Gibson Reynolds, who took part in pioneering expeditions that helped open the Saint Elias Range to mountaineering in the 1950s and made first ascents of several of its peaks, passed away on April 20, 2014. Born and raised in the flatlands of Alaba...
A native of San Francisco, John Boyle was a global adventurer. After serving in the U.S. Army in Germany (1954-1956), he worked on a satellite program that took him to tracking stations in remote regions of the world, inspiring him to explore Afri...
Mark Hesse, climber, conservationist, and access activist, passed away in early 2014. A fit 63-year-old man, he was climbing alone in a Boulder, Colorado, climbing gym and no one saw him fall. The gym employees who rushed to his aid were unable to...
In July, Nobuyuki “Yuki” Fujita and I established a new climb on the southeast face of Storm Point in Cascade Canyon: Highway to Heaven (11 pitches, 5.8). Our climb is located far to the right of the Guides Wall and what guidebook author Leigh Ort...
Ben Silvestre and I spent March 25–April 13 in the Revelation Mountains. Our initial objective was the central couloir on Pyramid Peak. However, landing on the melted-out Revelation Glacier was out the question. We re-routed to try the unclimbed n...
Ironically, Bill Putnam’s long prominence in mountaineering organizations, national and international, tended to obscure his stature as one of the foremost mountaineers of his generation. Brought up by his father to love the outdoors, he began his...
Joe Firey was one of the most endearing, enduring, and accomplished mountaineers in the Pacific Northwest. An active hiker, climber, and skier for nearly 70 years, he pioneered exploratory mountaineering and ski touring in the Northwest, especiall...
On May 31, Eitan Green, 28, a fellow guide, and four other climbers were swept off of Mt. Rainer’s Liberty Ridge, apparently in an avalanche. Eitan died far too soon, but at least he lived having never lost the magic of climbing. Eitan first climb...
Don Liska, 85, died at home after a brief illness, with Alice, his wife of 59 years, by his side.Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Don received his bachelor and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin. Do...
It’s a strange thing to be there for a person’s last moments: to see someone go from bursting with light and energy to being gone forever in an instant. It can be hard to fathom just how much is irretrievably lost in that tiny flash—not just that ...
Years ago I stumbled upon some entertaining written history about a large, unclimbed freestanding tower called the Great Potato (8,510’) in the San Mateo Mountains, southwest of Socorro. The formation was named due to its location in upper Potato ...
During May 18 and 19, Simon Gietl and I completed a new route on the north summit of Devils Paw (2,616m). Our ascent took 19 hours, including a short bivouac below the summit, and the downclimb took another five hours. We named our route Black Ros...
On July 18 I took advantage of excellent local conditions to make the second winter ascent of the east face of the Pope’s Nose (2,700m) in Mt. Aspiring National Park, but failed to link it with the northeast face of Mt. Aspiring (3,033m). Had I be...
... bilo tako lepo jeob?util sem spokoj, vseh belih snov sijo?ih, omamil me je opoj ... (Aleš Holc)What makes a climber climb a sheer cliff, ascend a high and mighty mountain, seek trails where there are none, look for...something wild and magical...
In June and July I led a group to explore the peaks north of the Shaksgam River. The aim of the expedition was to establish the climbing potential of the 6,000m peaks on both sides of the Kizil Davan, the 5,700m pass connecting the Shaksgam (via t...
During late July and August, a Latvian team did a two-week east-to-west traverse of the Muzkol Range, starting in the Ak Baital Valley and exiting the Zortash Valley. They completed several possible first ascents along the way, including Peak 5,58...
Our four-person team—Rebecca Coles, Rhys Huws, Simon Verspeak, and John Vincent (all U.K.)— traveled to the Muzkol area in early August with our primary objective being the unnamed and unclimbed ca 6,123m peak to the west of Dvuglavy (6,148m). Col...
On January 1, Kennya Pimentel (20) of Las Vegas, Nevada, fell while climbing White Lightning (5.7) at the Hemingway Buttress. Unable to place protection or climb through a crux section, she decided to downclimb and lower off from abou...
In 2007 I came across folk tales about ancient glowing orbs on pointy rock summits in the South Pacific. Fascinated by these rumors, I soon discovered images of the Marquesas Islands, north of Tahiti, and the volcanic rock towers of the island...
In April 2013, Andrew Burr, Mason Earle, Bronson Hovnanian (all USA) and George Ullrich (U.K.) climbed an eight-pitch new route (5.10+) up the steep west face of this seaside spire. The tower was first climbed via the lower-angle north ridge by a ...