In October, Tommy Caldwell and I, along with help from Austin Siadak and Kevin Jorgeson, completed a new free route on El Cap. We followed the old Leo Houlding route Passage to Freedom (see AAJ 2000) up to El Cap Tower, and then pioneered an inter...
Jewell Lund (left) and Chantel Astorga below the Denali Diamond. In June 2015, Chantel Astorga and Jewell Lund completed the Denali Diamond, one of the testpiece routes up North America’s highest peak. When I learned of their five-day ascent...
On October 8 at about 4 p.m., USAF Tech. Sgt. Peter Kraines (33) and four others were climbing at the Black Cliffs area near Boise. All five were experienced Air Force climbers on orders to conduct climbing training. The five had been climbing sin...
In the late afternoon of June 22, ranger Stephen King received word that a climber had fallen at Parking Lot Rock. Witnesses and responders said that a 27-year-old female climber was descending from Delay of Game (5.8) when she rappelled off the e...
On July 21, Dan and Carolyn Morgan were climbing with a group of friends on the southwest face of Castle Rock. The pair were experienced climbers, she with 20 years and he with more than six years of experience. The two were staging an informal cl...
On May 27 at approximately 12:30 p.m., a man in his late 20s was rappelling down Bacon Is a Food Group (5.10 sport) and cleaning the draws when he lost his footing and swung over the side of an arête. He swung about 20 feet before slamming head fi...
While being struck by lightning is unlikely for a large portion of the population, it is more of a possibility for climbers due to the locations where we recreate, including ridges, mountaintops, and rock faces. In North America, mountain ranges a...
June 30 was a normal busy summer Sunday at Devils Head. We started the day on the west side of Chicken Head Ranch to avoid the hot June sun. Toward midday, we moved to the east side, and as usual in the summer, it started to cloud up. We climbed W...
In September, while working on the moves of Ddong Chim! (5.11b), a woman fell partway up this overhanging sport climb. The route begins directly behind a tall conifer, and the woman crashed into a stubby dead branch that points toward the cliff li...
In the afternoon of November 9, the Alpine Rescue Team responded to the report of a 22-year-old male climber who had fallen at the Creekside climbing area. The climber was on the last pitch of Black Gold (5 pitches, 5.7+), approximately 300 feet o...
On July 27 at 2:18 p.m., the Alpine Rescue Team responded to the report of a fallen climber (male, early 20s) at Sushi Slab. The climber was discovered with a lower leg injury and unable to walk. Due to the location of the crag (several hundred fe...
In early summer, during the annual runoff from mountain snowmelt, a climber crossed swollen Clear Creek on a semi-permanent Tyrolean traverse; he was returning to the roadside East Colfax area after climbing on the opposite side of the river. The ...
On June 6 at 12:56 p.m., the Alpine Rescue Team responded to the report of an 18-year-old female climber who had fallen at the Other Critters area. Initial reports indicated the climber had fallen a significant distance and was unresponsive. While...
My partner and I (age 23) decided to climb Rewritten (5.7) in Eldorado Canyon State Park on Saturday, December 7. We started later in the day, arriving at the park around 10 a.m., because the morning was cold. The park was relatively empty, but th...
On September 9 at about 9 a.m., my friend Austin and I set out to climb Werk Supp on the north face of the Bastille. I led the first pitch (5.8+), placing protection only where I felt that I needed it. The pitch ends by pulling over a slight bulge...
On May 17, at approximately 7 p.m., two experienced climbers set out to climb Swanson Arête, a long 5.5, after doing several difficult single-pitch routes on Redgarden Wall. The plan was to simul-climb the route and descend the East Slabs of Redga...
On July 7, at approximately 2 p.m., my fiancé John Luebbers (34) and I (32) were attempting a tight dihedral called We Don’t Do Crack, a single-pitch 5.8 with a tricky start. I had placed one piece (number 0.5 C4 Camalot) about six to eight feet o...
In midmorning on August 24, a 50-year-old male climber fell approximately 120 feet from the top of Bell Buttress, causing fatal injuries. The man and his climbing partner had just completed the second pitch of Cosmosis (5.10a) and were searching f...
Fish and Whistle in Poudre Canyon, with the second and third bolt locations shown. The belay was on the bushy pedestal. Photo by Victor Pinto Mitch, Hunter, and I arrived at the Eden Area, a roadside crag, at around 2 p.m. on May 18. Mitch el...
My husband, Travis, and I were climbing the Culp-Bossier Route (8 pitches, 5.8+) on Hallett Peak on July 7. Five friends of ours were climbing adjacent routes. I’d done Pervertical Sanctuary (5.11a) on the Diamond of Longs Peak two days prior, and...