View to the north over Red Rock. The peaks’ vertical relief averages around 2,000 feet. The HURT started with (A) White Rock Peak and crossed (B) Bridge Point, (C) Mt. Wilson, (D) Black Velvet Peak, and nearly 20 other summits before finishing a...
From April 16 to 18, Zach Dugan and I climbed a probable new route on the east face of Peak 11,300’. During an impeccable weather window, we climbed the route in 39 hours round-trip from our base camp on the Ruth Glacier. On the evening of the ...
I first saw a photo of Pyramid Peak in 2016 and was immediately drawn to a central line on the mountain, though it looked improbable. Paul Robertson and I applied for a grant in 2017 to attempt it, but we didn’t receive funding. The Revelations ...
“Zach, I just learned that Mason Stansfield died in a crevasse fall in AK.” I read and re-read the message on my satellite phone. Aside from the steady purr of a white gas stove, there was a somber silence in our kitchen tent. Four days prior, m...
On April 11, Matt Kogel and I flew into the central Chugach and completed the first recorded ascent of the north ridge of Mt. Goode (10,610’). The peak lies at the head of the Knik Glacier, approximately 40 miles southeast of Palmer, and this st...
On June 27, Nadine Lehner and I flew from Talkeetna to the Pika Glacier, prepared to glacier glamp with copious amounts of fresh comestibles. Paul Roderick of TAT dropped us off about a mile down-glacier from the busy flight-seeing landing zone,...
On October 30, Dana Drummond and I walked five miles to South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex to attempt a line I had previously spotted on the northwest side of the mountain. (Formerly known as the Suicide Peaks, North and South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex were officially renam...
I’m not sure why, but I don't like the smell of airports. And yet the smell of duty-free is always synonymous with great adventures to come. So I rejoiced when that familiar scent hit my nose while passing through the Anchorage airport, the gate...
From April 11–21, Fred Caloggero and I climbed off the Cul-de-Sac Glacier in the Kichatna Mountains. Initially we attempted a beautiful line on the west face of Sunrise Spire. We climbed three pitches of thin, narrow ice to gain a snowfield and ...
Ethan Berkeland pausing along the Aquarius Traverse. The snowy peaks in the background, including Xanadu in the center of the frame, lie at the head of the Arrigetch Valley. Photo by Tristan O'Donoghue. In 2022, I was working in the central B...
Away from the crowds, beyond the big trees, and 1.5 miles above the famed Valhalla sits Tamarack Lake, from whose shores myriad rock climbing objectives rise. These include Mt. Stewart (12,205’), whose almost mile-long north-facing behemoth of a w...
Besides being one of the more beautiful places in the Sierra to camp, Tamarack Lake is surrounded by the impressive north face of Mt. Stewart (12,205’) and several striking domes, including the Prism. In 2007, Neal Harder, Chris LaBounty, and Bran...
Josef Maier making the first free ascent of the original second pitch of the East Face route on Castle Rock Spire. Maier freed this pitch during a pause in the rappel descent from the summit after climbing Spaghetti Western. Photo by Brian Prin...
Vitaliy Musiyenko and I both have long lists of formations to explore for new route potential, and the northeast face of Mt. Francis Farquhar’s (12,893’) lower northwest summit, sometimes called the North Fin (ca 12,500’), is a beautiful alpine wa...
After establishing Ikigai (18 pitches, 5.12a) on the Bubbs Creek Wall with my friends Dave Meyer and Marec Serlin in 2020, I returned to the pristine granite of the 2,000’ east face in the spring of 2021. I wanted to check out a golden-brown shiel...
Looking south from the summit of Mt. Clarence King early on the second day of the King Spur Traverse (VI 5.8). In the foreground, crisply silhouetted, is the remainder of the route, first running straight away from the camera over Mt. Cotter and...
Castle Domes, a cluster of granite formations set above a beautiful meadow in the Upper Woods Creek valley, is perhaps best known for the Southeast Arête (1,100’, IV 5.10 PG-13) on Upper Castle Dome, a striking line established by Vitaliy Musiyen...
Langille Peak rises wide and tall over the Middle Fork of the Kings River in the northeastern portion of Kings Canyon National Park. Its broad eastern face, viewed as you come down the hill from Bishop Pass, just begs to be climbed. Just around th...
Less than an hour and a half from the Big Pine Creek South Fork trailhead in the John Muir Wilderness, the Green Gendarme is a prominent 800’ buttress of dark green rock, sitting like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the Middle Palisade Group. ...
In mid-June, Aivaras Sajus and I approached the northeast face of Mt. Jepson (13,390’) via the South Fork of Big Pine Creek in search of an adventure. We chose a line up a triangular pillar on the left side of the face. After a snow slope with a ’...