A friend texted me about the El Cap bird-nesting closures while Nik Berry and I were on the Dihedral Wall, aiding the first four pitches. “Turns out we’re in a closed area,” I said. Nik responded, “Really! I’ll make a peregrine omelet.” Seven hund...
I was being pummeled from every direction. After two days of nonstop travel to Bishkek, my fatigued mind was slow to comprehend what was happening. Then realized it was just my teammates, enthusiastically ambushing me at the airport. The six of us...
Our group consisted of five female mountaineers from the Glasgow University Mountaineering Club: Hannah Gibbs, Carol Goodall, Imelda Neale, Libby Southgate, and me (Emily (Roo) Ward). We planned a lightweight, self-sufficient expedition. Sadly, ou...
The four-man team of Joe Prinold, Virgil Scott, Dominic Southgate, and Samuel Thompson began their expedition to the Jamantau Range, just north of Arpa Valley and west of the At-Bashi, on August 24. After a 12-hour drive from Bishkek, they camped ...
While perusing the 2013 AAJ I stumbled upon a line from Josh Mucci about the first ascent of Bad Moon Rising, “We have…had free climbing in mind while new-routing on Liberty Cap, as the lines are damn near built for classic free climbing.” I reach...
On May 31, Lucho Rivera and I began climbing the southwest face of Liberty Cap, ground-up, and succeeded in making the first free ascent of the formation. Our new route Mahtah (1,100’, 16 pitches, 5.12+/5.13-), named for the Ahwahneechee word for ...
On January 12, 2013, Vern Nelson Jr. and I made the second known ascent and first known free ascent of Goat’s Beard (IV WI5), an approximately 350m ice climb up the center of the Goat Wall in Mazama. The route was pioneered in 1991 by Tom Kimbrell...
In early September, Erik Bonnett and I climbed a mostly independent route on the northwest buttress of Bonanza Peak, reaching its southwest summit (9,320’). This route begins on the prominent buttress a few hundred yards left of the Soviet Route (...
Both the north and south summits of Hozomeen Mountain (8,012’) bear a great mystique, and an ascent from any direction has long daunted mountaineers (see the “Battle for Hozomeen” in Fred Beckey’s Challenge of the North Cascades). In the early 200...
From July 12 to August 10, our team of five British climbers explored Kyrgyzstan’s relatively unknown Fergana Range, summiting four unclimbed peaks. We had planned to visit the Torugart-Too, but after discussions with ITMC (a Kyrgyz logistics comp...
Many new routes have gone up in the mountains of Ala Archa National Park, south of Bishkek, as local climbers and foreign visitors take advantage of easy access to these superb mid-elevation peaks. Much of the activity was centered on the towers o...
In September 2012, Luis Crispínand I decided to explore a peak labeled Cerro Soray (5,428m) on the Peruvian IGN 2344 map, four kilometers west of Soray Pampa, hoping to find a climb similar to that of Vallunaraju in the Cordillera Blanca.On Septem...
I first explored a route on Nevado Salcantay (6,279m GPS, also spelled Salkantay) in May and June 2011. In May I traveled to the west side with a friend, Josee Galipeau, looking for a good route to climb and also exploring an alternative trekking ...
On July 6-8, Edwin Espinoza Sotelo, Luis Crispín, and I climbed the northwest face of Nevado Ausangate by a variation to the Dueber-Nave-Zebrowski [AAJ 1984]. We took two days to approach—first camping at Laguna Azulcocha in the valley formed by t...
Puca Punta (5,740m) is an intimidating, steep pyramid of ice and rock. It stands like a sentinel over Jampa Pass, guarding entrance to the inner Cordillera Vilcanota. With other partners, I had already tried climbing it twice, via a chute on the l...
Peruvian climbers Jorge “Coqui” Gálvez, Dominique Riva Roveda, and Manolo Urquizo made the first ascent of the east face of Nevado Capacsaya (5,044m). They entered the range from the southwest, from Capacsaya, traveling past the Pumahuanca Valley...
Masarau Noda and I (both from Japan) climbed two routes in the Cordillera Huayhuash in June, achieving a first and second ascent.We first acclimatized in the Cordillera Blanca, climbing Pirámide de Garcilaso (5,885m) by the southwest face (Renshaw...
In early August, Mexican climbers Franco Gualdi and Daniel Navarro climbed a possible new route on east face of Vallunaraju (5,686m). They began climbing on August 5, at 2 a.m, from a camp on the moraine between Ocshapalca and Vallunaraju. Gualdi ...
After climbing Karma de Los Cóndores (300m, 5.11+, AAJ 2005) in the Ishinca Valley, Swiss climbers David Hefti, Marcel Probst, Mathias Schick, and Florian Zwahlen, set up their tents at the foot of Nevado Shaqsha (5,703m).After a day of reconnaiss...
Carlos Solé and I met in Huaraz in late May. On our way up to a bivouac at the Ishinca-Ranrapalca col, a possible new route caught my eye on the northwest face of Ishinca (5,529m), leading directly to its summit. I suggested to Carlos we climb i...