Norwich Ledge is a 100m rhyolite escarpment north of Bergland, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Since learning of this cliff a couple of years ago, I had always wanted to make the roughly 5-mile ski approach to see the potential for winter climbing....
On June 29, Chad Watkins (age 49) was attempting the crux of the route Big Top, a 5.12a trad climb in the Greatest Show area of the Meadow River Gorge. The nature of the crack requires foot placements near and just above gear. As Chad attempted to...
Muz Tok: (1) The attempted line on the north face with the bivouac (B) marked;(2) The route used in descent. The pyramid behind is Pik Schurovsky (5,490m).Photo by John Proctor On July 5, after a two-day walk from Sary Zhaz...
Matthew Irving (USA), Julian Kenchenten (Canada), Paolo Marazzi (Italy), Angela Percival (Canada), Vikki Weldon (Canada), and I left Isafjordur, Iceland, on August 18 aboard the sailboat Aurora. Captain Vidar Kristinsson and first mate Rasmus Jons...
In February 2016, Martin Håskjold Larsen, Clare Mains, Barry Smith, Fernando Virot, and I opened a new route on the west face of Cerro Capicua, which we called Picaflor (meaning “Hummingbird”). The face has been estimated to be 1,200m; our route w...
In early 2016, JB Haab and I opened a new route on the Wall of Patience ground-up, calling it Iron Skirt. This wall is located on the left side of the Anfiteatro, downstream of the route Al Centro y Adentro (AAJ 2012) on Atardecer; I don’t think a...
During the 1970s, when the Altar Massif saw many of its first ascents, the well-known Ecuadorian climber Ramiro Navarrete attempted the southwest ridge of Canónigo (5,260m). Although he did not succeed, he dubbed the ridge Elena, after his daughte...
At the end of May, the Expedition Climbers Club set out from New Zealand for a five-week trip to the Cordillera Blanca. The team was comprised of Steven Fortune, Pete Harris, Daniel Joll, Alastair McDowell, Reg Measures, Claire Measures, Jaz Morri...
On October 6, at approximately 3 p.m., the Coconino County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a climber (Person 1) who stated she had broken her leg and was hanging in her harness on the last pitch of Oak Creek Spire. It was determined that...
The glacier was calving every half hour all day and all night. A thundering boom would reverberate off the narrow cirque walls, then a wave of water would roll across Glacier Lake. During the day we could get used to it, but at night the detonati...
Late August in the western Utah desert is hot. Bird-size bugs terrorize the unsuspecting, scorpions dwell under tents, and tarantulas lurk in the shadows. High above the basin, however, cooler temps can be found on north-facing aspects. Seeking re...
The Moai Face is a smooth wave of granite that rises out of the pines at Mt. Mizugaki, one of Japan’s premier traditional rock climbing crags. The nearly blank, 110m headwall appeared to be stunning to climb but very hard to protect, and the tradi...
At 8:30 a.m. on August 23, a group of three scramblers left the parking lot near the Great Divide Lodge in Yoho National Park to scramble up the southwest slopes of Mt. Daly. After hiking up the trail to Sherbrooke Lake, they followed the route to...
Banff Dispatch received a personal locater beacon (PLB) activation signal near Balfour High Col on the Wapta Icefields at 1 p.m. on March 29. The Balfour High Col is the crux of the popular Wapta Icefields ski traverse and is a notorious place in ...
I met Birch Malotky in Colorado and we unexpectedly made plans to travel the next day to the Wind River Range to climb at the Cirque of the Towers. We arrived at Big Sandy Trailhead around 3 p.m. on August 23 and did the hike in that afternoon, bu...
On Saturday, December 5, Chris Carr (owner, Shasta Mountain Guides) and Eric Rideout (friend) reported to rangers at Bunny Flat that they had encountered a man in his 20s who looked unprepared, at approximately 8,300 feet, near Spring Hill. The en...
In September 2013, Jamie Bunchuk and Matt Traver traveled to the Alichursky Mountains to make a documentary about a Kyrgyzstani-Tajik hunter and herder called Orozbek, and while there ventured into both the north and south Alichursky ranges (A...
On May 30, a 47-year-old man from Colorado was killed when his anchor failed while descending Monster Tower, above the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park. The victim, Climber A, was climbing with two companions, Climber B (27) and Climber C (1...
Allen Frame Hill, a prominent Colorado climber, filmmaker, and climbing historian, passed away March 24 at age 53. A longtime Denver resident, Hill was beloved by many people from several communities, including Colorado College (and the Colorado S...
An intensely private man, Don Gordon passed away in April 2016 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, where he lived for over 50 years. Born Don Gordon Claunch in Ely, Nevada, on November 13, 1931, he changed his name for personal family rea...