On June 12, 1980, David Swarbrick (19) was leading the first pitch of Direct South Face (5.10) and was approximately 40 feet up when he fell. As he was more than 20 feet above his last protection, he hit the ground. He suffered lacerations and c...
Annapurna I, South Face, Attempt. Mountaineers from Ekaterinburg, Russia, headed by S. Efimov, tried to climb Annapurna I (8091 m) from the south by Bonington’s route but owing to very bad weather only two of its members, Yuri Ermachek and Alexey ...
Quebec, Laurentians, Weir Cliff. On 7 April a group of climbers includ- ing John Brown (28) was climbing on Weir Cliff, the route was the Yellow line Alpine grade 4 with move of 5th. Conditions: Cliff shedding patches of winter ice; weather mild. ...
The Incredible Hulk, free routes. On July 3, Peter Croft, Dave Nettle, and Greg Epperson established Airstream (V 5.13), considered the most difficult free climb in the High Sierra. In August, Croft returned to the Incredible Hulk with Andrew Stev...
FALL ON ICE, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONOntario, Dundas, Webster’s FallsOn January 31, 1982, Harry Fletcher (32) and Doris Ullman (29) were ice climbing on Webster’s Falls. Fletcher, who was leading, had reached a point about one meter below the top of ...
Midway Mountain, East Ridge, South Face. This route starts 30 feet right of a prominent right-facing dihedral. The first pitch is the crux, with 5.7 stemming and jam cracks to a belay slab. The next two pitches wander up and slightly left to the e...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING ALONE AND UNROPEDAlberta, Kananaskis Country, Mount LoretteOn July 15, a 23-year-old man, who had set out on a solo climb of Mount Lorette’s South Ridge (5.6), failed to return home as expected. He left a note describing the...
Cascade Section. On February 3 Section members were invited to see a slideshow, The Chola Shan Expedition and Mountaineering in China, at the Mountaineers Clubhouse. Two AAC Cascade members, Tina Nef and Bruce Frank were a part of this six-person ...
Makalu Attempt. Four Japanese, led by Masaaki Fukushima, attempted the original route on Makalu via the Makalu col. Hitoshi Saito and Hiroshi Tsuchiya twice reached the site for Camp III at 22,000 feet, on September 22 and 23, but never occupied t...
Kangchenjunga Central Attempt. Spaniard Juan Cruz Colinas, Gopal Gu- rung and Ang Tshering Sherpa reached 6200 meters from October 9 to 12, but then heavy snowfall brought snow too deep for climbing. Supplies and time became exhausted before the s...
Ama Dablam Attempt. A British-American expedition led by Englishman William O’Connor had hoped to climb Ama Dablam’s normal route, the south ridge. They were defeated by the heavy snowfall of October 18 to 20. All five members reached the high poi...
JOSEPH COOKE SMITH 1863–1942Joseph Cooke Smith died at Vevey, Switzerland, on June 9th, 1942. Born in Providence, R. I., March 1st, 1863, he was graduated from M. I. T. in 1888; was later employed by the Union Cotton Co. as a chemist; sent abroad ...
Dronning Maud Land, Various Ascents. Mikel Zabalaza, Ferrán Latorre and I spent a month on the Fenristunga Glacier at the base of Ulvetanna in Queen Maud Land. We flew in from Cape Town to Blue-1 on January 6 and landed in Base Camp on January 8, ...
Dhaulagiri Attempt. A nine-man Japanese expedition led by Masakatsu Nakamura attempted the normal northeast ridge of Dhaulagiri. Strong winds and deep soft snow defeated the first summit attack on May 10 when Haruo Mizukoshi, Seiichi Sekiya, Ang P...
In October, Argentines Tomy Aguiló and Luciano Fiorenza ascended this ca 3,500m mountain near Bariloche, Argentina, by a new route they named Finito Sur (550m, 80° mixed, 5th class rock). Their route climbs to the highest of Tronador’s three sum...
FALLING ROCK, FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING UNROPED, NO HARD HATS Arizona, Oak Creek Canyon OverlookOn June 13, 1988, Doug Berry (20) was using standard chimney procedure to ascend a small spire which had separated from the main face. The spire was compo...
Latok II Attempt. A four-man Japanese expedition led by Tomoyasa Yamazaki failed at 6200 meters to climb Latok II.
Cerro Torre, Quinque Anni ad Paradisum. Italian climbers Alessandro Beltrami, Giacomo Rossetti, and Ermanno Salvaterra climbed a new route on the 4,000' east face of Cerro Torre in November 2004. Salvaterra first climbed Cerro Torre in 1983, and h...
Cerro Chimberí. This 18,000-foot peak at the head of the Río Cochuna in the Nevados Centrales was climbed early in 1955 by Jaime Femenías, Flora Albornoz, Perico Pérez Cherp, Gerardo Türpe, Guillermo Muntaner, Ernesto Gómez Agote, Alfredo Bolsi, a...
On 13 March Robin Wales (16) and a group of six boys and three girls with little or no previous climbing experience spent the day learning basic climbing techniques on practice climbs.In the afternoon, Wales and three other members of the party cl...