On April 21, Cohen Schaumann (11) fell 40 feet to the ground while climbing at Smith Rock with his grandfather, Scott Phillips. The pair had climbed together on multiple occasions over the prior year. Their sessions included top-roping and a succe...
The crux section of Lion’s Chair Start (5.10c/d R) at Smith Rock. The higher red circle marks the bolt that Genereux was attempting to clip, prior to falling to the ground. The smaller red circle marks the location of the number 0.4 cam that pul...
The Mountain Rescue Unit team lowers Jean Bury down the first pitch of The Cave Route (3 pitches, 5.7 R). During the descent from the summit of Brogan Spire, Bury suffered a severe pendulum fall on the first rappel. Photo: Deschutes County Searc...
Looking south-southeast at (R) Rale. The route of ascent climbed over Peak 6,128m, off picture to the right, then followed the watershed ridge to the summit. Photo: Rajesh Gadgil In September, Mayukh Banik, Sujit Kushe, and I, supported by Do...
In preparation for a higher trek in the Pologongka Group, Claudia Bäumler, 15-year-old Nina Bielefeldt, Nuhbu Gojing, and I made a three-day trek from Kanji via the Yogma La and Shinguche La to the Spang Nala (valley). Ascents by others in the reg...
Nikolaos Kroupis on the upper south-southeast spur of Nya Kangri. The left-hand and snowiest of the two big peaks in the right background is Argan Kangri. Photo: Orestis Mitrou-Kintis. In July, I made my fourth expedition to unclimbed Nya Kan...
Driven by my desire to return to the Thangman Lungpa (valley), which I had partially explored in 2023 (see AAJ 2024), Sudeep Barve, Prajakta Ghode, Mahesh Kendurkar, Yogesh Umbre, and I formed a joint expedition organized by the Himalayan Club and...
This is a story of perseverance, creativity, and joy that began in 2017 and finished seven years later. The east face of Snowpatch Spire in the Bugaboos has inspired me and many other avid climbers who stay at the Applebee Campground and are fasci...
The yellow line shows the first six pitches of Spicy Red Beans and Rice (Greene-Tague, 1997). Above the bivy ledge is Rat Race (red line, LaRocque-Pelletti, 2024). Photo: Alex Buisse On September 2, Ryan LaRocque and I tied in below the west ...
On February 14, 2024, Canadians Christina Lustenberger, Mark Herbison, and Joshua Lavigne skied the south couloir of Mt. Sir Sandford (3,519m), the highest peak of the Selkirk Mountains. After flying to a base camp at the foot of the mountain, the...
It was a dusty and hot afternoon on August 7 at the White Saddle Ranch on the Chilcotin Plateau. Big pine trees, a beautiful lake, and wide-open spaces dominated the landscape. Matt Maddaloni, Tim Emmett, and I sat on our enormous stack of gear, n...
Andrea Tate standing at a viewpoint on the west side of Culbert Crag during the first ascent, looking toward Frontier Creek, Harkness Tower, and Remote Mountain. Photo by Francis Bailey. The Pantheon Range, located just 20km north of Mt. Wadd...
Tsini Tsini Peak (2,256m), with the steep northeast ridge in profile on the left side. The climbers were dropped off by helicopter at the sharp saddle and picked up on the summit after the climb. The peak in back is Mt. Lobachevsky, climbed in 1...
Sleep-deprived and sorting gear and food on the floor of an Icefields Discovery airplane hangar in Silver City, Yukon, Nick Aiello-Popeo and I were attempting to finalize our packing before flying onto the Quintino Sella Glacier. We forgot the spa...
On November 7, Vasili Lelos (USA) and I climbed Colquepuncu III (5,550m, 13°45'48.1"S, 70°49'35.0"W) in the “Nudo de Ayacachi” to warm up. (The names in quotation marks are past references for these mountains in reports from the 1960s and 1970s—se...
I have been working as a surgeon at the mission hospital in Curahuasi, Peru, and from the hospital I can see several beautiful peaks of the Vilcabamba Range. In 2021, friends and I climbed Cerro Chaupiloma (AAJ 2022). The neighboring peak to the n...
On July 8 and 9, John Ebers and I made the first free ascent of Big Fighter (750m, VI 5.13b) on Chaupi Huanca (4,850m) in Quebrada Rurec. John Ebers at the hanging belay below pitch ten, the 8a (5.13b) crux of Big Fighter on Chaupi Huanca. Phot...
Our original plan was to attempt the unclimbed southeast face of Huantsán (6,395m). However, Mike Bowyer and I realized that abnormally warm temperatures, combined with a very lean snowpack, made that face quite dangerous, so we decided to look fo...
A team of 12 mountaineers from Kolkata, India, led by Rudra Prasad Halder, and six Sherpas led by Phursemba, made a probable new route on Brammah I (6,416m, 33°30’23”N, 76°03’04”E), climbing a couloir on the right side of the south face to reach t...
In August 2023, the Indian team of Vinod Chandra Joshi, Karn Kowshik, and Zeeshan Mushtaq climbed the 5,080m central summit of Harmukh, in alpine style, by a new route up the west couloir and upper northwest ridge. Around 35km almost due north of...