FALL ON SNOW, AMSAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressThe Denali Ski “Challenge 1999” expedition from Italy included skier Mauro Rumez and photographer Franco Toso. Their plan was to climb Denali by the West Rib and have Toso photograph Rumez as h...
Phari Lapcha, second ascent of north face, Japanese variant to Bonfire of the Vanities. Fumitaka Ichimura and I climbed the north face of Phari Lapcha (6,017m). In the lower section we followed new ground but traversed to the original French route...
The Nithi GorgeOn the flanks of Mt. Kenya, just above the heather and chaparral vegetation zone, climbers walk right past some of the country’s finest cliffs.Bobby ModelThe eastern approach to the main peaks of Mt. Kenya follows the stunning Chogo...
Denali National Park, Mountaineering Statistics. Most weather forecasters will attribute the strange 1998 climbing season facts to El Niño: the Park saw a 100% success rate this past year for winter ascents of Mt. McKinley, and a 36% success rate ...
Mountaineering in Antarctica: Climbing in the Frozen South. Damien Gildea. Éditions Nevicata, 2010. 192 pages. 200 color photos, 12 maps. Hardcover. $49.95.In the last three decades, private ski planes and chartered sailboats have rapidly opened A...
Sam Ford Fjord, New Routes and Various Activity. Four Norwegian climbers, Bjarte Bo, Halvor Hagen, Torkel Roisli, and I, visited the Sam Ford Fjord in May and June. Arriving in the fjord in the evening of May 6, we decided on a line that started u...
Possessed by Shadows. Donigan Merritt. New York: Other Press, 2005. 239 pages. Hardcover. $22.00.Some alpine climbs are so visionary that regardless of their success or failure, by expressing a concept worthy of realization or by posing a problem ...
While skiers had fun, lingering snowpack and unstable early season weather meant a late start to the 2008 climbing season. Many access roads did not open until well into June. July was not a great month for climbing, and the first reported new alp...
The Burgess Book of Lies. Adrian and Alan Burgess. Cloudcap, Seattle, 1994. 463 pages. $30.00.The Burgess twins, known to all as Aid and Al, became renegades shortly after their joint entrance into the cruel world. During the mid-1960s these tall ...
After a season of work for the Alaska Outward Bound Center, seven O.B. staff and three others spent 18 days, from August 18 to September 5, in the Arrigetch peaks. Our group was Nettie Pardue, Tina Woolston, Robert MacKinnon, Jared Coburn, Mike Mo...
North of MonarchJOHN L. DUDRATHE last unknown area in the Canadian Coast Range which has been largely ignored by mountaineers is situated northwest of Mt. Monarch (11,720 ft.) and south of the headwaters of the small Bella Coola River tributaries....
Soul of the Heights—50 Years Going to the Mountains. Ed Cooper.Guilford, CT: Falcon Press, 2007.224 pages. $39.95.Ed Cooper’s Soul of the Heights is a beautiful collection of photographs and stories spanning his 50-year “vision quest” in the mount...
El Capitan, The Prophet. On October 27, Jason Pickles and I completed our nine-year quest to establish a new free route on El Cap. The Prophet (E9 7a, 5.13d R) is on the far right side of El Cap, home to many of Yosemite’s scariest and most tec...
AVALANCHE, POOR CONDITIONS, INEXPERIENCEUtah, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Stairs GulchOn April 28, Martin Gleich (38), a doctor from Salt Lake City and Scott Dull (39), also a doctor, from Eagle River, Alaska, were killed in Stairs Gulch, a tributary o...
South Howser Tower, Serge Overkill. In mid-August, Steve Su and I tried to make the most of a week off of work and a 10-day spell of perfect weather. After ticking off a couple of Bugaboo classics, we hiked over from the Apple- bee Campground to s...
THE vertical rock and steep ice of 21,658-foot Payu (less correctly written Paiju) was the target of the first all-Pakistani expedition, organized by the Alpine Club of Pakistan. The peak, which rises from just below the tongue of the Baltoro Glac...
Makalu Attempt. Accompanying us were Georges Narbaud and Erich Beaud. We established Base Camp on April 12 on the Chago Glacier at the foot of the west face of Makalu. Our route was to the Makalu La and up the northwest face, the normal route. Fro...
STRANDED–OFF ROUTE, WEATHER, INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT, EXCEEDING ABILITIESCalifornia, Tuolumne Meadows, Fairview DomeOn July 27, Randy Popkin (46) and his son, Cameron (16), climbed the Regular Route on Fairview Dome. They got to the base...
Mt. Trinidad, Eides of March, Ascent, and Exploration. Cochamo is part of the Chilean Lake District, or Northern Patagonia, and lies two hours inland from Puerto Montt in central Chile. The climbing area was first discovered by Crispin Waddy after...
CARBON MONOXIDE, FAILURE TO VENTILATE TENT, WEATHER, FATIGUE Alaska, Mount McKinleyA party of six climbers from Switzerland departed for their ascent of Mount McKinley on May 29,1986. Four members planned to climb the West Buttress while the other...