Looking southwest from the north cwm of the Sim Gang Glacier. The snowy summit in distant left is Peak 5,925m, climbed in 2022. Photo by Murilo Lessa Once upon a time in a far-away corner of Pakistan, Philip De-Berger and I made the first com...
In August, Krzysztof Wielicki visited the Dih Dur Valley with Grzegorz Chwoła, Frank Gasser (Italy), Roman Gierach, Katarzyna Karwecka-Wielicka, Wojciech Walas, and Dariusz Załuski (all Poles apart from Gasser). The logistics were organized by Jas...
The southeast face of Peak 5,561m, showing the line of ascent and ski descent in April 2022. Photo by Boris Langenstein. After visiting the Sumayar Valley, near Rakaposhi (see report here), Boris Langenstein and Kevin Sur traveled to the vall...
On November 14, Americans Rich Draves, Ted Hesser, and I, along with Sherpas Ang Phurba, Dawa Nurbu, Dorchi, and Tenji, made the first ascent of the southwest ridge of Peak 5,608m. Unnamed on the HMG-Finn map but called Kuirhun in Jan Kielkowski’s...
I was part of an American-Italian-Nepalese expedition to attempt Shershon (6,432m, 27°50’5.58”N, 87°7’36.30”E), which lies on the Tibetan frontier at the northeast head of the Shershon Glacier, east of Makalu base camp. Our plan was to approach th...
Luis Stitzinger on the east ridge of Hongku. At the far end of the ridge is the snow pyramid of Hongku Chuli. To the right is the broad massif of Chamlang. In back on the left is the great pyramid of Makalu. Hongku (a.k.a Hongu, Hongku Chul...
While approaching the village of Chukhung, Nick Mestre and I became excited by the presence of many boulders, and we assumed we could explore them while acclimatizing for our main objective, the south face of Nuptse. Then the perfect rock pyramid ...
Autumn 2021 marked the culmination of a two-year program for the Groupe Excellence d’Alpinisme National (GEAN), a team of young French alpinists chosen by the Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne (FFCAM), under the overall guid...
While Jaroslav Bánský and I were climbing Kangchung Shar (AAJ 2022), we took a photo of a beautiful snow and ice wall that we later discovered was the west face of unclimbed Chumbu (a.k.a. Chumbi). This 6,859m peak is approximately midway between ...
Screaming Barfies on the west face and southwest ridge of Tengi Ragi Tau Southeast (a.k.a. Phamlahaka, 6,141m). Photo by Matija Volontar. Bor Levičnik, Žiga Oražem, and I left Slovenia on October 1. When we arrived in Kathmandu, a national...
For Ethan Berman, Lin Oosterhoff, Andrea Sanchez, and me, it was our first visit to the Himalaya. For three weeks in autumn, we trekked around the Khumbu, with Namgyal Sherpa as our guide. Due to a dental infection, I had to bail from below the Ch...
Kevin Sur on the upper part of the ski descent of Dawson Peak. Behind (in cloud) is Rakaposhi, and to the right, in the middle distance, is Sumayar Peak (climbed in 1984). Photo by Boris Langenstein. In April, Boris Langenstein and Kevin Sur ...
Looking up (A) the Sumayar Glacier from the 1984 base camp. (B) Daranishi La. (C) Daranishi Chhish. (D) Seemurgh. (E) Chatan Sar. (F) Silkiang Peak. From Silkiang Peak, the Silkiang Glacier flows over the visible icefall to the Sumayar. The tiny...
Drone photo of James Price in the Passu Cwm en route to climbing Passu Sar, with Shispare behind. Price is carrying the long pole to protect against crevasse falls. Photo by Sebastién Carniato. It’s August and I’m back in the Hunza Valley. Pa...
Niccolò Bartoli and I traveled to the Ak-su in the summer of 2022 and found a west-facing wall directly above base camp that has beautiful granite. The Wall of Dykes, on the south buttress (Pik 3,850m) of Pik Slesova, is about 800m high, and the ...
Joseph Hobby on the summit ridge of the Citadel after the first ascent of the Borealis Face (2,000’, 85° ice). Photo by Zach Lovell. Time is often an unhelpful metric when weighing the value of a trip in the mountains. Even a few days can gi...
In the summer of 2022, Moritz Sigmund and I traveled with four friends, all from the South Tyrol region of Italy, to the Kara-su valley. It was our first expedition, and none of us had ever climbed such big walls, but we wanted to open a new route...
Mike “Mr. El Cap” Corbett’s contributions to Yosemite include big-wall first ascents, speed records, becoming the first person to climb El Capitan 50 times, and, perhaps most importantly, his time and hard work for friends and partners as they mad...
During the last few years, a route was climbed on the left side of the northeast face of Nirekha (6,159m), finishing at the southeast top (ca 6,100m, 27°58’36.21”N, 86°45’49.86”E). The climb was completed from the Khangri Nup Glacier in one day to...
Esteban Mena (Ecuador), Roberto Morales (Colombia), and I arrived in the Langtang Valley in October with a permit for Langtang Lirung (7,227m). On the 15th we attempted the ca 2,200m east face, reaching 5,800m. We decided to retreat due to the amo...