In February, Cooper Varney, Elise Maillot, Laure Batoz, Caroline North, and Nick Heyward established a new route in El Antifeatro on Pared del Tiempo. The 8-pitch route, comprised of splitter cracks and roofs, was eventually free-climbed by Chris ...
After a month of fighting cold weather in El Chaltén, my partners, Kivik Francois and Olivier Zintz (both from Belgium), and I decided to head north to the sunny granite walls of Cochamó. On January 11 we climbed a new line ground-up on Cerro Lagu...
After opening El Filo la Aleta de Tiburon (see previous report), I was set on finding a cleaner and harder route, full of splitter cracks. Near the back of El Anfiteatro, up a gully, was an amazing-looking buttress, still untouched. I was in need ...
In January 2014, Florian Haenel (Germany), Austin Siadak (USA), and I made the first ascent of an unclimbed feature left of Pared del Tiempo. (At first, it appears to be part of Pared del Tiempo, but it is separate from that wall.) The lower part ...
This season I hoped to complete a first ascent on one of the most impressive and beautiful walls in Cochamó, the west face of Cerro Capicúa. I’d chosen a line in the middle of the wall, following a very steep headwall. Trying to free as much as po...
In late January 2014, Chris Moore, Katie Ryan, Cooper Varney, and I began to porter our gear across the strenuous 13km approach from La Junta to the base of El Monstruo. We set our eyes on a direct and sustained line on the east face, to the right...
I’ve spent 10 seasons of my life climbing in the awesome big-wall destination of Cochamó Valley, and the devouring finger crack of my new route Doña Debora de Dedos (450m, 5.12b) is the best I’ve ever climbed. Others who have repeated it agreed an...
On January 7, 2013, Drew Smith and I walked into Cochamó Valley with 160 pounds of food, climbing gear for any situation, and the intentions of having an adventure. After a week of climbing some established routes, we decided to explore the 1,000m...
In December 2011, Martín Neimark, Code Raguet, and I explored the barely visited western area of the Cordillera de la Totora. This beautiful range is located in San Juan Province in the Central Andes of Argentina—a remote area with lots of potenti...
Cerro Moai is a Chilean mountain (4,368m, 33º44´29¨ S, 69º58´56¨ W), first ascended in 1964, which had two routes and relatively few ascents. From April 19–21, Mariela Muñoz (German-Chilean), Luis Garrido, and Vicente “Vicho” Gamboa (both Chileans...
In the heart of Central Andes are “blank” zones ignored by mountaineers. The Santa Clara Range, situated at the southern end of the La Jaula Massif in the Cordillera Frontal, is one of these, and still houses 5,000m unclimbed peaks. Lotfi Mijel an...
This fine peak (5,432m) is located near Aconcagua in Argentina’s Central Andes. It was first ascended in 1903 by Countess Nadine Lougonine Von Meyendorff and Alois Pollinger. On October 27, Pablo Busso and Gabriel Fava traveled to the west face to...
Cerro Río Salado. In November, Glauco Muratti and Adriàn Petrocelli ascended an unclimbed volcano near Ojos del Salado: Cerro Río Salado (6,350m). They left their vehicle at ca 4,700m, and the next day reached a camp at ca 5,200m. On the third day...
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El Altar (a.k.a. Kapak Urku) is a large, extinct stratovolcano located on the western side of Sangay National Park in central Ecuador, 170km south of Quito. Comprising the massif of El Altar are nine major peaks that rise over 5,000m and form a ho...
At the end of January 2014, Rolando Larcher, Luca Giupponi, and I began climbing a route in between the newly established route Gravity Inversion (AAJ 2014) and Pizza, Chocolate y Cerveza. The route contained fantastic climbing in a unique environ...
In late December 2013, Luis Cisneros, Blake McCord, Joel Unema, and I traveled to the friendly Pemon village of Yunek. From there we hoped to establish a new route on the east face of the Acopan Tepui. Analyzing the formation, we found a weakness ...
In January 2014, Felipe Guarderas, Nicolas Navarrete, and I put up three new routes in the Cordillera del Cocuy.The park service had closed the east side of the range, forcing us to camp on the west, so we had to do long approaches to most of the ...
In January 2013, Santiago Zuluaga and I achieved the first ascent of the remarkable hanging glacier on the northeastern aspect of Pan de Azúcar (ca 5,120m). This route is easily visible from the lake of La Plaza and had seen a couple of previous a...
The initial plan was to go ice climbing in Chile, but just four days before the flight my partner Marta Alejandre seriously injured her knee. I suddenly found myself searching for something to do with my motivation and time.I decided to go to El G...