of the original second pitch of the East Face route on Castle Rock Spire. Maier freed this pitch during a pause in the rappel descent from the summit after climbing Spaghetti Western. Photo by Brian Prin...
Vitaliy Musiyenko and I both have long lists of formations to explore for new route potential, and the northeast face of Mt. Francis Farquhar’s (12,893’) lower northwest summit, sometimes called the North Fin (ca 12,500’), is a beautiful alpine wa...
After establishing Ikigai (18 pitches, 5.12a) on the Bubbs Creek Wall with my friends Dave Meyer and Marec Serlin in 2020, I returned to the pristine granite of the 2,000’ east face in the spring of 2021. I wanted to check out a golden-brown shiel...
Looking south from the summit of Mt. Clarence King early on the second day of the King Spur Traverse (VI 5.8). In the foreground, crisply silhouetted, is the remainder of the route, first running straight away from the camera over Mt. Cotter and...
Castle Domes, a cluster of granite formations set above a beautiful meadow in the Upper Woods Creek valley, is perhaps best known for the Southeast Arête (1,100’, IV 5.10 PG-13) on Upper Castle Dome, a striking line established by Vitaliy Musiyen...
Langille Peak rises wide and tall over the Middle Fork of the Kings River in the northeastern portion of Kings Canyon National Park. Its broad eastern face, viewed as you come down the hill from Bishop Pass, just begs to be climbed. Just around th...
Less than an hour and a half from the Big Pine Creek South Fork trailhead in the John Muir Wilderness, the Green Gendarme is a prominent 800’ buttress of dark green rock, sitting like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the Middle Palisade Group. ...
In mid-June, Aivaras Sajus and I approached the northeast face of Mt. Jepson (13,390’) via the South Fork of Big Pine Creek in search of an adventure. We chose a line up a triangular pillar on the left side of the face. After a snow slope with a ’...
The east-northeast face of Trapezoid Peak, showing (1) Puff the Magic Dragon (5.12b), (2) Shield of Dreams (5.13b), (3) Harvest Time (5.12c), (4) Rasta Root (5.12b), (5) Man on the Flying Trapezoid (5.12-), (6) Don’t Be a Square (5.10-), and (7)...
In early 2022, a flurry of long new ice and mixed routes were climbed on the Wheeler Crest. An unusually heavy and wet December snowpack, followed by a long warm and dry spell, had transformed this rugged desert mountainside into a winter climber’...
Dmitry Pavlenko and Svetlana Pavlenko climbed a new route up the north face of Pik Svobodnaya Koreya (“Free Korea Peak,” 4,740m) in September. The two fixed some ropes at the start on September 15 and then, carrying a portaledge, climbed six pitch...
On October 17, Chen Chujun, Liu Junfu, and Tong Haijun (China) arrived at a base camp below Mt. Grosvenor and Jiazi, and the next day they went up to 5,000m to acclimatize and scope out the west face of Jiazi, returning to base camp the same day. ...
San’ao Snow Mountain (31°54’44.88”N, 102°51’2.06”E) is around 20km southwest of the town of Luhuazhen and comprises three main summits: Ao Tai Ji (“The Father,” 5,286m), Ao Tai Mei (“The Mother,” 5,257m), and Ao Tai Na (“The Child,” 5,210m). In th...