Camilla Reggio and I met on the Eagle Team of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and immediately became friends, connected by our huge passion for the mountains. We decided to plan our first expedition together and ended up in Kyrgyzstan, with the inte...
In July 2024, Anton Kashevnik and Ivan Temerev (both from Russia) completed a new route on the northwest face of Peak 4,810m. Graded Russian 6B (approx. ED+), the climb spans 1,300m of sustained technical difficulty, threading between the Sakharov...
The British quartet of Theo Elmer, Sam Harvie, Oliver Hill, and Patrick Hill trekked to the Ashat Valley from the Ak-su Valley after climbing several routes there, including the famed Perestroika Crack (800m, 5.12-) on Slesova Peak. After a five-d...
From July 16 to 24, Japhy Dhungana, Rainbow Weinstock, and I established four new routes in the Sky Blue Lake basin, a.k.a. Miter Basin, south of Mt. Whitney. While none of the climbs are particularly long, they’re rich with good stone and great c...
In June, Honz Mikhalek and I approached remote Mt. Hitchcock (13,186’) from Whitney Portal, hiking up and over the Sierra Crest to Guitar Lake basin, where we set up camp. Looking at the new High Sierra Climbing Volume 1, by Roger L. Putnam and Vi...
For five packed seasons, from 2018 to 2022, my main mate, Chase Leary, and I established hard multipitch first ascents on some of the best climbing formations in the High Sierra. In the northern Sierra, we looted the Incredible Hulk, establishing ...
The east face of Mt. Hunter, showing the original Diamond Arête (yellow line, Donini-Tackle, 1985) and One Way Out (red line, Gardner-Hennessey-Smith, 2024). The 2024 climbers intended to continue straight up the rock wall to gain the upper arêt...
The last 100m had been the wildest alpine climbing I’d ever done: splitter cracks, verglassed offwidths, pumpy roofs, overhanging ice runnels, and big, scary snow mushrooms. A crux sequence had required reaching a full arm’s length to my left off ...
Adam Bielecki (Poland) and I were inspired to investigate the potential of the Gharesa Valley, which rises northeast from the village of Nagar and has been traveled in the past by expeditions attempting the Lupghar peaks and Momhil Sar. From an ad...
The Cassin Ridge, the famed south buttress of Denali (Mt. McKinley), rises from Kahiltna Notch to the 20,310’ summit. But the geographic feature that forms the complete south ridge of Denali extends from Kahiltna Notch over four miles to the south...
At 9:45 a.m. on April 27, Paul Roderick dropped Sam Hennessey and me on the upper Dall Glacier, directly beneath the nearly 6,000’-tall east face of Mt. Russell (11,670’)—our objective. We had in mind a rapid round trip. After quickly setting up ...
The ridge extending west from Jannu crosses three summits as it descends toward the Ghunsa Khola valley. The first two, Sobithongie (6,652m) and Phole (6,645m; both altitudes from the HMG-Finn map), are close together and separated by only a shall...
“Mr. Hagiwara, what mountain is this?” The question was asked by Kei Taniguchi as she looked at a picture taken by Hiroshi Hagiwara, editor of Rock and Snow, in 2013. The photo clearly showed the unclimbed northeast face of Pandra (27°51’56.34”N,...
On October 30, a Korean expedition led by Jo Moon-yong, with three Sherpa climbers, claimed to have made the first ascent of Sharphu V. This claim was bolstered by a summit certificate from the Nepalese government. However, no credible evidence e...
Steep rock on the west face of Ama Dablam. Photo by Nikita Balabanov. In the autumn, Nikita Balabanov and I started a long-term project on Makalu, aiming to establish a new route in alpine style. Before departing for Nepal, we assessed the od...
Khangri Shar (6,792m, 28°1’10.86”N, 86°48’52.81”E), which lies on the Nepal-Tibet frontier between Pumori and Chombu, is a difficult peak with no recorded ascent. It was brought onto the permitted list in 2002 and has been attempted a handful of t...
When you go on an expedition to the other side of the world, things rarely go to plan. Our ascent of Hungchi was unexpected. Charles Dubouloz and I arrived at our 5,060m base camp below Gyachung Kang (7,952m) in May, hoping to establish a new rou...
After trekking four days to a base camp above the village of Machermo, we spent the next five days acclimatizing, reaching an altitude of 5,600m. Our plan then was to descend to Machermo for a rest, but the weather forecast suggested otherwise. An...
At around 9 p.m. on June 7, a strong team composed primarily of Sherpas reached the 8,188m summit of Cho Oyu, completing the last major logical line on the mountain: the south-southwest ridge. The successful party was Chhangba Sherpa, Gelje Sherpa...
After travel complications caused by intense flooding in Nepal, Antoine Rolle, Mathieu Stephan, and I reached Namche Bazaar on October 12. Another three days of trekking to the northwest brought us to our base camp at 4,560m on the Chhule Plain, n...