In September, Domen Kastelic (Slovenia), Marcus Palm (Sweden), and I traveled to Tibet to attempt two peaks in the Qungmo Kangri group at the western end of Nyanchen Tanglha West. We believed both to be unclimbed. Delayed permits had us first spen...
On September 8, Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima arrived in Lhasa, and three days later reached the village of Kajang by 4WD. When the onward trek to base camp on the north side of Loinbo Kangri (7,095m) was thwarted due to the unavailability of ...
The Sarykol Range forms part of the frontier between Tajikistan and China and is officially off-limits. Virtually everything to the east of the Pamir Highway (the famous road from Osh in Kyrgyzstan to Khorog in Tajikistan), between the border post...
Marc-André Leclerc first pointed out the Chinese Puzzle Wall to me three years ago, as we climbed the Northeast Buttress of Slesse Mountain. Across the Nesakwatch Creek valley, on the south side of the west buttress of South Illusion Peak, was a d...
Tetnuldi (4,853m, 43°01′52″N, 42°59′35″E) is a beautiful, pyramidal mountain of the Central Caucasus. It is located in Upper Svaneti and was first climbed in 1887 by the British mountaineer and explorer Douglas Freshfield and party, via the southw...
On June 25, Paul Bonnell, Vince Ryglis, Kale Semar, and I began the arduous approach to the Leaning Towers in the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, with the goal of finishing a line that Fred Beckey, Carl Dietrich, and Jim Rusch first attempted in l...
On the morning of September 1, we set off to climb the Surgicle, a beautiful yet obscure feature on the Temple Crag buttress. Peter (22) and I (27) were to climb the East Face (II 5.7), while Gabe (27) and my twin brother Brian (27) were going to ...
Chris Larson (unrelated to the incident described here) ascends Bee Sting Corner. Photo by Kyle Stapp On April 17 an inexperienced male climber (age unknown), a member of a three-person team, was rappelling for his first ti...
Inspired by an article in AAJ 2014, Jessica Keil and I traveled to the Nyainbo Yuze range of Qinghai. In late September we flew to Chengdu and were soon en route to the mountains in a hired car. A 10-hour drive brought us to Jiuzhi, the nearest to...
On July 16, I traveled into the Vilcanota Range with my client John Lewis (USA) and assistant guide Luis Crispin (Peru) to climb Ausangate’s normal route. However, we abandoned this plan due to deep snow and instead turned our attention to smaller...
On June 29, Vahi Beltrami (Chile), Yasu Beltrami (Chile), German Silva (Chile) Nathan Heald (Peru), Duncan McDaniel (USA), Aaron Zimmerman (USA), and I traveled to the Cordillera Carabaya. This seldom-visited range, with impressive snow and rock p...
On June 1, Nathan Heald (Peru) and I climbed a new route on the east face (700m, D+) of Nevado Jatunhuma (6,141m, a.k.a. Tres Picos). This is the only known ascent of the east face since a Yugoslavian team visited in 1980 (see AAJ 1981) and climbe...
Bedson Ridge is a beautiful gray and yellow wall of south-facing limestone that stands 1,000’ above the Athabasca River. Although contained within the boundaries of Jasper National Park, the face isn't easily accessed from a convenient highway pul...
Over the course of multiple weekends throughout July and August, a group of friends and I completed nine long new rock routes in the Cracked Ice Arena, a popular backcountry skiing zone near Thompson Pass, in the Chugach Mountains, north of Valdez...
On May 25, a 32-year-old male climber leading Agatha Christie (5.8 trad) fell and pulled out one or more pieces of protection. He fell about 45 feet to the ground, sustaining broken bones and internal injuries. He was short-hauled from the scene a...
In January, Arizona State University student Katelyn Conrad died after falling 125 to 150 feet to the ground while rappelling. Conrad, who had some climbing experience, and two other women were part of a group practicing rappelling techniques. The...
High above the Trans-Canada Highway, in the Rogers Pass area, Mt. Macdonald (2,883m) holds a commanding view. The peak is comprised mostly of quartzite, and just like its neighbors, it boasts long, clean ridgelines of solid (enough) rock for kilom...
At approximately 11:30 a.m. on June 19, Ranger Joseph McBrayer’s patrol at 17,200-foot camp was notified about a tent-bound climber presenting with a decreased level of responsiveness. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the patient...
Over seven days in the middle of July, Chris Williams, Gus Barber, and I climbed three new routes above the Sheep River Glacier, in the Talkeetna Mountains, north of the Matanuska Valley. I had seen some photos from a friend’s ski trip in this are...
Just when we thought that the Hulk had been pretty much tapped out of quality long, independent lines, Peter Croft visually pieced together a wild and improbable series of features that hugged the steep arête dividing Airstream and Positive Vibrat...