The Kuilu (Kuylyu) is a seldom-visited range south of the Terskey Ala-Too, with abundant unclimbed 4,000m peaks offering plenty of opportunity for exploratory mountaineering at a reasonable technical difficulty. Bound to the north by the Kuilu Riv...
Sprężyna (“Spring”) was the nickname of Polish climber Maciej Gryczyński—the name given because of his curly hair. In the 1960s he put up now well-known and classic routes on four mountains, and all four routes are called Sprężyna: the northe...
Spectacular scenery on the northwest face of the Cima de Gasperi. Photo by Emanuele Andreozzi Late winter snow that took longer than normal to clear, ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in the first half of the year, and a surprisingly cool summer,...
The first ascent of the west face of Baruntse, by a Russian team in 1995, was reported in the AAJ only with a brief note. This account has been adapted from a longer article published in the 1997 Alpine Journal (U.K.), with permission; the complet...
Previously unreported in the AAJ was a new route up the west face of Ama Dablam (6,812m) climbed solo on November 9, 1993, by François Damilano (France). Damilano had reached the summit via the normal route on November 4 while part of a commerci...
The Kangchung peaks taken in October 2015 with their north faces in profile. Kangchung Nup is nearer the camera. The Czech route on Kangchung Shar and bivouac site are marked. The rappel descent was further to the right on the upper face, and ...
The new Italian line on Tengi Ragi Tau Southeast. The ridge was climbed direct and in its entirely to the summit by two Czechs in 2003. After two years of pandemic, the desire to climb in the Greater Ranges was intense. After the umptee...
The west face of Peak 5,794m points toward the camera. The original Scottish route climbed the right-hand ridge. The vast face behind is part of the west face of Chugimago. Photo by Domen Kastelic In autumn 1996, a small group of friends ...
Members of the Spanish female mountaineering team near Tashi Lapcha Pass. Photo by Marc Subirana The Spanish women’s mountaineering team was operating in the Rolwaling at the same time as the ment's team was in the Dorje Lhakpa region. (See t...
Panbari (6,905m) was first climbed by a Japanese expedition in late September 2006 via the Fukan Glacier and the slightly rounded, snowy north ridge. The lower Fukan had complex icefalls, unstable seracs, and hidden crevasses that took the team mo...
In late November, Jost Kobusch and Nicolas Scheidtweiler (Germany) made the first ascent of Purbung Himal (a.k.a. Putrung, 6,500m HMG-Finn Map, 28°48’4.48”N, 84°1’4.41”E) via a long approach from Thorung Phedi (4,450m), the last stop before the we...
Erik Boomer paddling a waterfall on the river they nicknamed Teacup River. This section of the falls was visible on satellite imagery. Photo by Sarah McNair-Landry In late June, just before the sea ice starts to melt, Sarah McNair-Landry and...
The Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie saw a lot of action during the 2021 season, encouraged by unusual weather and travel limitations due to a province-wide COVID-19 curfew. The holiday season saw some major downpours, which contributed to the...
An overview of routes on the north face of Mt. Temple (3,544m), showing the new line Stringing Up the Lights (1,200m, WI4+ M3+ R) in red. The original Elzinga-Miller (north ridge) is green, the modern Elzinga-Miller is yellow (many people who do...
Whether it was the late effects of the COVID-19 chill or a very smoky summer, 2021 was not the most active year in the Canadian Rockies. Nonetheless, there were some interesting climbs. On March 5, Alik Berg and Ian Welsted climbed a foamy, stick...
Among the skyline of giants around Lake Louise, Mt. Niblock (2,976m) had been hiding from me in plain sight all year, until finally I pulled my car over to take a closer look. Bands of black limestone shrouded the northern aspect of the mountain, ...
The 2021 ski season was really memorable, and I was fortunate to be able to turn my focus to big lines near home. Normally I would have committed to backcountry lodge guiding and ski film projects that take me to faraway locations, but last season...
An arctic outflow in February 2021 saw the Squamish River valley, northwest of town, icing up to produce some wonderful, if fleeting, ice conditions. Sam Eastman, Tim Emmett, and I headed up to kilometer 15 on the Squamish River Forest Service Roa...
During a week in March 2021 in Laponia (the Swedish part of Sápmi or Lapland), Johan Lindfors and I had great ice conditions and were able to put up five routes on Nieras (1,424m), one of the beautiful peaks of Stora Sjöfallet National Park. Wit...
As we packed gear late into the night in Mike Loch’s basement suite in Squamish we each had a moment of, “Wow that’s a lot of cams!” or “This is enough bolts, right?” We didn’t really know anything about what we were getting into except we were go...