This ram’s horn anchor on a route called Two for One in Mt. Diablo State Park was involved in a near-fatal accident in October. It is possible the climber did not set the rope in the lowest and most secure position in the horns before she attemp...
My name is Mac (13), and on June 4 I was involved in a rescue at Pie Shop. The people on the spot were Steve (71), Angela, my dad, and Dr. Michael. Steve was going to teach Angela about climbing outside. We got to our climbing spot, and my dad wa...
On June 2, an early-to-mid-20s climber descending Avalanche Gulch returned to Helen Lake (10,400 feet) with symptoms of mild hypothermia. Climbing rangers Eric Falconer and Hayden MacArthur were notified of the individual’s condition by his two cl...
Mt. Shasta is a breathtaking and often crowded experience, with a fair share of avalanches and rockfall. Photo: Jack Dolan On May 26, over the Memorial Day weekend, shortly before 9:15 a.m., a solo male climber (51) descending Avalanche Gulch...
On May 3 at approximately 10:30 a.m., a solo climber ascending Casaval Ridge ventured off route, traversing onto a south-southeast slope approximately 1,000 vertical feet above Olberman’s upper moraine in Avalanche Gulch. The climber triggered a w...
Aerial view of Mt. Shasta (14,179 feet). The Shasta tribe called this symmetric peak: Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki; the Karuk tribe: Úytaahkoo. Photo: Ewen Denney — Wikipedia The 2024 climbing season began strong in mid-April, with excellent snow cov...
On January 30, Claire Amiel (34) fell while cleaning an anchor on a sport route at the popular Pond area in Queen Creek. The fall from the anchor, resulted in her death. According to a source that wishes to remain anonymous, Amiel was the less ex...
I had traveled from out of state to visit a friend, and on February 14 I figured I’d check out the bouldering at a local gym. About an hour into my session, I slid off a slab problem about six to eight feet off the mats. When I landed, my right fo...
In April 2024, Robbi Mecus died in a fall while descending The Escalator (4,400 feet, 5.5 AI3) on Mt. Johnson. Her climbing partner survived despite critical injuries. Their line of ascent is marked in red. The route’s upper half is hidden from ...
The 2024 climbing season was marked by calm, clear periods coinciding with very low temperatures. During one of these cold spells, a climber, high on the committing Cassin Ridge—the central rib leading to the summit—suffered a severe/deep and li...
On May 19, the NPS was contacted by a concerned family member of a Japanese solo climber named T. Hagiwara (mid-40s). He was on the West Buttress Route and was last heard from on May 13. Until that date, the climber had been regularly texting via ...
On May 28, at 1 a.m., NPS personnel received an alert from an emergency satellite device requesting evacuation of three climbers who were near the summit of Denali (Mt. McKinley). The climbers, all from Malaysia, reported they were hypothermic and...
Denali mountaineering rangers and volunteers assessed 34 patients during the 2024 climbing season. Among those, 27 patients were treated by National Park Service (NPS) personnel, and 25 required NPS evacuation. The remaining two were treated and r...
After the Japanese and then the Italians made their respective routes on Huandoy Sur’s south face (see reports here and here), a French expedition attacked the face. The French were led by René Desmaison and composed of Pascal Ottmann, Maurice Fai...
On June 8 we arrived at Base Camp at 12,500 feet on the Llanganuco Lakes. We should have taken time for acclimatization, but perhaps because we knew the Japanese were already on the wall, of which we caught glimpses through the clouds, the next da...
Our expedition consisted of Kunihiko Kondo, climbing leader, Masaru Hashimoto, Tetsuya Ishii, Masatoshi Yoshino, Shuzo Manabe, Yasuhide Hayashi, Terue Katayama, Ms. Yuriko Hashimoto and me as leader. We established Base Camp on the Llanganuco Lake...
The following international climbers who passed away in 2024 wrote many articles and reports for the American Alpine Journal. Here, we offer brief tributes to these friends and contributors. ARCHIL BADRIASHVILI not only was among Georgia’s leadin...
The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within. By Cory Richards (Random House). Cory Richards has been a prolific 21st-century alpinist, high-altitude mountaineer, and adventure photographer. From being the first and only American ...
Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling. By Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar (Mountaineers Books). Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges. By Bernadette McDonald (Mo...
Survival Is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini. By Geoff Powter (Mountaineers Books). Hats off to Geoff Powter and Jim Donini for teaming up to tell Donini’s life story in Survival Is Not Assured. The story is beautifully written and cap...