The granite dome of Ben Amira has climbing routes up to 500 meters long. Photo: Les3corbiers | Wikimedia I founded the nonprofit organization Médecine et Montagnes du Monde (MMM) in 1995, with the aim of practicing medicine and developing cli...
Avalanche Dreams: A Memoir of Skiing, Climbing, and Life, by Louis W. Dawson (Best Peak Press). A poignant look at a feral youth in 1970s Colorado and “the struggles for meaning in the world of extreme alpinism,” by the author of Wild Snow. Balan...
Submundo das Sombras (655m of climbing, 7a A2), the first route up the south face of Brazil’s Pico do Paraná (1,877m), climbed in July 2022. Photo by Ed Padilha. Discussing the possibilities for new adventures close to home, one day the so...
Existing routes on Pedra do Fio (left) and new route Carpinteiro do Universo on Pedra do Cabrito (right). Photo by Naoki Arima. In September 2023, Willian Lacerda, Valdesir Machado, and I spent five days opening an incredible line on the s...
Tsouka Rossa’s north face, showing the central line of the Scream of the Butterfly (500m, III AI5 M6+). The 500-meter ascent included 200 meters on the northeast spur at the top. Photo by Spyros Kyriakou. February 10, 2024, 6 p.m. After 12 h...
This report covers climbing exploration, innovation, and performance in the Alps during 2023 and 2024, through a small but representative selection of significant ascents. EXPLORATION The west face of the Aiguille de Blaitière with approximate...
Bastei (left) was climbed from the left and via the prominent couloir in left center. Bergfuhrerspitz, climbed by the prominent snow line, is on the right. Photo by Christoph Höbenreich. In November 2024, I made my eighth expedition to Qu...
The line of Erresistentziara Kondenatuak (10 pitches, 7a) on the west face of double-topped Torre Norte del Paine. Photo by Ibon Mendia. Opening a new route was not in our plans when Ibon Mendia and I left Puerto Natales in Chilean Patagonia ...
The line of Ultima Ronda (700m, AI3 M4) on the south face of Cerro Trono Blanco, climbed in December 2024. Photo by Sebastian Pelletti. Hernán Rodríguez and I awoke above a sea of clouds in Torres del Paine’s French Valley. Freezing levels we...
La Mascara from the southwest. (1) Zanetti attempt. (2) Alborada. (3) South African Route. (4) Duncan’s Dihedral. Photo by Galen Herz. Hernán Rodríguez and I dumped our packs and enjoyed the mid-day sun, watching as hundreds of toudrists scur...
In addition to new climbs on La Mascara, Cerro Trono Blanco, and Torre Norte, there were several notable ascents in Torres del Paine National Park. In February, Nicolás Gutiérrez and Aron Roca (Chile) completed a route called Espolón Chykillan on...
The northwest face of Cerro Pier Giorgio, with the west face on the right. (1) Via Gringos Locos, started in 1995 and completed in 2025. (2) Via del Hermano (2008). Other routes are not shown. Photo: Rolando Garibotti The northwest face of Ce...
Similar to the previous season, the weather in the summer of 2024–25 was statistically “average,” with mean temperature and levels of precipitation, which meant there were few favorable windows and mostly difficult conditions. After quite a few an...
Seán Villanueva O'Driscoll freeing the crux (8a/5.13b) of The Approach Team Line on El Mocho in February 2025. Cerro Torre is partly visible at far right. Photo: Florian Delcoigne. The long, sustained splitters on the north face of El Mocho p...
Ron Matous below the Eiger in 1976, when he and Mike Munger made the second all-American ascent of the north face. Photo: Mike Munger Ronald August Matous was born on October 25, 1952, in New York City. He died at 72 on December 18, 2024, as ...
Looking back at Cerro Ambrosio Este’s southeast ridge. Photo by Agustín Ferrer. On September 3, 2024, Emil Stefani, Martín Hurtado, and I—all members of the Club Andino Universitario (CAU) mountaineering group—crossed Lago O’Higgins to Punta ...
Camp in the cirque beneath the twin summits of Cerro Ambrosio Oeste (left) and Este (right). Both peaks were climbed for the first time within one year. Thor Retzlaff and Matthew Tufts made an ascent and ski descent of Cerro Ambrosio Oeste in No...
A western summit (3,150m) of Monte San Lorenzo, seen from the Calluqueo Glacier to the west. The right skyline is the top of the northwest spur, climbed in May 2024. Photo: Raimundo De Andraca Over six days from May 13 to 18, 2024, during a c...
In January 2023, an international team visited the Turbio IV Valley and made several ascents. John Collis, Mike Coyle, and Gareth Leah climbed most of a south-facing wall beneath Cerro Tres Negros, finding many flared and mostly unprotectable crac...
El Cohete from the approach, showing the line of Apollo 13 (13 pitches, 7b+). Above the rock wall, the route continued about 700 meters to a snowy top. Photo by Julia Cassou. Wanting to go on an expedition with friends and colleagues, I organ...