CLIMBING ANNAPURNA sounds reasonable, but why all women?” people ask. “Few American women ever get a chance to climb that high, to lead, or even to participate in a major expedition,” Arlene Blum would say. “No American woman has ever climbed to 8...
A Touch Too Much?The first ascent of Changabang ’s north faceby Mick FowlerI squatted uncomfortably over the public toilet hole in the airport customs building. It was the first full day of the trip and already diarrhea was dripping simultaneously...
Nevado Ulta, northwest bowl, attempt. After aborting our plan to climb the southeast face of Jirishanca (6,126m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash, due to storm and illness, Jeremy Frimer (Canada) and I returned to the Cordillera Blanca in July and atte...
Chimbote sits about 100km east of Santiago, near Mt. Polleras and the Tupungato Volcano. Despite many attempts since 1944, it remained unclimbed. It is guarded by a difficult approach, flanked by big mountains and deep valleys. Access is via the...
Mount Fairweather, The First Ten AscentsBradford WashburnMOUNT FAIRWEATHER is one ofAlaska’s most beautiful peaks. Rising to an altitude of 15,300 feet, yet only 16 miles from the beaches of the Gulf of Alaska, it is one of the world’s highest coa...
The Needles, South Face of Wizard. In mid-April, Dave Black, Fred Beckey, and I did a new seven-pitch route on Wizard. Visible from the road, and on the approach from the southeast, is a prominent crack system. We followed the system for five pitc...
Except for myself and Glenn Dunmire, our team of five were alpine neophytes. The group had been hastily put together at the biannual Outdoor Retailers Show in Salt Lake. Four of us—Glenn, Brian Jonas and Fly’n Brian McCray—met at my house in Palm ...
Mount Hunter from the NortheastDonald N. AndersonAs I swung around and around on the jammed rope, I wondered how I had ever managed to get involved in this trip. The narrow chest loop choked me back to reality and I began fumbling with the fasteni...
OSCAR A. COOK 1920-1952It is beyond doubt that a lover of the mountains would wish, if he could, to spend his last days in high alpine surroundings. In July 1952, in spite of the heroic efforts of his companions to carry him down from the 16,000-f...
Kangchenjunga: The Bavarian expedition under Paul Bauer, which last summer attempted to avenge their defeat by the weather two years ago on Kangchenjunga, again conquered almost superhuman difficulties only to find their way barred at 26,000 feet....
Mounts Hubbard and Kennedy and Tragedy on the Weisshorn. After the ascent of Mount McKinley, our Polish expedition changed its activities to the St. Elias Mountains. With the help of a helicopter, we established a new base camp on the Cathedral Gl...
Yukon Territory, Mt. St. Elias. The accident happened on the 37th day of the expedition, when the party consisted of Stan Adamson (28), Lucille Adamson (28), Susan Deery (24), John Hall (27), and Toby Wheeler (22). On 5 July the expedition was lan...
Ross Lake Cirques Area. Brian Underhill and I spent two weeks in early August in this area, which offers the northernmost climbing in the Wind River Range, being several miles north of even Downs Peak. As inaccessible as any part of the range, the...
AVALANCHE, FALL ON SNOW – SKI MOUNTAINEERING, IGNORED RECENT AVALANCHE ACTIVITY, MISJUDGED SNOWPACK, USING SKI- CUTS TO ESTIMATE STABILITY, TRYING TO STICK TO A SCHEDULEAlaska, Mount McKinley, West Buttress, Rescue GullyOn June 25, a climber (34) ...
1929. East Ridge of the Grand TetonChris JonesRising dramatically from the surrounding plains, Wyoming’s Tetons are a climber’s paradise: beautiful, accessible, good rock, great climbs. The highest peak in the small range, the 13,767- foot Grand T...
Nilgiri Northeast, South Ridge, Ascent. On, April 5, the Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne left for Nepal, returning to the Himalaya after more than five years of polar expeditions. The objective was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Mau...
Pik Chiringyad, west face, second ascent. In a four- day round trip from base camp the five-member Russian team of Alexander Novikov, Maxim Pankov, Nicholay Sinushin, Andrey Satanin, and Michail Volkov (leader) made the second ascent of the 1989 R...
Free, Fast and CleanThe future of Yosemite climbingby Chris MacNamaraOn a brisk fall night on the top of El Capitan, Eric Sloan and I sat huddled around a fire, warming our bones after a day of replacing bolts on the top of the Big Stone. Out of t...
Jaonli Attempt from the South. Although Jaonli (6632 meters, 21,760 feet) has been climbed several times from the Jaonli Bamak on the north, the whole east side above the Khatling Glacier was unvisited. Our Anglo-Irish veterans party, two in our m...
Chimney Rock, North Face. The first ascent of the North Face of Chimney Rock was made by Don Bergman and Ed Cooper in July. This is only the second route, and the possibility of many additional difficult routes exists. Easy scrambling on the north...