In El Chaltén’s Hostal Del Lago, the wall of the common room is pasted with maps of the vast Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and it is quite normal to observe climbers staring at the wall and daydreaming of windless days on a rime-capped summit, wh...
On Sunday, August 30, a climber fell 40 feet near the top of Double Vee, a popular but tricky-to-protect 5.9 at the Barber Wall on Cathedral Ledge. While he had four pieces of protection in, all but one (a number three Camalot ten feet above the g...
Two climbers chose Whitehorse’s classic Standard Route (5.5) as an introduction to multi-pitch climbing. They set off the morning of August 29 equipped with a traditional rack and a single rope. At around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, the lead climber ...
I first visited the Bugaboos in 2008 with under-the-radar alpine legend Chris Brazeau. Braz, a low-key, wide-smiling local, knew all the tricks to help an alpine climbing neophyte like myself. After driving up the bumpy logging road for about an h...
At 5 a.m. on February 15, Kate Matrosova, 32, of New York City, was dropped off at the Appalachia parking lot by her husband. She planned a one-day winter traverse of the northern Presidential Range, a technically moderate mountaineering objective...
On December 26, three climbers finished the classic three-pitch route Johnny Vegas (5.7) in Red Rock’s Oak Creek Canyon. The three stopped for a brief lunch at about 11 a.m. on the terrace at the top of Johnny Vegas to consider whether they should...
The 1,200-meter east face of Cerro Kishtwar is bathed in morning sun and plastered with ice and snow. As we approach the base, the wall grows and grows. It looks steep. It looks hard. Even though we had all agreed to try an inspiring line throug...
On May 6, two teams (Mike and Keith, Chris and Jeff, all experienced climbers) did the full Dark Shadows (5.8, 10 pitches). Mike and Keith topped out about 5 p.m., with the second party trailing 15 to 30 minutes behind. We called home to report al...
In recent years we have noticed an exciting trend in the AAJ: a steady increase in the number of significant new routes by climbers native to developing countries. For generations, most cutting-edge climbs in developing countries have been complet...
On June 27, experienced mountaineers Jack Beard (60) and David Steele (27) attempted a new route to the Lithoid Cusp, a dramatic spire atop the large east- facing wall between Ipasha Peak and Mt. Merritt. Their route involved much scrambling to re...
During the early afternoon on October 17, some friends and I were climbing at Drive-By Crag. My friends didn’t have much outdoor climbing experience. Over a couple of days, I had been watching Jake belay his partner, and I felt confident that he p...
On July 7, Anna Dvorak, 28, died as a result of injuries from a long leader fall on the third pitch of the Mountaineers Route (III 5.9). Dvorak’s climbing partner had led the first pitch, linking the usual pitch one and most of pitch two into a ...
Suzanne Huffman (40) was climbing with a church group on October 10. While rappelling, she fell 30 feet to the ground and died from her injuries. One of her sons, who witnessed the accident, told reporters, “She was getting ready to go down and th...
On January 30, Mark Miller (50) took a fatal fall while guiding First Gully, a four-pitch WI3 ice climb near Eureka. Miller, a climbing guide from Ouray, and his two clients were nearing the top of the low-angle climb. Miller was free soloing alon...
It was a beautiful morning on Memorial Day weekend. We had the best spot to camp for the Lemon Reservoir crag. One party already had passed our camp, head- ing into the canyon to the routes. Our group was just finishing scarfing down our bacon and...
On October 24, Daniel Fullmer (34, over 15 years of experience) and I (32 years old, 15 years of experience) were climbing Scenic Cruise (V 5.10d). There was a party above us and at least another party within earshot on a nearby route. I was leadi...
On September 3, Dr. Matt Davis (41), a trauma director at Scott & Baylor Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, and his partner, Ryan Brown, attempted Crestone Needle, a 14,203-foot peak, via the Ellingwood Arête (III 5.7). Davis and Brown selec...
On February 7, a female climber with two years of climbing experience executed a slow but clean lead of Left Handed Jew, a 5.7 trad route. I was top-rope belaying a climber 20 feet to the left of their route. During the climb, several observers no...
On August 22 a female climber (age 39) was injured while being lowered from the anchor after top-roping a trad climb. She was in a climbing party of five exploring a granite crag near the Crags Trailhead. Just below the anchor, it was necessary to...
Two experienced climbers, ages 31 and 28, were attempting the Naked Edge (5.11b) in August. The leader of the 5.11a first pitch belayed at a two-bolt anchor and set up to belay the second directly off the anchor with an ATC-Guide device in autoblo...