IN EARLY JUNE, Josie McKee and I climbed a new route on the east face of Four Gables (12,720’), just west of Bishop. Inspired by an article by Dave Nettle (see AAJ 2014), we decided to check out the face for ourselves. [Editor’s Note: In addition ...
In August, Tad McCrea and I climbed a new route called Mud Falcon (1,400’, IV 5.11- C1) up the north face of Ericsson Crag 3 in Kings Canyon National Park. We had been curious about this mountain after seeing it from the top of North Guard the pre...
In August, I was invited to join an expedition with Sean Canterbury, Mark Evans, Evan Johnson, Jared Leader, Shingo Ohkawa, Heath Rowland, Oli Shaw, and Greg Troutman—an unruly group of climbers from around the country—for two weeks of exploration...
THE DEEPER MYSTERY TOWERS are a previously untouched area of desert sandstone towers, a mile east of the Mystery Towers, which themselves are just east of the well-known Fisher Towers. The Deeper Mysteries can only be seen from the nearby mesa cal...
At the end of March, Thomas Auvaro, Jeremy Fino, Antoine Rolle, and I traveled to the Revelation Glacier. After reading Clint Helander’s stories, the “Revs” seemed to be the perfect place to fulfill our dreams of adventure on unclimbed walls.After...
On September 2, Matt Callahan and I set out to climb a peak that we have been eyeing for a while. Hidden deep in the mountains north of Juneau is what we had been dubbing the Shark’s Tooth (ca 5,700’, 58°43'4.45"N, 134°45'32.11"W Google Earth) for...
On June 10, 2016, my father Mike Miller and I set out into the Endicott River Wilderness, located about 50 miles northwest of Juneau in the Chilkat Range. Our objective was to climb one or more unclimbed peaks in the preserve and then packraft the...
DURING THE EARLY DAYS of March, I received a call from Reid Harris telling me that Ryan Johnson and Marc-André Leclerc were overdue from the north side of the Mendenhall Towers. I had known Ryan for almost a decade and we had established numerous ...
Uisdean Hawthorn and I flew into the Revelations on March 23. We landed on the Fish Creek Glacier, almost directly below the east face of Jezebel (9,620’). Our main objective was the unclimbed north face, an impressively steep, 1,200m wall, but we...
In January 2018, Reuben Shelton and Brandon Thau completed Windchester (7 pitches, 5.11a A0), on the left side of the Crystal Geyser Crag, which is highly visible from Highway 395, above the town of Cartago. [See AAJ 2018 for more information on t...
THE BIGHORNS ARE LESS KNOWN by climbers than the more popular ranges of the Wind River Mountains and the Tetons. Route activity on Cloud Peak (13,166’) reflected this, showing only a few routes. Until 2016, in fact, the large east face only had on...
IN EARLY JUNE, Scott Peters, Andrew Peter, and I completed the second ascent (and the first complete ascent from base to summit) of Mt. Huxley (12,216’) in the St. Elias Mountains. Mt. Huxley is approximately eight miles west of Mt. St. Elias (18,...
On June 4 and 5, Michael Gardner and I made the second ascent of Light Traveler (M7), on the southwest face of Denali. [Editor’s note: Light Traveler takes a direct line up the southwest face,between the Denali Diamond and the Cassin Ridge.] Marko...
GOOD CONDITIONS PREVAILED throughout 2018 in the Chugach Mountains around Valdez and Thompson Pass. Living and working year-round in Valdez, I was able to climb five probable first ascents with numerous partners.Through the end of February we had ...
AFTER WATCHING a constant barrage of storms strafe south-central Alaska in the late spring of 2018, Mat Brunton and I headed into the Wrangell Mountains hoping to visit a semi-protected area of storm shadow on the drier side of the range. On May 1...
IN LATE JULY, Lang Van Dommelen, Chris Williams, and I flew into Gates of the Arctic National Park looking for adventure, suffering, and ecstasy on the walls of the Arrigetch Peaks. They did not disappoint. Coyote Air dropped us off on a gravel ba...
Sasha DiGiulian, accompanied by Molly Mitchell (both USA), onsighted Samadhi (450m, 5.13a) in February 2019 for the third known free ascent. The pair spent 14 hours on the route, which is sustained at 5.12 or harder on the top five pitches. Samadh...
IN 1971, THE YOUNG AND STRONG team of Jeff Lowe and Mike Weis walked up to the base of “Chimney Tower” and climbed what became the famous Moonlight Buttress. Forty years later, Jeff was crippled by a disease that rendered him incapable of talking ...
In 2016, Joe Crane and I ventured into Idaho’s Lost River Range to pit ourselves against the unrepeated Broken Wings (400m, WI5, Dickerson-Lords-Mordicai, AAJ 2006) on the north face of Sacajewea Peak (11,936’). Due to the fickle nature of mixed c...
From May 4–7, Matt Meinzer and I established a new free climb on the southwest face of Notch Peak in the House Range of Utah’s West Desert area. The Southwest Face Left (400m, IV 5.11 R) proved to be a serious and slightly loose affair. We placed ...