ON SEPTEMBER 30, at about 2 p.m., Jim Morrison and I pulled off our overboots, clicked into our ski bindings, and laboriously buckled our boots. Our oxygen masks were off, making every action at 27,940 feet, on the summit of Lhotse, extremely slow...
On February 13, I took a 20-plus-meter lead fall while attempting a new route high on the north face of Mt. Lawrence Grassi, above my home in Canmore. My friend Ethan Berman and I had good weather, were climbing well, and were within two pitches o...
On the evening of June 6, NPS rangers were alerted about a climber who was unresponsive and experiencing seizures in 14,200-foot camp. This 40-year-old male had been pulled from his tent when his climbing partner found him experiencing seizures wh...
In the summer of 2018, Dmitriy Pavlenko (Russia) soloed a new, independent route on the First Tower of Korona (4,810m). He had made a previous attempt on this line in the summer of 2016, stopping halfway up the route. A second attempt, in the wi...
IT'S EITHER the lung or the heart,” Conrad Anker said between gasps. He was suffering from severe pain in his chest. The temperature of around -20°C wasn’t helping. It was November 2016, and we were about 450 meters up on our second attempt on...
At 10:06 p.m. on June 1, NPS rangers were notified via Garmin inReach that a climber near the summit ridge appeared to be suffering from severe altitude illness. Other climbers in the vicinity had administered two doses of dexamethasone, a steroid...
During the 1990s, the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing (FFME) developed a training program for groups of elite young alpinists—the Jeunes Alpinistes de Haut Niveau. The final session was often an expedition, and in 1994 chief coach...
IN MY MEMORY'S EYE, I can easily see the mistake. As I scampered up a granite wall on the Swiss side of the Aiguilles Rouges du Mont Dolent, I’d noted with mild curiosity that water was dripping from under the two-meter-tall block of rock I was ...
Bas Visscher and friends from the Netherlands visited the Virjerab Glacier in August 2016, and though warm weather thwarted their attempted climbs, they came away with photos of some impressive unclimbed objectives in this area (see the photos bel...
FOR ABOUT a month starting in mid-August 2018, our Italian group explored the Rangtik Valley, inspired by the extremely useful report by Matija Jošt published in AAJ 2017. Our main goal was the first ascent of unnamed Peak 6,080m (H2 as designated...
THE TAKPHU HIMAL in Nepal’s extreme far west is only 15 kilometers south of Gurla Mandhata (7,694 meters), which towers over holy Lake Manasarovar in Tibet, with the holy of holies Mt. Kailash just a little further north. Takphu is best approached...
Editor’s Note: In 2017, Jeff Lowe received a Piolet d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award, only the second American (after John Roskelley) to gain this honor. His many accomplishments have been well documented. In lieu of repeating that long list here, ...
FOR MOST EVERYONE who reads this—be it now or in the distant future—Marc-André Leclerc will be remembered the way all young alpinists who left us too soon are: as an amalgamation of their deeds in the mountains, their prowess on rock or ice, their...
“IN THE EARLY ’60s the speed limits were high and gasoline cheap. We thought nothing of running over to Moab or the San Juans for a weekend, where there were superb first ascents for the taking. The anticipation, excitement, and carefree nature of...
In 1975, as a sophomore engineering student at the University of Southern California, Charles Cole saw The Eiger Sanction, a Clint Eastwood thriller that featured dramatic climbing scenes. With his native passion and intense focus, he threw himsel...
The Eight Mountains, by Paolo Cognetti (Atria Books, $24), a novel of a friendship in the mountains, was the grand-prize winner at Banff and a finalist for the Boardman-Tasker prize.As Above, So Below, by Chris Kalman (chriskalman.com, $24.99), is...
MY LIFE IN CLIMBING Ueli Steck. Mountaineers Books, 2018. Paperback, 224 pages, $21.95.My Life in Climbing is a terse and passionate record of the late Ueli Steck’s drive and determination to reach summits quickly and prolifically, with partners a...
MYSTERIUM: A Novel. Susan Froderberg. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. Hardcover, 271 pages, $26.“There are climbers who climb primarily to enter a deepening mystery,” Professor Troy scrawls in his journal in the opening chapter of Mysterium. “For...
SUMMER in New Zealand’s high alpine was highlighted by several periods of warm, calm weather, resulting in dry and stable conditions. Despite a hive of activity in the hills, only two new routes of note were established, both solo climbs by Ben Da...
THE CONVOLUTED west spur of Sahale Mountain (8,681’) in North Cascades National Park is plainly visible in profile from the standard route up the Quien Sabe Glacier, a popular initiatory alpine climb. The spur rises from around 7,500’ to 8,200’,...