Most of the mountains surrounding Haines are geologically not good to climb without snow on them. However, there are quite a few exceptions to this rule, especially in the mostly unexplored wilderness of the surrounding area. The granite spire...
In the ’60s and ’70s the Twaharpies in the University Range saw a flurry of activity. Large-scale, well-funded Japanese and American teams made first ascents (sometimes together) of most of the large mountains in the area. A Polish team visi...
Himjung is located north of Annapurna and Manaslu in the Peri Himal range, and is nestled between Himlung Himal and the Nemjung peaks, surrounded by numerous 6,000-meter peaks with large glaciers and difficult approaches. Despite having be...
The de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane slowly spiraled downward, aiming for a tiny, emerald-green lake. The contrast between spruce trees and glacial ice formed a defining line between the harsh forested wilderness and rugged mountainscape of...
I enjoy climbing as much as anything in the world. I indulge in that beautiful upward movement, feeling the breeze and trying to be creative and become a part of the wall. It is enormous fun. But I also love setting goals for myself. The challen...
Day 0. Fall 2010 Most climbers who flip through the Yosemite guidebook give Mother Earth (VI 5.12a A4) only a cursory glance. It’s a route that could define the word obscure in Yosemite Valley, yet anyone who has spent days on El Cap ha...
Chamonix, February 2012. We are four climbers living in a two-room apartment: Lise, Jeremy (a.k.a. Djamel), Pedro, and me. François (a.k.a. Pompon) is always over at our place to play cards or talk about our mountain projects. We spend every fr...
We are running on empty. It is 6:12 p.m., late in the day for Rick Allen and I to be on the summit of Nanga Parbat, but that’s how it is. We had left base camp almost two weeks earlier with four other climbers, intending to traverse the ful...
In April, Natasha Sebire and I made the long journey from our homes in Australia to the northernmost part of Liverpool Land. From Constable Pynt we hired dog sleds to travel north along the frozen Hurry Fjord, through the Klitdal Valley, and...
Climbs on certain seacliffs in Greenland, including recent ascents in the Upernavik area of West Greenland, may be off-limits at times because of regulations protecting nesting seabirds. These rules prohibit entering within certain distances of...
Lee Roberts, Dave Rudkin, and I left the U.K. on July 24. Three days and four plane rides later, we arrived in Upernavik, where we were met by our local contact, Nikolas Sorenson. Our freight was delayed, so it wasn't until July 30 that we w...
After a comparatively benign passage from Scotland to Greenland in my 10m sailing boat, Dodo’s Delight, we made a long motor up the west coast. Either there was no wind, or the wind was against us. Eventually, we arrived at the Sortehul Fjord, c...
From June 20 to July 23, Tomas Brt (Czech), Jan Smolen, and I (both Slovak) visited Tasermiut Fjord and enjoyed largely excellent weather, so different from my first visit in 1998, when I experienced only a few days of sunshine. ...
The Polish Mountaineering Association sent a three-man team to Greenland specifically to repeat the 2007 Kaszlikowski-Kubarska route, Golden Lunacy, on the huge sea cliff of Maujit Qoqarsassia (AAJ 2008). Although the team did not follow the or...
On October 5, John Frieh and I met in Seattle and flew to Petersburg, where we spent part of the day hanging out with Dieter Klose before being flown onto the Stikine Icecap by Wally, our Temsco Helicopters pilot. Wally landed us at the Burkett ...
The great complex of ranges forming the North American cordillera, which for upwards of fifteen hundred miles has maintained a northwesterly trend, on entering Alaska makes an abrupt bend to the west and then to the southwest, as if to meet th...
The 41-year old Japanese mountaineer Katsuhito Fujikawa made the first ascent of Shey Shikhar (6,139m), an elegant peak in the Dolpo region immediately southeast of the Kanjiroba Group. In 1995 American Geoff Tabin was offered a permit for Shey ...
1990 was another active year for our club. Membership grew significantly, increasing 15% over 1989 to 71. The majority lives in Memphis, although 20 members live in 13 states ranging from California and Washington to Florida and New Jersey. Desp...
AAC, New York Section. The New York Section, with membership now exceeding 700 in the Tri-State Area, tries to appeal to a broad cross section of members with a variety of outdoor climbing and indoor social events.Activities invariably commence in...
The major event of 1992 was a meeting at Mammoth Lakes on April 25 featuring a slide show by Don Lauria on his second ascent of the North American Wall on El Capitan in 1968 with Dennis Hennek. More than 80 members and guests, including Eastern...