On Friday, August 25, five climbers left the Bay Area with the goal of climbing Cathedral Peak. The team consisted of two experienced climbers (Ben and Nate) and three with little to no experience outside of the gym (Megan, Erin, and Andrew). All ...
On September 9, at 1:20 p.m., Coconino County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies responded to a report of a 12-year-old male, Person 1, who took a 20-foot ground fall while lead climbing. Upon arrival, responders found Person 1 at the base of Mic...
My climbing partner and I were attempting to climb Tenaya Peak, Matthes Crest, and Cathedral Peak—three long but moderate routes in the Tuolumne Meadows area—in a day. Because of the sheer amount of climbing and distance we would need to travel, w...
The first pitch of Zodiac, showing (1) climber’s high point near the top belay anchor and (2) the highest piece of protection that held. The climber estimated he fell 110 feet. Parker Kempf On the morning of De...
On May 3, 2017, Barry Smith and I touched down on the southernmost prong of the Pitchfork Glacier in the Neacola Range of Alaska. Our goal was to climb two adjacent virgin summits, peaks 8,908’ and 8,505’ [see AAJ 2016] , as well as to survey the ...
On a blindingly sunny day, March 5, 2018, Ryan Johnson's face radiated with the kind of satisfaction only an alpinist can appreciate. In a video sent to his girlfriend, he was smiling and calm, spinning in a slow circle to show a panorama of Alask...
A BORDER DISPUTE with China dashed our hopes of a permit for Rangrik Rang, but at the last minute Justin Guarino and I obtained permission to attempt Baihali Jot (6,365m). In September 2017 we approached up the Baihali Nala from the Chenab River...
A five-man Japanese expedition comprising Tetsuji Otsue (leader), Shigekazu Kawajiri, Kiyotaka Nakamura, Koji Matsumoto, and Goto Tomio, with three Nepalese climbing members, Man Bahadur Gurung, Iman Gurung, and Ramesh Gurung, reached the summits ...
On November 17 two friends of Niels Tietze hiked to the base of Fifi Buttress to look for their overdue friend. The two knew that Tietze had been up on the formation, working to establish a new route, and had been doing so alone, using fixed lines...
In October, Alex Doria was injured in a long fall on the third pitch of the Regular Northwest Face on Half Dome. Doria had made a substantial runout to a stance near the end of the 5.8 pitch and was preparing to place a piece when he lost his bala...
On October 11, Quinn Brett (female, 30s) was attempting a Nose in a Day ascent with Josie McKee when she took a very long fall while leading the right side of the Boot Flake. The two women were using speed-climbing tactics: Brett was effectively r...
THE HISTORY and exact whereabouts of established routes on Illampu, particularly its western aspect, has been something of a muddle. New information about several routes is helping to set the record straight.Illampu has two summits: north (6,310m,...
Rob Lamey and Mike Rolf (U.K.) were active on Lofoten's westernmost island of Moskenesøya in 2016, putting up several new routes, including two on Merraflestinden.On July 26 the two climbed Nonchalance (Norwegian 6) on the Reine Slab (Reinesvaet),...
Above the tiny rural villages of Madagascar’s Tsaranoro Valley, the granite walls stand proudly like ancient giants. The stone is rough to the touch and grippy like Velcro—even with an unchalked hand in the hot Malagasy sun. In 2018, I made the lo...
From July 24–27, 2016, Maciej Bedrejczuk, Piotr Sulowski, and I made the first free ascent of the Rhombus, the outstanding north-facing feature on Chatyn-tau (4,412m). Around half a dozen routes climb the 600m-plus rock wall of the Rhombus, and we...
In March, Bolivian resident Davide Vitale and friends traversed Peak 5,396m in the Negruni Range of the central Cordillera Real. As had been done in the past, the Vitale team climbed onto the southwest ridge from the south (AD), but from the summi...
I met Brette Harrington at Gripped magazine editor Brandon Pullan’s house—a veritable couch-surfing operation for climbers hanging around Canmore—in mid-March, almost exactly five weeks after the death of her partner, Marc-André Leclerc. There was...
Edward (“Ed”) Boulton died at his home in North Seattle on September 27, 2018. He was 91.Ed was born and raised in Seattle and attended Roosevelt High School. He served in the U.S. military for a few years immediately following the end of WWII. Ed...
On the afternoons of September 27 and 28, a series of rockfalls occurred on the far right side of El Capitan, near the line of Horsetail Fall. The initial rockfall on September 27 struck two climbers who were walking along the base of the cliff af...
At 6:59 p.m. on June 10, Yosemite dispatch received a report that a climber had rappelled off the end of her rope while descending Harry Daley (2 pitches, 5.8). Barbara (mid-30s, not her real name) was now on top of the fourth-class pinnacle that ...