After summiting Mt. Vinson on January 4, 2017, Larry Holmgren (USA), Nate Opp (USA), Liam Suckling (Australia), and I went old-school. Instead of flying back to the Union Glacier, we spent two weeks traveling with skis and sleds, descending the Br...
In December, a ski mountaineering party led by Bruce Goodlad (U.K.) was dropped off at Tarrada Point on Brabant Island. They skied up to a base camp in front of Mt. Parry (2,520m). The following day, with 50-knot winds over the summits, they skied...
The South Platte region of Colorado has a strong history of scrappy rock climbing and a staunch ethic of bolting new routes on lead. So when my partner Dave Montgomery and I set out to climb the west face of the iconic Cynical Pinnacle, we knew ...
Zowie is similar in shape and size to the classic RMNP spire the Petit Grepon. The only thing Zowie has lacked in comparison to the ultra-popular Petit has been a truly classic route up its south face. In June, Dede Humphrey and I climbed Magic in...
In a superb effort, Josh Wharton completed the three hardest free routes in the Park in one year: Sarchasm (5.14a, a sport route below Longs Peak), the Honeymoon is Over (5.13c) and Dunn-Westbay Direct (5.14a), both on the Diamond. Wharton didn’t ...
Jeff Dickson and Tobias Link climbed the north ridge of the North Tooth, one of a pair of limestone towers just north of Mt. Wardle in the Vermilion Range. Their 600m route, climbed during a two-day outing in May, went at D 5.10a/b.– Dougald MacDo...
On August 1, Mark Klassen, Tim Johnson, Margie Smith, and Larry Stanier completed a new route up the northwest ridge (Napsihu Ridge) of the Finger in 12 pitches plus scrambling (AD 5.8). The route has some bolt protection and good rappel anchors, ...
In May 2015, Steven Kovalenko and Maury Perrault climbed a 1,400m mixed line up the northwest face of Hungabee Mountain (3,490m) in a 30-hour round trip from Lake O’Hara (16 hours up, 14 hours down). Mordor (V 5.6 WI4 M4) topped out on the north r...
In the summer of 2016, Joshua Lavigne, Marc-André Leclerc and I spent six weeks in the fjordlands of eastern Baffin Island, establishing two new routes on Great Sail Peak (ca 1,500m). Our journey began on June 21, when we set off from the communit...
Jack Grinsted, Dave McKinney, and I, from New Zealand, established a new route, Huffin & Puffin (12 pitches, 7a A3), on the iconic Trøllkonufingur, a huge pillar along the coast of Vágar, one of the 18 Faroe Islands. The pillar previously had ...
From January 11–26, 2017, Marek Raganowicz (Poland) made the first solo winter ascent of any route on Trollveggen (the Troll Wall) when he reached the top of Suser Gjennom Harryland (18 pitches to east pillar, Norwegian 6 A3, Hagen-Ostbo, 1996). T...
On June 17 and 18, Mišo Bado and I made the first ascent of Corona on the south face of Jastrabia veža in Slovakia. After a pitch of UIAA VIII, climbing through an overhang and a corner, with two bolts, the crux pitch overhangs 4m in its 38m lengt...
Austrian climbers Hansjörg Auer, Alex Blümel, and David Lama attempted one of the great unclimbed prizes of the Nepal Himalaya, the southeast pillar of Annapurna III (7,555m), in early May. They approached base camp by helicopter, and after three ...
A few years ago, Daniel Jeffcoach and I spotted an unnamed and apparently unclimbed formation above North Dome. The approach starts from the Road’s End parking lot, and to our surprise it took no longer than three to four hours to reach the base. ...
In June, Brian Prince, Alaina Robertson, and I set up a camp below the northeast face of the Gambler’s Special and Dark Tower to celebrate Alaina’s birthday with some exploratory climbing. The Dark Tower is a subsummit of the Cleaver (13,382’), an...
During what was likely a record-breaking summer for park visitation, three-hour traffic jams edged slowly in a counterclockwise loop around the Valley floor while El Capitan’s mostly empty walls flickered through the exhaust and idle air of 102° J...
On November 21, Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic completed the second free ascent of the Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d), the 32-pitch El Capitan route generally regarded as the world’s hardest big-wall free climb. The route on El Cap’s southeast face, fre...
Deep in Tenaya Canyon is a slabby dome hidden by Mt. Watkins to the west and Yasoo Dome to the east. In late September, with no knowledge of any previously established climbs on the formation or the best way to approach, Mark Westman and I hiked t...
The majority of new-route activity in New Zealand during 2016 occurred during the summer period, with a number of new alpine rock climbs. Starting in the Darran Mountains, in January, Conor Smith and I climbed the northeast face of Pyramid Peak (2...
The 9th Grade: 150 Years of Free Climbing, by David Chambre (Mountaineers Books, $50). A large-format, comprehensive history of free climbing; Eurocentric with terrific color photographs.My Old Man and the Mountain, A Memoir, by Leif Whittaker (Mo...