On May 4, Much Mayr and I completed a new route on the Black Canyon’s Diagonal Wall, ground-up and in a single 11-hour push. This was my second trip to the Black Canyon, after traveling there with Ben Lepesant in 2011 to make the first free ascent...
On the afternoon of June 3, a male climber (age unknown) was attempting to lead the route Ritz Cracker, a 5.9 trad climb at the Fern Buttress area. According to a National Park Service report, the climber fell above his last piece of gear and impa...
Standing proud as the tallest peak in the Battle Range, Mt. Proteus (3,198m) has a striking south face that just begs to be climbed. Yet no direct route had been completed up this rock face. It’s no easy task to get there. The surrounding glaciers...
At approximately 5:30 p.m. on March 25, a 25-year-old male climber set up a rappel at the bolted anchors of Frigidator Crack (5.10b) and began to descend. Approximately halfway down, the climber rappelled off the end of one of the strands of his 6...
At 7:15 p.m. on July 15, a 22-year-old male climber rappelled off one of the ends of his rope while descending from S’more Energy (5.11c) on the Party Buttress. He fell approximately 40 feet and landed primarily on his feet, suffering multiple inj...
OUR EXPEDITION was an adventure from beginning to end. Our proposed route on Pumori (7,148m) followed a direct line up the central section of the south face, left of the 1986 Scottish Route. The project felt ambitious and would be totally reliant ...
In October-November 2015, we organized our first “Himalayan Camp,” with the aim of helping Japanese newcomers to the Himalaya climb safely and motivate them to step up their Himalayan experience. Approaching through the Khumbu and then operating f...
THE IDEA of attempting Cerro Murallón came to us way back in 2010, even before my first trip to Patagonia. Matteo “Berna” Bernasconi and I both were looking for a big adventure. We were not afraid of failing, just wanting to live the full Patagoni...
TIME STANDS STILL as the warm rays of the setting sun illuminate the surrounding ridgelines. As the lush meadows a thousand feet below gradually succumb to darkness, a south-facing fence of jagged High Sierra giants jets out of the earth, glowing ...
ONCE PLANTED in my head, Silvan’s project grew relentlessly in my thoughts, from a seed to a blossoming tree, shaded by strong moments of doubt, a clash between the desire to live fully and the need for self-preservation. What alpinist has not kno...
HALFWAY UP the ten-pitch headwall, at yet another hanging belay, Tony looked at me with a grin. “Normally I climb with someone first, you know, before venturing out on a big climb like this.” It’s true: We had never roped up before. I’m also...
OVER THE PAST couple of years, I’ve done a handful of ascents that various climbing luminaries have described as “cutting edge.” For those who don’t know me, it may seem these climbs were somewhat out of left field. But the truth is, I’ve been cli...
I STILL REMEMBER when I first saw the Asgard Jamming film. It was 2009, in Lecco, a presentation by Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva. For me it was revolutionary: These guys were climbing in great style on an amazing wall in a beautiful and rem...
THE STRANGE THING about climbing new routes in China and Tibet is that once you’re lucky enough to complete a few successful expeditions you suddenly start receiving the Japanese Alpine News. One day it pops through the letterbox and then just kee...
On September 8, two men were climbing Shealyn’s Way (5.7), a sport route approximately 75 feet high. As the leader was lowering from the top, approximately 25 to 30 feet from the ground, the tail of the rope passed through the belayer’s device and...
Our original goal was to climb the north face of Lobuche West (6,145m). Joao Garcia and I approached up the Changri Nup Glacier from the village of Lobuche (ca 4,940m). Five hours of walking over difficult moraine took us to a base camp at 5,100...
Punchen Himal (6,049m, 28°39'40N, 85°08'48E) lies on the Nepal-Tibet border, 30km north of Ganesh I (7,422m). It had seen two known previous attempts. In 2007, a Japanese party led by Tamotsu Ohnishi followed the northwest ridge from its base, wit...
The At Bashi Range is particularly suitable for ski mountaineering and still has around 60 peaks above 4,000m that remain unclimbed. In 2016 our team explored the potential in the heart of the massif, which contains the highest peaks, and learned ...
In February 2016, just a few weeks after the presumed first ascent of Chon-tor (ca 4,180m) by Egor Suzdaltsov and Ivan Temerev from Russian Siberia (AAJ 2017), a new route was climbed on the northwest face of Chon-tor by the brothers Eugeny and Se...
Will and James started climbing Matthes Crest in the late morning on September 11. Both have spent decades climbing in the Sierra. (Their names have been changed here.) The day had started out with clear blue skies, and both climbers felt that the...