On September 17, Climber 1 (female, 28) was being lowered by Climber 2 (male, 27) when she was dropped at least four or five feet to the ground. Climber 1 wrote, “We weren’t sure if our rope would be long enough, so my buddy climbed first while I...
On January 19, Tucker Rowan (24) had finished a top-rope solo of Secret Waterfall (110’, WI3) and was attempting to downclimb the loose, rock gully on the climber’s right side of the flow when he slipped. The 60 to 70-foot fall from near the top o...
On March 3, Thad Friday (48) fell while descending from the Bastille in Eldorado Canyon. He was an exceptionally experienced climber with big-wall free enchainments, big-wall aid solos in Yosemite, and first ascents in Greenland to his credit. On ...
On April 2, “Andrew” (31) and “Jordan” (28) were climbing a link-up of several difficult routes, as training for an upcoming trip to Patagonia. Andrew fell while climbing the third pitch of the day. Andrew wrote to ANAC, “I led the first pitch of...
On June 22, a female climber (58) was rappelling to the ground from a bolted anchor on a route called The Bomb (2 pitches, 5.4) when she fell an estimated 40 feet to the ground. She suffered life-threatening injuries. Bystanders called 911 immedia...
Rob Batey (48) was severely injured in an unroped 80- to 100-foot fall on the Second Flatiron, a large sandstone slab above Boulder, on November 1. He survived the fall but suffered a broken femur, five fractured vertebrae, 16 broken ribs, a broke...
On July 9, Anna Laila Leikvold (22) was preparing to climb at the Wizard’s Gate crag, south of Estes Park, when she was struck by a rock falling from above on a route called The Arrival (4 pitches, 5.11). Leikvold, who was wearing a helmet, was at...
On May 29, one climber was killed, one seriously injured, and a third person suffered minor injuries in an avalanche on Dreamweaver (III AI3- M2+), a classic couloir route in Rocky Mountain National Park. The trio were climbing as a team when a ma...
On July 10, Will Toor (60) and Mariella Colvin (59) fell down the East Couloir (II AI2 or 65° snow) on the north face of Flattop Mountain (12,324’). At the top, a cornice collapsed, causing Toor to fall. The dislodged debris struck Colvin. Unroped...
On September 13, Maya Humeau (female, 22) fell from a large ledge at the start of Cary Granite (5.11c), a five-pitch route on the Black Wall, near Mt. Evans. Humeau and her climbing partner, Mathias Gruber (male), were a very experienced team. Th...
On July 31, Leon Sparks (44) fell while attempting to climb 14,175-foot El Diente Peak in the San Juan Mountains. His plan was to approach via Navajo Lake and complete the standard loop that summits El Diente Peak, Mt. Wilson, and Wilson Peak. In ...
In the late morning of April 30, Andrew Whiteside (male, 67) fell while leading the first pitch of Otto’s Route (5 pitches, 5.8+). The first pitch is 5.4 and starts on the northwest side of the formation, climbing a ramp with some chopped steps be...
The 2007 summer edition of Alpinist magazine contained a profile of Mt. Huntington (12,240') in which Clay Wadman described the peak as part of what he called The Realm, “a place savage, yet fragile, so sublime it existed completely beyond human e...
Paul Ramsden at the foot of the crux ramp on day two of the climb of the north face of Jugal Spire. This passage, hidden from below, was the key to the route the climbers eventually called The Phantom Line. Photo by Tim Miller. COVID was terr...
My world is damp, my sleeping bag is limp and clammy, I can’t remember the last time I could feel my toes. Every few seconds, I hear the drip from the fly onto the inside of our portaledge. My phone and Kindle are both dead, probably waterlogged. ...
The Ritual of Hardship (500m of climbing, 7b/6c+ obl.), the first route up the southeast face of Anafi’s Mt. Kalamos. Two earlier routes end near the monastery circled in the photo. Drone photo by Kyriakos Rossidis. Ten years ago, during a fl...
Our initial plan was to open a new route on the south face of the main (south) summit of Ushba (4,710m). However, the weather forecast was not very good, with a risk of storms in the afternoons. So our trio—Basque climbers Julen Berrueko, Jon Inor...
In July and August, Sam Spector and I attempted several unclimbed summits from a base camp at 3,943m below the Kotur Glacier in the Western Kokshaal-too. This we reached in a day from Naryn thanks to travel firm ITMC, our driver Anton, and his off...
Dane Steadman (25), Jared Vilhauer (42), and I (41) traveled to the Western Kokshaal-too mountains of Kyrgyzstan for the month of September. We choose this time frame based on two factors: 1) the temperatures are significantly cooler than in m...
On December 4, Nathaniel Masahi Takatsuno (22) fell to his death while free soloing Leonids, a three-pitch 5.9 on the Wedge at El Cajon Mountain. Climber Michael Sandler witnessed the accident. In his report to Accidents, he wrote, “As we were wa...