Over three trips in March and April 2013, Jeremy Aslaksen and I established a new route on the north face of the Kingfisher, between the climbs Dead Again and Hazing. We had spied the line on a rest day the prior year when we established Beak to t...
In winter 2014, Jim Beyer soloed two new routes in the Fisher Towers. He reported that he did not place any heads on the climbs, a technique for which he has been criticized on some of his other Fisher Towers routes (AAJ 2013).In January, Beyer cl...
In October 2012, Mary Harlan and I began work on some new routes on the northwest corner of the Bridger Jack butte in Indian Creek, just outside of Canyonlands. The routes are just around the buttress as you hike toward the climb Rimshot. I return...
Until 2011 very little development had occurred on the steeper rock faces in central Idaho’s Lost River Range. But now that the door has been opened, several very fine routes have been established. These are big limestone and dolomite walls, 1,500...
I HAD BEEN searching for this rock for roughly 20 years, having first heard of it from a wilderness outfitter, who said it was somewhere in the southern Bitterroot Wilderness and was one of the biggest walls in the range. My searching brought abou...
[Editor's Note 10/2014: It appears that Cathedral Tower was first climbed by its east ridge (right skyline of the tower) to the east summit (rightmost in the photo) in December 1961 by Joanna Coleman, John McComb, and Don Morris. They are reported...
Kim Jin-Seok and Oh Young-hoon climbed in the Langtang Valley during February. The pair warmed up with an ascent of the easy east ridge of Gangja La Peak (5,652m), the first peak east of Gangja La. They then climbed Naya Kanga (5,863m) by the c...
On April 24 a group of experienced alpinists—Geoff Bonney, Peter Chadwick, my wife Sandy Gregson, Michael Smith, and I (all U.K.), along with Alexandre Buisse (France) and Tony Hoare (Canada), gathered in Reykjavik, ready to fly the next day to Co...
For the past three years, while traveling to Zongo Pass for rock climbing, I have looked at the southwest face of Pico Milluni (5,500m) and thought that in the right conditions it must hold interesting mixed lines. Despite its easy access and a nu...
In post-monsoon season 2012, a New Zealand Alpine Club expedition led by John Nankervis explored the rarely visited Yangma Khola region, west of Kangchenjunga. Permits had been granted for Syao Kang (also spelled Suaokang) and Chaw East. Both peak...
In October, Galina Chibitok and Anastasia Petrova (Russia), and Marina Kopteva (Ukraine), climbed the 1,900m northeast face via a line they named the Battle for Love (VI 6b A2). The three started work on the route on September 23 and climbed for 1...
In November 2012, after climbing Kyajo Ri, Hans Lanters and I moved to Pheriche and attempted the unclimbed northwest ridge of Tawoche. We had been able to see it from both sides: steep sections up to the still virgin north summit (ca 6,350m), the...
Christoph Kreutzenbeck and I left Kathmandu on September 25, 2012, for the Raksha Urai Range, with the intention of making a first ascent on one of the four Raksha summits, as designated by the 2001 British expedition (AAJ 2002). We flew to Nepalg...
Northwest of Simikot, the principal airport of West Nepal, lies the remote valley of Limi (a.k.a. Takuche Khola) and its three villages: Jang, Waljie, and Til. They are Tibetan in culture, isolated in winter, but linked to China by a road over the...
The post-monsoon season was characterized by two heavy snowfalls, resulting in substantial snow depth at altitude that made progress either very difficult or impossible for many expeditions. This was exemplified on the 7,000m peaks accessed from t...
While acclimatizing before their ill-fated attempt on the south face of Annapurna in 1982, and to inspect the east ridge as a possible descent, René Ghilini, Alex MacIntyre, and John Porter are reported in most references to have climbed a new rou...
On November 4, Camilo Lopez and I climbed a direct line on the south face of Lungaretse, a peak immediately north of Kyajo Ri that people on the west side of the mountain refer to as Umjo-tse (Lake Peak).We accessed the peak via Marlung (Marulung,...
On November 13 Ines Papert made the first ascent of Likhu Chuli I, reaching the summit alone. Her partner, Thomas Senf from Switzerland, remained in their top camp, fearing he might get serious frostbite in his toes.Likhu Chuli I and its lower wes...
William Hewitt Thomas, an American Alpine Club member for over 50 years, died October 19, 2013, in Carlsbad, California. He was 86. Bill served the AAC for many years, reviewing research proposals as a member of the Scientific Committee. Bill b...
From a young age Marty was passionate about going to the hills. The mountains were the one place on this Earth that truly nurtured his soul. There, he felt free and found his balance between the horizontal and vertical worlds.Guiding clients was h...