Caucasus Ski Traverse. I made two attempts on the ski traverse of the Caucasus. The first attempt was in 1994, in which the party managed the first part of the traverse. On the second attempt the party failed on the first part, but completed the s...
Peaks in the Cordilleras de Potosí and Quimsa Cruz. Few ascents in the Cordillera de Potosí have been reported since 1903. This is a range of unglaciated rock peaks, located east of that famous colonial city. The first mountaineer to visit it was ...
PROBABLE CORNICE COLLAPSE, CLIMBING ALONEWashington, Mount IndexOn March 23, 1982, Alan Van Lue (29) left his vehicle at a KOA campground near Mount Index. On March 27, when he had not returned for it, the campground management notified the sherif...
At 0030 on August 9, 1984, Todd Mazzola (22) and Michael Dougherty (22) reported that they, their climbing partner, Craig Thomas (26) and a separate climbing party, Paul Augustine (40) and Eric Hutchinson (20), were sleeping on Dinner Ledge on the...
Caliban, Xanadu, The Maidens and Shot Tower, Arrigetch Peaks, Brooks Range. In Late June and early July, Bob McGregor, Yan Marrand, Gary Brill and I flew to Circle Lake from Betties and then hiked to an airdrop site near the head of Arrigetch Cree...
Ascents in the Gangotri Region. Many expeditions are now repeating previously ascended climbs in the Gangotri region, particularly in Kedarnath Dome, Bhagirathi II and the Jogin peaks. Possibly the most important ascent for which we lack details i...
Mealy Range Ski Traverse, Southern Labrador. Dartmouth student Dean Engle (recipient of an American Alpine Club Climbing Fellowship grant) organized our team of Dave McIndoe, Joe Catarini and me to conduct the first-known ski traverse of the Mealy...
CORNICE COLLAPSEAlberta, Rocky Mountains, Mount BelangerOn December 11, 1988, Heidi Schaefer (24) and Ken Wallator (21) were climbing Mount Belanger, a 3060 meter peak south of Jasper. About 1300, they had just got off the face, finishing the tech...
RICH DAVIDSON1950-1996Rich Davidson, 46, of Los Alamos, New Mexico, and his tent mate Debbie Marshall, 31, of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, died while climbing Annapurna IV in Nepal on October 4. The two suffocated in their sleep at 18,000 feet when...
Matho Kangri, Stok Area, Ladakh. On July 23 Claude Buhler, Jacques Prillieux, liaison officer C.R. Thakur and I made the first ascent of Matho Kangri (6030 meters, 19,784 feet). We left from Matho village with three donkeys and that same day reach...
Devils Tower. A small party of climbers, some of them members of this club, were prevented from making an attempt on this summit by the National Park Service which administers this odd monolith as a national monument. While we can fully sympathize...
These towers, insignificant from Mendenhall valley and small in comparison to many Alaskan peaks, must be seen from close at hand to be properly appreciated. Not “giant”, but “big” (2000-foot) walls abound here; seven towers with buttresses, rid...
Mount Index, South-North Traverse of the Three Peaks. The traverse of the three peaks of Index was a project that had for some time interested me. This traverse had been done only once before, when in 1951 it had been made from north to south. In ...
Kangchenjunga, First Female Ascent. My husband, Gary Pfisterer, and I led an international expedition to climb the north face of Kangchenjunga (8586m) in the spring. We were a small team of three Americans (Gary, Chris Shaw, Tim Horvath), one Cana...
FALL ON ROCK – HANDHOLD CAME LOOSEAlberta, Kananaskis Country, Mount YamnuskaOn May 23, a climber had a leader fall approximately 140 metres up the route Bottleneck (5.8, seven pitches) on Mount Yamnuska. The leader sustained a broken ankle. The p...
K2 Attempt. Swiss Jean Troillet and I arrived at the traditional K2 Base Camp at 5000 meters on June 16. Erhard Loretan had had to drop out of the team when in February he was swept down by an avalanche on the Mönch and suffered serious back injur...
Fatal Accident on Mount Howson. Major R. C. Gibson, M.C., President of the Alpine Club of Canada, died on August 20 after a fall on Mount Howson, highest peak of the Howson Range, in western British Columbia. In the death of Rex the mountains clai...
Lhotse. A two-man Korean expedition completed the 20th ascent of Lhotse. Leader Heo Young-Ho reached the summit via the west face on October 14.Elizabeth Hawley
Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island. Maurice Dupont-Roc and his wife Andrée, Mme Martine Salembier, Mlle Martine Regnault, Charles Russignaga, Noël Humbert, Bernard Constantin, Patrice Bruner, the Swiss Hans Peter Duttle and I as leader spent 25 d...
In 2007, on a visit with Markus Haid, I managed the first one-day ascent of Arctandria on the north face of Blamannen. I was so impressed that I decided to return in July with Much Mayr. During the first trip my eyes continually strayed left acros...