The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within By Cory Richards (Random House) Cory Richards has been a prolific 21st-century alpinist, high-altitude mountaineer, and adventure photographer. From being the first and only America...
Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling By Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar (Mountaineers Books) Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges By Bernadette McDonald (M...
Survival Is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini By Geoff Powter (Mountaineers Books) Hats off to Geoff Powter and Jim Donini for teaming up to tell Donini’s life story in Survival Is Not Assured. The story is beautifully written and c...
A Place Among Giants: 22 Seasons at Denali Basecamp By Lisa Roderick (Di Angelo Publications) A Place Among Giants is not only a fresh perspective and certain-to-be classic of mountaineering literature, but also a love story involving the aut...
Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues who Built an Industry at the Top of the World By Will Cockrell (Gallery Books) Will Cockrell wanted to know how, after a mere 394 climbers reached the summit of Chomolungma in the 39 years leading up to ...
A Light Through the Cracks: A Climber’s Story By Beth Rodden (Little A) Beth Rodden’s memoir recounts her harrowing kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, in 2000, and the famous climber’s long struggle with recovery and search for identity within the sexi...
Tobin, the Stonemasters, and Me, 1970–1980: Remembering Tobin Sorenson, the Best Climber in the World By Rick Accomazzo (Stonemaster Books) Much the way nature abhors a vacuum, historians seem to hate unlabeled epochs. A chunk of American clim...
Mountains Before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks before the Modern Age By Dawn L. Hollis (The History Press) Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds Edited by Paul Gilchrist, Peter Hansen, and Jonathan Westaway (Manchester University Pre...
For Jan Solov and I to attempt a new route on a 5,000m South American peak in a 13-day round trip from Britain would require all the elements of easy access, predictable weather (if such a thing exists), a considerable amount of luck, and strong a...
Heading up the western arm of the Djangartynbashi Glacier, en route to Line Peak (hidden on the left). The peak in back is likely unclimbed. In September, Małgorzata Ilkiewicz and I traveled to the Djangart area in the Central Kokshaal-Too. W...
Caitlin McHale and Isabel Jones descending from the top of Peak 4,749m in the Ak-Shyyrak Range, on the south side of the south fork of the Kara-sai Glacier, after the first ascent. The team attempted Peak 4,825m, at far left, reaching a point ab...
As part of a large Kazakh national team expedition, Grigoriy Chshukin (leader), Leonid Krupa, and Roman Shesternin climbed a new route up the rocky west face of Gronky Peak (5,050m), above the East Kyzyl Asker Glacier. The trio made the ascent on ...
The line of the 2022 route up the northwest face of Verniy Peak. The rock wall is about 700 meters high and was climbed capsule style, with six nights in four portaledge camps. Other routes are not shown. In July 2022, seven members of a Kaza...
Grigoriy Chshukin leading the first steep ice pitch during the 2024 attempt on a new route on the west face of Verniy Peak. On July 1, Evgenii Murin (Russia), Maxim Popov (Kazakhstan), and I, along with photographer Denis Lukyanchuk, rode fro...
A traverse of the Ak-sai Horseshoe, an arc of 15 peaks encircling the Ak-sai Glacier, has long been considered one of Central Asia’s most elusive alpine objectives. With many difficult summits and ridgelines known for their sharp exposure and tech...
Andreas Parparinos traversing pitch eight on the west face of Zeus in the Gissar Range. Photo: Constantinos Andreou I had Tajikistan on my list for 2024, and I’d started to look into various ranges for possible first ascents when I came acr...
Panoramic view of the Fann Mountains from high on Energia Peak on May 1. The prominent peak on the left is Chimtarga (5,489m). Photo: Brody Leven Admittedly, all I knew about Tajikistan was that it’s the most mountainous country on Earth, wit...
Foreshortened view of the northeast face of Sterntinden with the line of the first ascent and bivouac marked. Despite spending a lot of time winter climbing in Lofoten, Stian Bruvoll and I had never bivouacked on a route there. In March, we ...
In September 2024, Dave MacLeod and Calum Muskett (both from Scotland) opened a probable new route called Line Dancing (E5 6b) on the left side of Stetind’s southwest face. After one attempt cut short by high wind, the two returned and completed t...