The east-northeast face of Trapezoid Peak, showing (1) Puff the Magic Dragon (5.12b), (2) Shield of Dreams (5.13b), (3) Harvest Time (5.12c), (4) Rasta Root (5.12b), (5) Man on the Flying Trapezoid (5.12-), (6) Don’t Be a Square (5.10-), and (7)...
In early 2022, a flurry of long new ice and mixed routes were climbed on the Wheeler Crest. An unusually heavy and wet December snowpack, followed by a long warm and dry spell, had transformed this rugged desert mountainside into a winter climber’...
Dmitry Pavlenko and Svetlana Pavlenko climbed a new route up the north face of Pik Svobodnaya Koreya (“Free Korea Peak,” 4,740m) in September. The two fixed some ropes at the start on September 15 and then, carrying a portaledge, climbed six pitch...
On October 17, Chen Chujun, Liu Junfu, and Tong Haijun (China) arrived at a base camp below Mt. Grosvenor and Jiazi, and the next day they went up to 5,000m to acclimatize and scope out the west face of Jiazi, returning to base camp the same day. ...
San’ao Snow Mountain (31°54’44.88”N, 102°51’2.06”E) is around 20km southwest of the town of Luhuazhen and comprises three main summits: Ao Tai Ji (“The Father,” 5,286m), Ao Tai Mei (“The Mother,” 5,257m), and Ao Tai Na (“The Child,” 5,210m). In th...
Inspired by a British expedition to the Gunj-e-Dur Valley in 2017 (AAJ 2018), Rob Reynolds and I planned to return to the region to explore the little-visited Second East Gunj-e-Dur Valley. We aimed to make the first ascent of one of the numerous ...
Do you want to attempt an unclimbed 6,000m mountain? You would think climbers would be queuing up to say “yes,” but, unfortunately, finding a partner can be difficult. My regular partner is in a new relationship and said, “Getting permission from ...
Rajesh Gadgil, Dilip Lagu, Ashish Prabhu, Rajendra Shinde, and I, all from the Himalayan Club, left Leh on July 22 and drove to Rongdo village (3,300m) in the Nubra Valley. From there we trekked to the sulphur springs at the entrance to the Chhurn...
Kim Chang-ho, who died in 2018 at the base of Gurja Himal in Nepal, was perhaps the most accomplished mountaineer from Korea, noted for high altitude ascents such as a south-north traverse of Nanga Parbat, Everest sea-to-summit without oxygen...
The hat trick of new grade Xs climbed ground-up and onsight by Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson during the 2016 season was a landmark for Scottish winter climbing (see AAJ 2016). These two continued to set the pace the following four seasons with ch...
Cerro Cabaray (5,869m, 19°8'45"S, 68°41'53”W) is a remote extinct volcano in the department of Oruro. Rising very close to the Chilean border, it is the highest of a chain of volcanoes in western Bolivia and northeastern Chile; it belongs to the s...
In July 2019, Ben White and I (Australia) made a ground-up first ascent of a route in the middle of the northwest face of Gran Muralla (ca 5,100m). Dirt-clogged cracks made progress painfully slow, and we used aid on 75 percent of the route. We sp...
On August 10, Colorado-based climber Madaleine Sorkin became the first woman, and fifth person overall, to free climb the massive 5.14b crux of the Dunn-Westbay Direct (Caldwell-Mills, 2013), the hardest route up the Diamond, the storied wall high...
In January 1978, an expedition led by Jack Heffernan from New York climbed the Polish Glacier route on the northeast face of Aconcagua (6,960m), completing the first known ascent of this route by an American team. Five members reached the summit: ...
Rising well over 2,000’, the Painted Wall is a chaotic vortex of psychedelic granite that has embedded itself in the dreams and nightmares of Black Canyon climbers for nearly six decades. The history of climbing on Colorado’s largest cliff is perm...
The black line shows the first two pitches of Airiana Grande (13 pitches, 5.13 R) Photo by Matt Reeser This climb is more Matt Reeser’s story than mine, but I have the pleasure of sharing it with you. In 2021, after several years of Black Ca...
When Mark Jenkins, Dougald MacDonald, and I first ventured into the Sawtooth Lakes basin, which flows northeast from a small glacier at the foot of Mt. Woolsey (12,978’) and Innominate (12,641’), in 2015, we wandered up three glorious routes on vi...
After a day of adventures on Pingora and Wolfs Head in the Cirque of the Towers in mid-July, none of us—Ian Davis, Ryan Petronella, Ethan Sandoval, and myself—was particularly stoked on getting an early start the next morning. In fact, we debated ...
Jesse Huey and Matt Segal finished a three-year project on the north face of Mt. Hooker in August, freeing all of the pitches of All Hooked Up. They stitched together the beginning of a line in 2020, making two trips into the mountain at the heigh...
In August 2020, Jared Leader, Bryan Miller, and Heath Rowland freed The Illness on the east face of Point 12,612’, also known as the Shield. Fred Beckey, Franziska Garrett, and James Garrett started work on this route in 1988. After another trip i...