Picos Oriental and Ojeda, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Todd Swain, Thomas (“Tad”) Welch and I visited the northern side of the range in January 1984. Contrary to the experiences reported by several climbing parties in recent years, we found no ob...
Yalaxianbo (6,635m), first ascent. The Yamagata Mountaineering Federation (northern Japan) made the first ascent of Yalaxianbo, near the border with Bhutan, to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 2007. This peak is located at 28°45'N, 91°50'E, 135...
Climbs and Traverses in the Mount Waddington Area, Canadian Coast Range. In the 4½ days from July 26 thru 30, Peter Croft, Greg Foweraker, and I completed the first traverse of the culmination of the Coast Mountains, the Waddington Range. Starting...
FALL ON ROCK, FALLING ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONColorado, Hallett PeakOn June 9, 1982, Matthew Slater (19) and Jeffrey Cristol (18) were climbing Hallett Chimney (about 225 meters of mixed ice and rock) on Hallett Peak. They were about one lead f...
Colqiie Cruz, Cordillera Vilcanota. An Italian expedition composed of Italo Bazzini, Mario Giacomelli, Livio Lanari and Roberto Manni climbed Colque Cruz, reaching the summit (6104 meters, 20,026 feet) on July 29. They had hoped to climb a direct ...
Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park. On 24 June John Freitag (25), Mike Petrilak, Steffie Petrilak, and Joan Oosterwyk were descending Cloudveil Dome by the east ridge following a successful ascent by the same route. It was early afternoon and the ...
Gasherbrum IV Tragedy. A Japanese expedition failed to climb Gasherbrum IV (7925 meters, 26,000 feet) by its west face. On July 7 all five members were carrying loads from Camp I to Camp II. At 20,000 feet a huge sérac collapsed above them. Shiget...
Jirishanca, East Face, Attempt. On July 7, Aritza Monasterio (Peru), Marjan Kovac and Pavle Kozjek (Slovenia) made an attempt to climb a new route on the east face of Jirishanca. They approached the glacier between Yerupaja Chico and started on a ...
FAILURE OF RAPPEL ANCHOR, INADEQUATE PROTECTION Alberta, Rocky Mountains, Mount WhyteOn August 2,1986, J.B. (52) and M.O. (35), both experienced climbers, were descending the northwest ridge of Mount Whyte. Around 1530, when they were about 100 me...
Annapurna, Winter Attempt. A four-man Japanese team led by Tadao Sug- imoto attempted the north face of Annapurna. They set up Base Camp and Camps I, II and III at 13,950, 16,075, 17,725 and 20,000 feet on November 27, December 1, 3 and 10 respect...
Day Needle. On June 16, Cameron Bums and I climbed an all-free variation of the Beckey-Reese route on Day Needle. (IV, 5.10b). The crux came in the second to last pitch, which followed left-angling cracks up steep rock that offered knobby face-cli...
Annapurna, Northwest Face Attempt. Swiss Jean Troillet and Pierre-Alain Steiner wanted to complete a route on the northwest face of Annapurna which they had attempted in 1984. They spent over a month at the foot of the mountain but got only to 560...
Unnamed Peak, First Ascent. A Polish expedition led by Andrej Zboinski made the first ascent of an unnamed 6130-meter peak in the Lahaul area in August-September. Two members, Richard Wrona and Kristofer Gardyna, reached the summit on August 21 vi...
Purbi Dunagiri Attempt. Our 12-man expedition established Base Camp on the Bagini Glacier at 4640 meters on August 23. Camps I, II and III were set up on the Bagini Glacier at 5000, 5250 and 5740 meters on August 26, 28 and 30. Camp III was beneat...
Half Moon Peak, Kangaroo Ridge. On October 20 Dave Collins, John Rupley, and I climbed the south wall of Half Moon Peak, one of the more inspiring faces in the Methow area of the Cascades. The climb had a variety of interesting problems, principal...
Roncagli, Cordillera Darwin, Tierra del Fuego, 1990. On January 14, 1990, Julian Mathias, John Mothersele and I made the first ascent of magnificent Roncagli (2300 meters, 7046 feet) by its northwest ridge to the north summit. We climbed 1200 vert...
Baruntse, Post-Monsoon Southeast Ridge Attempts. Two expeditions unsuccessfully attempted to climb the southeast ridge of Baruntse. Three Frenchmen and two Belgians led by Jean René Minelli got to 6135 meters on November 4, and three Swiss and a G...
AVALANCHE, WEATHER New Hampshire, Willy SlideOn February 10, 1988, a fresh snowfall of 30 centimeters was followed by 90 kph winds and -35 degree C temperatures the next day. Paul Nicinski (26) and I (29) soloed the first hundred meters. When we s...
Jatunhuma Southeast, Cordillera Vilcanota. In August of 1973 Germans August Inselkammer, Peter Sahlberg, Otto Wolf Kraemer, Christoph Lacher, Klaus Winter and Gustavo Vucetich climbed Jatunhuma Southeast (5830 meters or 19,128 feet), approaching f...
Peak 5704m, First Ascent. The 5704-meter main peak of the Lotus Flowers mountain range (a.k.a. Zharha Latse, Mt. Haitze) lies to the north of the Minya-Konka mountain area in Sichuan, China. It is about 20 kilometers north of Kangding and 350 kilo...