Mitchell Steinman following the 5.11+ first pitch of the 1978 route Pipeline. Photo: Stefanos Apostle In early September, Mitchell Steinman and I spent about a week in the Cirque of the Moon. After the 12-mile approach and its four river cros...
The line of Peavine Palace (3,000’, IV WI6 M7), high above the Peavine Cabins in the Chitistone Valley, Wrangell Mountains. Photo: Ethan Berkeland Jonathan Koenig and I first acquainted ourselves with the Chitistone Valley in March 2022 and q...
Paweł Haldas climbing in rough conditions on the south face of the Mooses Tooth. Photo: Marcin Tomaszewski. When Paweł Hałdaś (Poland) and I set off for Alaska in February, we had no definite plans but two areas on our radar: the Kichatna mas...
The long left-trending ramp at the start of Sports (4,660’, Alaska Grade V, 5.10 A1 AI4 M6 90° snow) terminates in a cave that pinches down to a chimney. Michael Telstad aims for the light on the other side. Photo: Eli Spitulnik Michael Telst...
Gašper Pinti leading one of the best pitches on The Great Wall, on the south face of Mt. Dickey, on the second day of the climb. Photo: Tom Livingstone On April 2, Paul Roderick slowed the Otter plane and we landed in a whoosh of snow. Gašper...
In the Teton Range, it's hard to assume that any feature you see wasn’t already climbed decades ago. But several years ago, after spotting a line on a clean swath of an east-facing wall on the Grand Teton, just right of the classic route Gold Face...
A bomber stainless-steel wedge bolt, similar to this, was implicated in an accident when the nut loosened and fell off during a fall. ardour | Wikimedia In the late afternoon of May 28, Jesse Han (25) and friends were sport climbing at Sundow...
On July 30, we were a party of six trying to crag at Cathedral Ledge after a night of pouring rain. We decided to get a late start to let the routes dry out. Since the Barber Wall is the highest crag at Cathedral and gets sun, we thought it would ...
On Sunday, May 28, at 6:30 p.m., Matt Allen (24) was leading Retaliation (3 pitches, 5.9) on the Barber Wall. He took a fall while leading pitch two, pulling out a cam and two lower pieces of gear. His resulting fall was 50 feet and near fall fact...
On Sunday, January 28, at noon, Ryan Cooper (21) fell about 30 feet while leading pitch one of the classic Repentance ice climb (3 pitches, WI5) at Cathedral Ledge. His fell was stopped by an ice screw and his belayer. Upon impact, his crampon sna...
When Jeff Gerner fell while following a long pitch in Red Rock, rope stretch generated enough speed and distance to cause a displaced ankle fracture when his foot clipped a small ledge. The rugged terrain necessitated a helicopter extraction. Ph...
Brandon Wanthal leading pitch four during the first ascent of Chilly Dogs. Photo: Chase Krumholz. On July 4, Chase Krumholz and I established a 1,000’ rock climb on the south face of Storm Point. The route lies about 300’ east of the popular ...
Late in the day on August 29, Chris Hirsch and I began the grueling 13-mile hike from Bighorn Reservoir into the Sawtooth Lakes valley. We arrived in the valley around 1 p.m. on August 30 and began to scope objectives. Minding the limitations dict...
Africa Son. Photo: Zach Lentsch The Palisades are a row of tall limestone fins on the southwest flank of Rattlesnake Mountain, visible from the Buffalo Bill Reservoir on Highway 14, heading west out of Cody. Many years ago (probably in the la...
In September 2023, I returned to Storm Dome, eight miles into the backcountry outside of McCall, Idaho, after having established two long free routes there in 2021 and 2022 (see AAJ 2023). Accompanied first by my wife, Erin, and later by several f...
The east face of Sinopah Mountain. The east face of Sinopah Mountain. Photo by Seth Anderson Collection.Finding quality rock in Glacier National Park is a challenge, yet the plentiful steep faces provide endless potential for adventure climb...
Loaded for Bear (IV 5.8) on north face of Flinsch Peak. Photo by NPS / Jacob W. Frank. It started with a photo taken on a gray day during an overnight ski trip in March 2021. A friend and I had skinned into Old Man Lake. While the skiing wasn...
The ridge at the eastern edge of the cirque below Begguya’s Southeast Spur. Ben Dewey and Chris Dewey made the first ascent of the 9,957’, snow-pyramid-capped summit at the left, which they named the Water Tower. They believe all the other summi...
The large, basalt west face of Shipnoor (a.k.a. Shipnur), near Ghatghar village (19°32'38.50"N, 73°38'11.18"E) in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State, had never been climbed until January 2025. In January 2024, four members of the Giripr...
Our all-female expedition of Ana Baumgartner, Urša Kešar, Patricija Verdev, and I (all from Slovenia) headed southwest from near the Pensi La with 18 porters on August 26 to climb in the Lalung Valley. We had thought that our base camp would be a...