On October 29, 2020, “Big Willi” Blair Nicodemus and I made the long, bumpy 4WD drive north from the historic Cerro Gordo townsite to the road’s end at 9,800’ along the Inyo Crest. A decent trail led to the top of New York Butte in less than one m...
Sky Blue Lake Basin is a beautiful area to the west of the LeConte-Corcoran ridge. Chaz Langelier and I ventured out to the basin in June and spotted an unnamed Toblerone-shaped formation above Primrose Lake. The lower two-thirds of the peak consi...
YOU'VE TRAINED for months to send a classic overhanging sport climb. You’ve spent day after day in the gym, improving your power and endurance. You must have watched dozens of YouTube videos, dialing in that beta. When the day arrives, you crush t...
Brian Prince, Brandon Thau, and I completed a route that ascends the tallest and cleanest headwall on the Spring Lake Wall, a backcountry gem. All three of us were excited by the improbable look of the intimidating line after repeating Angels and ...
In the autumn of 2020, Ukrainian climbers climbed several probable new routes in the Aladağlar and Dedegöl mountains. On the north face of Mt. Kaldı (3,734m), they climbed two routes on the same day in October: Nikita Balabanov and Slava Polezha...
Northeast face of Vayvay. Nessuno (2012) is off-picture to the left. (1) Turkish line (1997). (2) Ceschia-Perotti Route (1986). (3) Sessizlik (2021). It’s hard to believe that in such a densely populated country, it is still possible to find ...
Castle Rock Spires is a group of steep granite domes perched high above the Kaweah River in the southwest corner of Sequoia National Park. Despite the high-quality rock and route potential, the domes have seen relatively little climber activity du...
A few years ago, various climbers completed several routes on the two south-facing buttresses of Panther Peak (AAJ 2016), accessed via the Wolverton trailhead. Daniel Jeffcoach, Alaina Robert- son, and I attempted another new line on the east butt...
Daniel Jeffcoach and I explored the climbing on the west arête of the Grand Sentinel, the biggest formation in Kings Canyon proper, across from North Dome. The approach starts from Roads End trailhead and is mostly cross-country. The route was a v...
Every climber who has visited Kings Canyon has likely stared at the massive marble monolith, sometimes called King Wall, that’s part of the Windy Cliffs on the north side of the river, less than a mile west of Boyden Cavern. The east ridge of this...
The northeast face of Trapezoid Peak showing three new routes on the "Geometry Wall" (left to right): Man on the Flying Trapezoid (5 pitches, 5.12-), Don't Be a Square (3 pitches, 5.10-), and It's a Trap!...ezoid (3 pitches, 5.10). In the sum...
In October 2018, Jeremy Freeman and I started a new route up the northeastern prow of Neptune Tower, roughly in the center of the Wheeler Crest, north of Pine Creek Canyon. We climbed five pitches that day, fixing anchors and cleaning the line for...
On May 23, Damien Nicodemi, David Pearson, and I trudged up the narrow Fifth Canyon to approach a previously unclimbed 9,600’+ summit near the top of the drainage. This formation, which we dubbed the Space Needle, sits a few thousand feet above th...
The rugged Paradise Crags Gully west of Ainslee Meadow, roughly halfway between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, is home to three orange rock walls that have the appearance of fins. The central of these was called the Big K-Mart in the 2001 AAJ and is al...
Tad McCrea and I stumbled upon the east face of Mt. Lewis (ca 12,350’) in mid-November during a failed ice climbing foray to nearby Parker Falls. After finding not enough ice and too much snow, we wandered up to the Walker Lake trailhead. I’d been...
Over three days in early September, Chris Koppl and I completed a fun aid climb up the gut of the Ribbon Falls Amphitheater. On our first attempt, in 2020, we found beautiful seam nailing in otherwise mega-polished monolithic rock, climbing about ...
The west face of Mt. Woolsey (12,978’), showing (1) Where the Animals Go (Ochenski-Schunk, 1996), (2) When Old Meets New (Parsons-Schunk, 2021), and (3) Candalaria (Richardson-Schunk, 1995). The normal route up the south ridge is on the right sk...
Most climbers who’ve spent significant time on the Lower Saddle between the Grand Teton and the Middle Teton have looked off toward the western edge of the park and seen the large swath of granite walls that make up the backside of Table Mountai...
The slabs at the Mouth of Clarks Fork Canyon, showing new routes established by Sam Lightner Jr., Mike Lilygren, and Shep Vail from 2019 through 2021. In orange: M11 (22 pitches, 5.11). In yellow: Colter’s Rib (12 pitches, 5.10c). In pink: Back ...
I first noted the 1,200’ north face of Mt. Rearguard while skiing underneath it 11 years ago on the way to the Bears Tooth—a prominent granite/gneiss spire jutting out of the east face of Beartooth Mountain and the namesake for the entire range—an...