Grand Sentinel is a large north-facing tower across from North Dome, and is one of the most eye-catching rock faces in Kings Canyon proper. It features many difficult aid routes, however Chaz Langelier and I found a fun free route going up the pre...
After making possibly the second ascent of Beast and Beauty (IV 5.11a) with Chaz Langelier, car-to-car, I returned to Charlotte Dome in July 2017 with Jeremy Ross after I had noticed an intriguing set of parallel features to the left. Since the ro...
In the spring of 2017 I completed several new routes in the Castle Rocks area with different partners. Daniel Jeffcoach and I hiked out to climb the east face of the Fin, which to our knowledge had never been attempted. We took a wide system on th...
In 2016 Daniel Jeffcoach and I started a new independent line on the middle of the steep west face of Moro Rock. Due to sustained difficult climbing and the need to place several bolts we ran out of time and could not finish the route in a day. We...
GRAND OBJECTIVES within six hours’ drive from your front door are still to be found.In July of 1964, Dick McCracken, Charlie Raymond, and Royal Robbins spent four days making the first ascent of Mt. Hooker’s (12,504’) imposing north face, an audac...
In November, Rob Boulton, Joe O'Connor, Mark Rowland, Ian Stead, Dan Walker, and I, led by Dawa Rita Sherpa and Mindu Sherpa, made the first ascent of the remote Korlang Pari Tippa South (5,738m) on the Tibetan border. This was my third visit to t...
It was 1998 when I first landed in Greenland. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a long love affair with grand rock walls and towers, majestic polar bears, giant diamond-like icebergs, unique Inuit friends, and an endless list of wonde...
The original plan had been a west-to-east traverse of the Sydkap Icecap from Baad Fiord to Harbour Fiord. However, advanced contact with elders in the hamlet of Grise Fiord was not able to confirm a snowmobile ride to Baad Fiord. Upon our arrival ...
The Larson Ridge is the name given to the east-west-oriented crest that borders the northern edge of the Larson Valley. Three main summits and a few bumps make for an excellent introduction to glacial mountaineering.On January 12, 2018, the Americ...
Shkhara (5,203m) is Georgia’s highest mountain—about 500m higher than well-known Ushba—and according to experienced mountaineers from our country, “It is better to climb Ushba in the worst conditions than to go to Shkhara in winter.” Despite thi...
THE QUEST, BY KAZUYA HIRAIDE Shispare was always there, living in the back of my head. A mountain worth spending my life upon. In 2002, I went to Pakistan alone with a map of the Karakoram on which I had marked routes ascended by previous part...
In November 2017, Pedro Binfa and Joan Marc Henares climbed a new route on the south face Cerro Sahne Nuss (2,237m) in Cerro Castillo National Reserve. They began by ascending snow slopes that led to the glacier that divides Cerro Palo and Sahne N...
Four members of the Spanish Alpine Team (Equipo Español de Alpinism)—Jesús Ibarz,Omar Juan, Pablo Ruíz, and Jorge Valle, accompanied by Sonia Casas, Jonatan Larrañaga, and expedition leader Mikel Zabalza—visited the Rolwaling in October and Novemb...
IN THE SUMMER of 2014, Ryo Masumoto, Takaaki Nagato, and I aspired to reach the summit of unclimbed Badal Peak (ca 6,100m) and then traverse to K7 West (6,615m). Badal is located on the north side of the Charakusa Glacier in the eastern Karakoram....
AFTER SPENDING almost 20 hours studying the pictures of the west face of Lunag Ri, I thought I’d finally found the line, which cleverly avoided objective hazards and verticality. It also seemed very blue, the sort of blue of which every mountainee...
Between September 29 and October 2, Anne Gilbert Chase, Jason Thompson, and I made the first ascent of the southwest face of Nilkanth (6,596m, a.k.a. Nilkanta or Nilkantha). Anne Gilbert, Jason, and Caro North had planned to attempt the southwest ...
Some years ago, Anatoly Moshnikov commented, “I have already climbed that route in my mind, should we do it in reality?” I can’t recall the mountain to which he was referring, but I remembered his words. They perfectly suited Phungi Himal (6,538m)...
In October, Mathieu Détrie, Pierre Labbre, and Benjamin Védrines (France) made the second ascent of Pandra (6,850m map height, 27°51.897’N, 87°59.547’E) via a new route on the northeast face.In the fall of 2002, three Danes made the first ascent o...
KARAKORAM: CLIMBING THROUGH THE KASHMIR CONFLICT. Steve Swenson. Mountaineers Books, 2017. Hardcover, 315 pages, $26.95.In Karakoram, Steve Swenson describes the climbs he attempted and accomplished in this great range from 1980 to 2015, during 15...
In January 2016 I sailed to the Peninsula on the yacht Icebird with Robert Catton, Mike Jaques, Paul Kutarski, and Jim Searight. We skied mostly peaks with which I was familiar, but also made the first ascent of the southwest ridge of the unnamed ...