On Lone Pine Peak, Amy Ness and I completed three new routes, a previously unrecorded route, and also a first free ascent. The first new route was Full Quiver (14 pitches, IV 5.9+ R). This route ascends the Three Arrows formation, which lies...
Amy Ness and I made the first ascent of the Forgotten Ridge (V 5.10 R), which follows a massive spiraling ridgeline on the southeast aspect of Peak 3,986. We climbed the ridge over two straight days, hauling one bag. We fixed no pitons or bo...
The year I was born (1979), Galen Rowell established the first and only line on the mythical Cyclorama Wall (Peak 12,860’). His write-up in the 1980 AAJ, where he called the wall “every bit as impressive as the Diamond on Longs Peak,”inspired me...
An excellent trip to Mt. Chamberlin in 2010 left Chris Brown, Jimmy Haden, Mike Pennings, and I pining for more. So in late July 2011, we reconvened for another trip to the alpine playground surrounding the Crabtree Lakes, this time armed wi...
Each time I awoke during the night, I’d turn my head toward the towering black void outlined by the tail of the Milky Way. My partner, Jan Roestel, and I had just finished a recon on the first pitch of an unclimbed feature in the southernm...
In September, Shaun Reed, Brad Wilson, and I spent two weeks establishing a new route on Tehipite Dome in Kings Canyon National Park. The route, Astro-Gil (1,700’, IV 5.11), ascends the previously unclimbed southeast face up bullet stone...
Jediah Porter and I were only acquaintances when, by complete accident, we crossed paths on the Evolution Traverse in August 2011. We made plans to attempt the Evolution Traverse during the winter of 2012; however, our climb was foiled b...
On September 3, 2012, Dave Nettle, Peter Croft, Greg Epperson, and I completed the first free route on the main wall of Angel Wings, located in Sequoia National Park. Valkyrie (V 5.12) is the product of over a decade of attempts while enduri...
Laurel Knob, a 1,200’ dome in the Cashiers Valley, saw a boom in 2012 with four new routes, all 700–1,000’ in length and 5.11 or harder. Brad Wilson, Mike Fischesser, and Joe Lovenshimer established two routes. The first, Fathom Escape Hatch (...
In summer of 2012, Nathan Brown and partners Jonathan Foster and Tony Spainhour established two new routes on left side of Warbonnet Peak in the Cirque of the Towers. [Brown and Foster established an additional route on the same aspect of Warb...
In good weather, the southwest face of the Grand Teton shines in the last rays of evening light. In bad weather, the fetch that allows this nice light also allows storms to crash into the exposed and overhanging walls. The Tetons’ best rock ...
Matt Hartman and Jake Tipton climbed a possible new route on the north side of this prominent buttress along the approach to the Cirque of the Towers. The two climbed the left side of the north face in five pitches (III 5.11a/b C1), and after a...
Ben Hoiness and Brooks Munyer found a fine four-pitch line on a possibly unclimbed granite buttress above Hairpin Lake in the Hell Roaring Plateau area of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area. Classy Girls (5.11a/b) takes a line of cracks ...
Waterhole #3 was the first route to be put up solo on the Diamond (Walker, 1971). I first attempted to free the route in 2011, going ground-up, onsight. It looked like there were small cracks on the route that would take gear, but I kept climbi...
In the spring of 2010, Will Butler took me to the Black Wall on Mt. Evans to show me the old aid line Undertow (IV 5.10 A4). When we rapped in, I couldn’t believe this gorgeous dihedral system in the middle of the Black Wall had never been...
In 2008, Josh Thompson and Glen Griscom put up the first route on the slightly chossy-looking buttresses just north of the Black Wall, known as the Tan Buttresses. They called their route Noth’n but a Good Time (400’, II 5.11- R). Later that s...
The Camp Bird Road area above Ouray, famous for climbs such as the Ribbon, Bird Brain Boulevard, Talisman, and countless others, has seen a recent burgeoning of bold new mixed climbs. In January 2011, Steve House and Hayden Kennedy establish...
In April 2012, Jonathan Schaffer and partners established two new routes along the North Rim. The first, Cloak Dagger (III 5.10c, Schaffer-Zeilman), takes an independent line right of Comic Relief. Starting on the Comic Relief ledge, the rout...
Jeff Popko and Chris Righter put up a six-pitch route, the Quota (750’, 5.12a), below the Cedar Point lookout. The crux second pitch avoids a loose chimney with bolt-protected face climbing, and then turns a huge roof. From information supp...
In the summer of 2012, Chris Righter and I were lured into establishing a new route on Wild Bill’s Wall, a relatively unexplored and unclimbed part of the canyon. After an initial recon, we decided upon an unclimbed section of rock approxima...