Last summer, my friend Tess Smith and I got increasingly involved in route development in the Eastern Sierra, mostly sport climbs. After figuring out that drills should be set to hammer mode and that rocks don’t make good wall hammers, we decide...
On November 4, Emily Harrington (USA) became the first woman to free El Capitan’s Golden Gate (ca 38 pitches, 5.13a) in a single day, the fourth person to free this route in a day, and the fourth woman to free climb any route on El Cap in a day. ...
On a reconnaissance flight into Alaska’s Hayes Range in early September, Ben Lieber and I previewed a handful of promising objectives. Less than 48 hours later, we were making the seven-mile approach from a dry landing strip near the tongue of t...
(1) Stokeman Pillar (250m, 5.11a) and (2) south face of Stoltmann Tower (350m, 5.11a). The first route up Stoltmann Tower, the Lillarete (Brayshaw- Buda, 1999), generally followed the left skyline over both towers. Photo by Paul McSorley If y...
The Batura massif from the south. (G) is unclimbed Muchu Chhish (7,453 meters). See below for the complete caption. Photo by Jon Bowles Photography. Despite very few foreign expeditions reaching the Karakoram in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrict...
On August 3, the day before Alik Berg and I climbed All Along the Watchtower (900m, 5.12-) on North Howser Tower, we spent some time scoping the west face. Traditionally, to get to the start of all the routes on the west face, you have to do sever...
On May 6, Paul Roderick, Charlie Sassara, and I made what we believe to be the first ascent of Peak 8,900’+, a pyramidal mountain approximately 5.5 miles to the southwest of Mt. Russell in the Alaska Range. Paul is the longtime glacier pilot a...
On June 6, Daniel Barton and I landed at the 5,600’ level of the northwest fork of the Coffee Glacier, and over the course of a week established new routes on both Coffee and Mocha spires. I had previously completed the first ascents of each for...
On July 4, Gabe Hayden and I made a speed ascent on the Mendenhall Towers classic Solva Buttress (1,250’, 5.8) We started at the West Glacier trailhead, north of Juneau, and took off for the 15-mile glacier hike to the base of the towers. We climb...
On September 5, Evan Hartung, Mike Miller, Ben Still, and I flew by helicopter to the base of the Shark’s Tooth, an appealing peak north of Juneau that Matt Callahan and I had climbed for its first ascent in 2018 (see AAJ 2019). While Mike and B...
Between 2012 and 2020, I teamed up with several partners, including the late Ryan Johnson, to complete three long ice routes on the committing Suicide Wall, comprising the eastern wall of the Suicide Basin, a tributary of the lower Mendenhall Gl...
On September 11, Simon Frez-Albrecht and I flew into the Witches Cauldron below the Stikine Icecap. A day and a half of carrying backbreaking loads up 4,000’ through the Witches Cauldron icefall had us at the base of the Devils Thumb. We climbed...
Toward the end of a long summer of perpetually attempting to align busy schedules, weather, and transportation, on August 8, Jonathan Koenig, Tristan O’Donoghue, and I flew with Temsco Helicopters to what’s known as the Hotel Glacier, south of N...
On May 27, following a two-week period of heavy rain, a pair of experienced (>20 years each) climbers planned to do the popular route Break on Through (5.10a) on the Circus Wall of Sentinel Buttress. The route begins from a ledge approximately ...
Kanamo (The White Lady, 5,974m, 32°22'11.24"N, 78°5'12.06"E) lies to the northeast of Kibber, once dubbed the highest inhabited village in the world reached by road. (Various altitudes, to 4,270m, are cited.) It lies in the heart of Spiti, a regio...
Influenced by performance ascents made by international mountaineers, certain Indian athletes are now making impressive speed ascents on their own peaks. In 2016, Indian ultra-marathon runner Kieren D’Souza moved to Manali in order to concentrate ...
The Ladakh Mountain Guides Association (LMGA) organized an expedition in September 2018 to the Skitmang region of southeast Ladakh, about 140km from Leh. Our objective was unclimbed Peak 6,364m. Participants were Dorje Angchuk, Kunga Dorje, Tsewan...
The north face of Pik Simagina. (1) Aquadiskotheque (5A, 2021). (2) Belinski Route (5B, 1969). (3) Polivoi (5B, 1969). (4) Rodikov Route (4B, 1990). Just visible to the right is the left edge of the north face of Pik Free Korea. Photo by Alexey ...
Looking northwest from the glacier west of Jankho Laya in 1996. From left to right, Jakoceri, Chachacomani, and the various summits of the Tres Marias. Photo by Angela Goodacre Donini AAJ 2020 contained an account of several climbs on and nea...
Sarah McNair-Landry on pitch two of Ijiraaq, a.k.a. Shapeshifter (5.10). Photo by Erik Boomer With travel restrictions across the globe, Sarah McNair-Landry and I focused our attention on backyard adventures. Luckily, our backyard is Baffin I...