Summary. After the incredibly dry summer of 2004, which turned faces like that of North Twin into rockfall-strafed nightmares and peaks like Mt. Alberta into overgrown scrambles, the summer of 2005 turned out to be one of the wettest on record. Th...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, BELAYER NOT ANCHOREDOregon, Smith Rock, SpidermanNathan Sanborn (27) was climbing the first pitch of Spiderman, a four star classic climb rated 5.7 by Alan Watts (trad gear to three inches) when he slipped off ...
The Man on the End of the Rope, by Paul Townend. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc. 1960. 256 pages, no illustrations. Price $3.00. This bit of mountaineering fiction could find a suitable spot in your library alongside Ullman’s White Towe...
Choktoi Glacier Area, Various Ascents. The team was composed of Luca Maspes, Emanuele Pellizzari, Massimo Sala and Gianni Zappa, plus geologist Paolo Biffi. We explored the Choktoi Glacier, which lays on the north side of the Latoks and ends at th...
FALL ON SNOW, FALL INTO CREVASSE, CLIMBING UNROPEDWashington, Mount RainierOn July 18, 1985, Gregory Sloop (18) reported to the rangers that members of his climbing party were injured on the Kautz Glacier and needed help at the scene.Around 0800 t...
Japanese Everest Attempt. A Japanese expedition failed to climb Everest. The leader, Haruyuki Endo, who had successfully scaled Everest in October 1983, came again to the mountain with the hope of getting Miss Takeo Nagao to the summit as the firs...
The Great and Secret ShowThirty-nine days in the vertical realm by Warren HollingerClive Barker’s novel The Great and Secret Show asserts that there is a hallowed place of intense existence so pure and euphoric it can only be reached three times i...
Everest the Cruel Way. Joe Tasker. Eyre Methuen, London, 1981. 166 pages, black and white photographs. £6.95.This book by Joe Tasker describes the British 1981-82 winter attempt on the west ridge of Mount Everest. It is a grim story of eight comra...
Huaytapallana Karu. Owing to the new road, this little range has since 1968 lost much of its pleasant remoteness. In order to climb its central peaks I looked for a campsite at Pucará, high pastures above the valley of Otorongo, northwest of Abra ...
CONCLUSIONA perusal of these pages suggests that the enthusiastic cooperation of regional mountaineering and outdoor clubs and related agencies, in response to the “Appeal to Reason” circulated by the American Alpine Club three years ago, has begu...
P 3080 and P 3191. Upper South Arm of Kaskawulsh Glacier. The easiest access to the St. Elias Mountains is up Slims River and the Kaskawulsh Glacier. Again this year a French party explored the relatively unknown part of the range. We were Bernard...
For ten years Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins had been eyeing what they called “Cerro Geezer”—an unnamed, unclimbed ca 7,500' mountain a few kilometers west of Cerro Jeinimeni. The peak is the highest in a small range on the northern margin of...
FALL ON ROCK, NO HARD HATNew Hampshire, Cathedral Ledge, Turner's FlakeThis afternoon (August 6) while I was belaying my girlfriend on the first pitch of Thin Air, I witnessed Doug M. (50+) take a leader fall on Turners Flake. It is estimated he f...
The Southwest Face of King PeakPersonal evolution on an overlooked gemby Joe JosephsonA profound form of love. This is how a long-time friend once described obsession. Ten years ago I used her words as a kinder, more acceptable justification for d...
Cerro Falso Ilse (2,512m GPS). Located on the eastern periphery of the Southern Patagonian Icefield, 3.7 km northwest of Cerro Gorra Blanca, Cerro Falso Ilse is mistakenly labeled Cerro Ilse on several old maps. The correct Cerro Ilse is farther n...
WEATHER, FALL ON SNOW, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, RAPID ASCENT Alaska, Mount McKinleyThe British Denali Expedition of Chris Massey (39), John Lang (45), and Julian Dixon (37) flew onto the Kahiltna Glacier on May 1, 1989, to begin their ascent of the ...
HERBERT N. HULTGREN, M.D.1917 - 1997Herb Hultgren arguably made more important contributions to our understanding and management of mountain sickness than anyone in our lifetime. He was my friend and mentor for more than 30 years, and we did some ...
FALL ON ROCK, PROTECTION PULLED OUTCalifornia, Idyllwild, Suicide RockOn September 5, Trevor Mathews (21), suffered significant head trauma and remains in intensive care. His friend and climbing partner, Claire McKay (22), was treated and released...
Broad Peak and K2. An Italian group, “Quota 8000,” which has a six-year program to climb all fourteen 8000ers, had K2 and Broad Peak for its goal in 1986. The team consisted of Italians Agostino Da Polenza, leader, Marino Giacometti, Gianni Calcag...
Meseta de los Franceses, various first ascents. In July, Pablo Besser, Ismael Mena, Nicolás von Graevenitz, and I made the first winter ascent of Cerro Balmaceda, at southern end of Continental Icecap [see below]. From the summit the Tyndall Glaci...