The year 1952 unfortunately was one of the worst on record in the United States. The total number of reported accidents attributable to mountaineering in a broad sense was the greatest—35 total, the number of fatalities was exceeded only by those ...
LOOSE ROCKS (SEDIMENTARY) CAME OFF, FALL ON ROCKArizona, Mount Lemmon, Chimney RockOn April 151 (Tom Thrall, 58) was on the fourth day of a week-long climbing trip with my friend WG (69) on Mount Lemmon near Tucson. It was very windy that day, so ...
1953. K2 ExpeditionJim WickwireHillary and Tenzing's climb to the top of Everest earlier in 1953 provided the world with electrifying news. But the events on K2 that year were the stuff of legends, growing even more striking with the passage of ti...
Broad Peak. The Austrians climbed their fourth of the fourteen "8000ers” last summer, reaching the summit of Broad Peak (26,400 feet), the world’s twelfth highest peak, where they used neither high altitude porters nor oxygen. Indeed, although the...
This is the forty-sixth issue of Accidents in North American Mountaineering and the fifteenth that has been done jointly by the American Alpine Club and The Alpine Club of Canada.Canada: Again, happily, we have fewer mountaineering accidents to re...
The Touchstone WallRon OlevskyoNE CLEAR cool day in 1975 Bob Den-berg and I were climbing in Eldorado. Bob cruised up to the base of the Rover Dihedral and set up a belay in a hole where I passed him to enjoy the pleasures of the comer above. At t...
Everest, First Complete Ski Descent. In the post-monsoon, Slovenian Davo Karnicar was the first person ever to descend by skis from the very top of Mount Everest to base camp; he accomplished this feat on the Nepalese side of the mountain without ...
By H. Adams Carter, Philippa Buchanan, Benjamin Morales Arnao, Eustaquio Henostroza, Glicerio Henostroza, Lucio Bustamante Valverde, John Ricker, I. Drummond Rennie In THIS ARTICLE we have pieced together observations of various people. First com...
The Oxus River has washed geological and geopolitical dust through time and space into the great Central Asian deserts. Reversing its course, we followed the river (now named the Amu Darya [or Darja] but referred to as the Wakhan in its upper sect...
Tusher/Mill Canyon Area, The House of Putterman. In October, Jon Butler and I made a free ascent of The House of Putterman. Brian Takei and I had made the first ascent of the butte in 1994 with one rest point, on a short finger crack on the third ...
Huagoruncho 1941ROBERT H. BISHOP IIIEASTERLY of Cerro de Pasco rises Huagoruncho, or Huaga- runcha according to the “Millionth Map.” This peak’s precipitous sides, sheathed in tropical ice, proclaim its character as upthrust rather than volcano al...
Two International School of Mountaineering (ISM) expeditions, both led by me, visited the Tien Shan in 2010 with the aim of exploring the At Bashi Range, a 100km-long spine of alpine peaks up to 4,788m in height. I had twice previously visited thi...
K2, Magic Line, second ascent, death. On August 16th Oscar Cadiach and Manel de la Matta joined the summit bid along with Jordi Corominas from their last Camp at 8,100m. The first two decided to turn around at 10:00, from 8,300m, due to cold and e...
Amnesiac in the HimalayaThalay Sagar, GarhwalJohn ThackrayTHERE IS A MOMENT in most expeditions when the underlying illusions and fantasies fall away. The moment when that small grim voice within says, “Aahhh. Now, too late, I remember what an exp...
Kichatna Spire: East Face ProwMichael GraberTUCKED AWAY in a comer of the Alaskan Range lies a maze of glaciers and rock known as the Cathedral Spires. Approximately 45 miles southwest of Mount McKinley, the Spires are famous for Yosemite-like wal...
HANS PETER MISCH 1909–1987Peter Misch, professor emeritus in geology at the University of Washington, passed away on July 23 in his home in Seattle. Until a week before his death he had continued to visit his rock-filled office, advising graduate ...
LLOYD A. ANDERSON1902-2000Lloyd A. Anderson, an American Alpine Club member since 1942 and the founder of Recreational Equipment Inc., died September 13 at the age of 98. Although he climbed more than 400 peaks in this lifetime, making many first ...
FALL ON ROCK, RAPPEL ERRORNorth Carolina, Rumbling Bald, Cereal ButtressIt was July 2, 10:30 a.m. I had met Joshua Haddock (29) only ten minutes before I heard his body impact the ground. Mike, Brian, his 15 year- old son Cole, and I had the Cerea...
McKinley from the TraleikaWilliam Ruth, UnaffiliatedAS I wallowed waist deep through the slush ice of yet another overflow stream, I could only think this was insanity. It seemed like madness that our homeward journey was proving more of a hellish...
KENT ALAN JAMESON1958-1991Kent Alan Jameson of Oxnard, California, was killed on July 7 in a rappelling accident while descending Thunderbird Peak in the Sierra Nevada. Kent’s loss will be deeply felt by many. He left behind a substantial climbing...