otis McAllister1889-1980Otis McAllister, a member of the American Alpine Club since 1943 and an honorary member since 1977, died on November 16, 1980 at his home in Mexico City. He was 91 years old. He graduated from Harvard in 1907. After moving ...
Dhaulagiri, South Face, New Route. From October 25-November 3, Slovenian Tomaž Humar soloed The Mobitel Route (VI 5.10d AO M7+, ca. 4000m) on the south face of Dhaulagiri (8167m). A full account of his ascent appears earlier in this journal.
Trisul Ascent and Tragedy. The members of our expedition were Tilo Dittrich, Roland Wankerl, Michael Hawlitschek, Dirck Naumann, my wife Martina and me. With 28 porters, two high-altitude porters, a liaison officer, we took five days from the road...
Udren Zorn and Shakhaur. The expedition of the Biella section of the Club Alpino Italiano climbed these two peaks, neither a first ascent; they rise on the Pakistani-Afghan frontier above the Wakhan corridor. After ascending the Udren Gol, they se...
Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, second ascent of Mt. Friesland and New Altitude. Livingston Island is around 60km long and much of it is gentle terrain. However, at the eastern end rises an impressive range of snowy peaks that I had fir...
Jirishanca from the Southeast, Cordillera Huayhuash. Our Tokyo Tsuyukusa Tokokai Expedition was composed of Yoshikazu Okada, Shiro Nakatsuka, Yoshio Sato, Shinichi Yoshiga and me as leader. We left Chiquián with 30 donkeys, 7 arrieros and 3 porter...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING UNROPEDPennsylvania, Tohickon Valley ParkJoseph McDevitt (26) was in serious condition yesterday after plunging at least 70 feet to the ground in a fall off a cliff in Bucks County. He was airlifted and treated in the intens...
Shisha Pangma. Two groups of Trekking International were on Shisha Pangma, the first composed of Italians and Spaniards led by Alberto Re, the other made up of French, Japanese and Austrians guided by Claude Jaccoux. The weather was terrible and t...
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Although the Englishman, Simons, produced the first useful maps of the Sierra Nevada in 1879 and 1881, British climbers did not set foot in the range until 1954. A. F. R. Wollaston, doctor to the first Everest expedit...
Snowpatch Spire, East Face, “Hockey Night in Jersey,” Bugaboos. From August 7 to 11, Keith Johnson and I established an 11-pitch route (V, 5.9, A3) on the east face of Snowpatch Spire. We started 100 feet to the right of the clean, left-facing cor...
FALL ON ROCK, FALLS ON RAPPEL, STRANDEDNew MexicoTen accidents were reported by the State Office of Search and Rescue. Four of them appear to have been actual climbing related mishaps, two of which were falls while on rappel.Several of the reports...
Syn Qing Feng Attempt. Karl Gerdes, Paul Tamm, Phil Peralta-Ramos, John Owen, Jim Bennett and I headed for China’s Qinghai Province in April. We rode trains for two days from Beijing to Xining, then trucks and jeeps for two days to Golmud, and jee...
Wind River RangeIn August last Mrs. Underhill and I made the following climbs in the Island Lake region of the Wind River Range, Wyoming Rockies. Camp was placed, first, about half a mile N. of Island Lake; then, at the head of the second Titcomb ...
Longs Peak, The Diamond, First One-Day Winter Ascent. On January 15, Craig Luebben and I climbed the Diamond on Longs Peak in 20:40 from the parking lot. We chose D7 as it is the easiest aid line on the wall. We summited at sunset and the descent ...
AVALANCHE, POOR POSITION AND TIMING, INEXPERIENCEAlaska, Mount McKinleyOn June 8, 1993, Bertha Ramirez (41) departed with the “Choolian” expedition headed for the 8,000 foot camp on the Kahiltna Glacier. The three member team was attempting the We...
Pumori, ascent, attempt, and tragedy. There were two events during the autumn on 7161m Pumori that were noteworthy for entirely different reasons. The good news was the successful ascent by the first Iranian women mountaineers to come on any exped...
Karakoram Ski Traverse. The first Karakoram ski traverse was made by Galen Rowell and his team in 1980. Starting from Khapalu, they reached the Siachen Glacier via the Bilafond Pass. From there, they traversed the Baltoro, Biafo and Hispar Glacier...
FALLING ICE, POOR POSITIONAlberta, Rocky Mountains, Weeping WallOn December 29, two ice climbers were on the second pitch of the left side of the Weeping Wall (grade IV) when the leader dislodged a chunk of ice onto his belayer. The victim, a 19-y...
Amotsang reconnaissance and first ascents of Thansunjiti (6,084m) and Jomson (6,335m). One of the expeditions on newly opened mountains was unsuccessful in its bids to climb this previously unattempted summit. A French team under the leadership of...
Cosmic Rays on McKinley. Results of scientific experiments carried out in the course of “Operation White Tower” are described in The Physical Review for 15 June 1948.* The title of the article is “Cosmic-Ray Investigations on Mt. McKinley”; and th...