FALL ON ROCK, SEVERED ROPE, PLACED NO OR INADEQUATE PROTECTION, NO HARD HATWest Virginia, Seneca Rocks, La Bella VistaOn the morning of July 11, Ian Shevill (42) and his partner Brian (20’s) were climbing La Bella Vista, a two-pitch 5.10a trad cli...
Trango Tower, free ascent; Trango Monk, second ascent. After an unsuccessful expedition to the Trango group in 2004 with 26-year-old Matevž Kunšic, I decided to return to the wonderful people and mountains of Baltistan. Matevž and I were joined by...
Ulamertorssuaq, Quadrophania. Our team (Paolo Cavagnetto, Manlio Motto and Vecenzo Ravaschietto from Italy, and me, Michel Piola, from Switzerland) took a train from Geneva to Luxembourg, a flight from there to Rejkiavik, Iceland, a boat to Massan...
PAUL THOMAS DOHERTY1919-2000The “Old Fish Cop” left this world from his home in Gorham, New Hampshire, on June 18, after a long struggle with cancer. He was born on June 19, 1919, one of a family of four New Hampshire boys, all of whom followed di...
FALL ON ROCK – POOR COMMUNICATIONTexas, Enchanted Rock State Natural AreaOn Saturday, April 16, several groups of climbers were climbing at or in close vicinity of the Echo Canyon and Triple Cracks area. These included a group of six climbers from...
Ascent: The Mountaineering Experience in Word and Image. Edited by Allen Steck and Steve Roper. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1989. 205 pages, illustrations. $19.95.In the inaugural issue of Ascent, Royal Robbins characterized the periodical a...
The Mountaineers. Climbing techniques and climbing equipment have changed considerably over the past few years. The Mountaineers’ Climbing Course has also changed to keep pace with the new techniques and equipment. Changes include new methods of i...
Climbing the Fish’s Tail, by Wilfred Noyce, London, Melbourne and Toronto, William Heinemann Ltd., 1958, 150 pages, 24 plates, 2 sketch maps.A casual glance at the frontispiece suffices to attract the climber to an afternoon with this short, well-...
Mt. Hoffman, Southeast Face Central. This route, the Southeast Face Central (5.8-5.9, three and a half pitches) in the Wishon Reservoir Area of the Sierra National Forest, starts to the right of the obvious 200-foot tower/buttress on the southeast...
El Mocho, New Route. It was reported that the Germans Jorn Heller and Robert Jasper climbed a new route on the north side of this formation, giving it a grade of VI+ with ice sections up to 95°. (High Mountain Sports July 1995.)
Tigers of the Snow: How One Fateful Climb Made the Sherpas Mountaineering Legends. Jonathan Neale. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2002. 336 pages. Hardcover. $26.95.Through the lens of the repeated German attempts on Nanga Parbat between 1932 and 1...
Half Dome, New Routes. Eric Coomer, Bryan Law and I developed some new aid lines on the far right side of the northwest face of Half Dome in 1999.I began solo in late May, carrying several loads of wall gear up the Bushido gully while it was still...
Mana. We had to turn back from a point 300 feet below the summit of Mana (23,860 feet) in 1961 because of bad weather. We tried to climb it by the north face although Frank Smythe reached the summit in 1937 from the south. There were 12 members of...
On July 23, at 10:30, Michael Munsch (34) was leading the fourth pitch (5.6) on the Sykes Sickle route (III 5.9+) on Spearhead. He climbed 20 feet above the belay ledge, placed a “marginal” piece of protection, and continued another five to ten fe...
The Munich Andean ExpeditionWOLFGANG WEINZIERL, Deutscher Alpenverein Translated by H. ADAMS CARTERAT LONG LAST! For the firsttime we could see the “White Cordillera” running diagonally away into the distance. We felt numb as the icy cold penetrat...
Siguniang National Park, Suang Qiao Gou Valley: Mi Mi Shan (5,018m), first ascent; Heart of Cow (Niuxim Shan) (4,942m), north face, first ascent. Giant pandas and Chinese acrobats swung the balance. After being inspired by Tomatsu Nakamura’s splen...
The Fin WallExploring a little-known Alaskan giant.Freddie WilkinsonPaul didn’t even turn off the engine. The plane just sat there waiting, humming along in the silence of the Yentna Glacier. Ben Gilmore, Peter Doucette, and I stumbled around in t...
Mixed Emotions. Greg Child. The Mountaineers, Seattle, 1993. 256 pages. $14.95 (paper).Stories off the Wall. John Roskelley. The Mountaineers, Seattle, 1993. Color and black-and-white photographs. 223 pages, $22.95.Together these books provide a g...
When in Doubt, Go Higher: Mountain Gazette Anthology, M. John Fayhee, editor, (Mountain Sports Press $18.95) collects together essays from 1972-’79 along with a few selections from the new MG, relaunched in 1999. AAJ readers will recognize David R...
British Columbia, Mount Waddington—A Canadian party consisting of Derrick Boddy, John Owen, Elfrida Pigou and Joan Stirling disappeared between July 30 and August 1, while attempting an ascent of Mount Waddington, and are presumed to have been kil...