RAPPEL ANCHOR FAILURE, HASTE, RAINY WEATHER, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENTColorado, NotchtopOn the morning of August 5, 1983, Skip Hansen (36) and leader, Chuck Layton (26), started off to climb the Spiral Route on Notchtop. We arrived at the base of the r...

FALLING ROCK—FALL ON ROCKCalifornia, Yosemite Valley, Middle Cathedral RockOn June 2, John Kurth, 33, and Casey Shaw, 39, were climbing the Direct North Buttress (17 pitches) on Middle Cathedral Rock. Shaw led pitch 15 at about 6:00 p.m., followin...

Storm and Sorrow in the High Pamirs, by Robert W. Craig. Seattle: The Mountaineers, with the American Alpine Club, 1977. 176 pages, 56 color photos; maps and sketches, paperbound. $6.95.This is a truly sad and chilling book. Grief and pathos burst...

Sugar Tooth, Southeast Buttress. Over three-days in mid-June, Peter Haeussler and I (both of Anchorage) established a 20-pitch free climb on the Sugar Tooth. This was my third attempt at the route, the second with Peter, and the second ascent of t...

FROSTBITE, WEATHER, INADEQUATE CLOTHINGAlaska, Mount McKinleyOn May 5, 1985, the Vail-Denali Expedition, led by Ted Billings, was shuttling loads to a high cache at 5550 meters on the Cox Comb. About 1400, strong winds began blowing. Ted Billings ...

Igdlorssitt Havn, Cape Farewell, new routes. At the western end of Prins Christian Sund is an anchorage at the entrance to a valley. Marked on the map as Igdlorssitt Havn, it is unclear whether this local name refers to the anchorage or the valley...

First Ascent of the W. Ridge of The Grand Teton August 8th-10th, 1938. On account of the heavy snow coyer in 1938, serious rock climbing in the Tetons was delayed until late in the summer. On August 8th, Durrance and the writer left Jenny Lake at ...

Yosemite Rock Climber SurveyRobin Ingraham, Jr.ONE HUNDRED FEET ABOVE THE ground, a climber dangles effortlessly on his rope. The whir of a power drill echoes in the mountain breeze as it cuts into the rock. By removing the “traditional” difficult...

Janet Bergman, Kirsten Kremer, and I loaded my 1991 Toyota van with two-and-a-half weeks of food and climbing gear and drove for 15 hours from New Hampshire to the tip of Nova Scotia, making the overnight ferry to Newfoundland with less than 30...

VLADIMIR BALYBERDIN 1949-1994Vladimir Balyberdin, age 45, the most famous Russian mountaineer of his generation, was killed in a traffic accident in St. Petersburg last summer. His sad death highlights the massive changes which have taken place si...

Access and the Politics of ClimbingA long-simmering stewby Michael Kennedy, President, The Access FundWhen the history of climbing in the United States in the last two decades of the 20th century is written, 1998 will likely go down as a watershed...

Ascent, by Jeremy Bernstein. New York: Random House, 1965. × + 124 pages, with illustrations. Price $3.95.The author is Associate Professor of Physics at New York University, and has written a formidable book on computers, The Analytical Engine. T...

Nalumasortoq, south-southwest face of Left Pillar, new route. At the end of June a four-member team from Spanish TV arrived in Greenland. We flew to Narssarssuaq and then Iñaki San Vicente and I paddled sea kayaks for eight days to the Tasermiut F...

Scottish Expedition to Tasermiut Fjord, South Greenland. A University of St. Andrews party returned after an eleven-year interval to the mountainous shores of Tasermiut inlet at 60° N. In six weeks a total of 34 peaks were climbed, 32 of which wer...

The number of new routes reported in southwestern British Columbia has been declining since surging around 2002-2004. There are probably a number of reasons for this general decline, including the time since the last comprehensive guidebook was ...

K2: Challenging the Sky. Roberto Mantovani and Kurt Diemberger. The Mountaineers: Seattle, 1997. 144 pages. $35.00.Second only to Everest in height, K2 also has been subordinated in the attention it has received from writers and photographers. Tha...

Bandaka, Peaks above Darrah-i-Shahran, Mir Samir. The British Midlands Hindu Kush Expedition climbed first in the Bandaka region, where they made the following ascents: Koh-e-Ka-Safed (20,315 feet) on July 8 by K. Vickers, fourth ascent; Bandaka (...

Kwangde, North Face. Our expedition started with three members, José M. Cardero, Angel L. Muñoz and me, but Cardero was struck by a falling rock at the base of the wall, which broke his leg. He had to be carried by porters to Lukla. Our Base Camp ...

THOMAS A. MUTCH1931-1980Tim Mutch died on October 6, 1980, at the age of 49, while descending from the summit of Nun (23,412 feet) in northern India following a bivouac above 21,000 feet with two former students on an expedition which he initiated...

Minus 148°: The Winter Ascent of Mt. McKinley, by Art Davidson. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1969. 218 pages, 32 photographs. Price: $5.95.It is understandable, if not forgivable, that all expedition books tend to sound identical. T...