Our team consisted of three people: Alessandro Fracchetti, Andrea Spezialli (both Italy), and I. Alessandro and I first attempted the northeast face of Huandoy Este (5,950m) in 2017, but we were stopped about 200m from the summit ridge due to poor...
Breathing rapidly, I try to get more air into my lungs, wordlessly opening my mouth as a fish would struggle for the last bits of oxygen. It is a nasty feeling to suffocate slowly. Especially when it is purely voluntary. Why am I doing it then? Th...
About five years ago, Peruvian climbing expert Sergio Ramirez Carrascal told me about a beautiful unclimbed ramp on the south side of Siulá Grande (ca 6,344m). Of the peak’s three main faces, the south is the least frequented, due to difficult acc...
At the beginning of May, Pablo Rosagro and I visited the Pariacacca subrange in the Cordillera Central. We accessed the area from Canchayllo and installed our base camp at Lago Tembladera (4,480m). On May 9 we ascended the southwest face of Tukum...
From August 23–27, we (Simon Bustamante and Felipe Proaño) ventured to the Parón Valley, north of Huaraz. On August 25, after summiting La Esfinge by the 1985 route in about four hours, we spent the afternoon hiking over to scout a line up an int...
For the quality and quantity of new routes—with heights always above 4,000m—and exploration, our expedition to the Peruvian Andes with Manu Ponce in June was one of the most important in our long career. Our Andean journey began south and east of ...
In May, Malu Espinoza (Peru), Beto Pinto Toledo (Peru), and I climbed the southwest face of Antachaire III (11°54'5.95"S, 76° 2'59.00"W). There are three Antachaire peaks—I (5,700m), II (5,650m), III (ca 5,670m)—that form a west to east chain. Ant...
Pedra Baiana in the morning light. The 2019 route Runnel Vision (800m, 8a A0) climbs the prominent left-to-right dike on the shaded wall, eventually finishing up a prominent runnel in the central southeast face. The 2016 route Sangre Latina asce...
Max Ten on the east ridge of Chon-turasu, close to where he and Kirill Belotserkovskiy reached the ridge after climbing the north face. Photo by Kirill Belotserkovskiy Together with Zakir Abduraimov, Kolya Ovchinnikov, Grisha Schukin, and...
Silver and Green walls from the east. (1) East Ridge (2014) to Silver Wall South Summit (3,850m). (2) Ternerev Route on southeast face of Silver Wall Main Summit (2011). (Not shown) Rocket Donkey (2019). (3) Opposite to Asan (2006). (4) Tyrolean...
Leaving the bivouac on September 7, 2019, at 4,480m on the northeast face of Sauk Dzhaylyau Central. Supplied by Anna Piunova The development of the Sauk Dzhaylyau Cirque began in 1977 with a visit by climbers from Leningrad. Expeditions ...
Kotina seen from the southwest. (1a) Russian Direct on Dreaming Spires (2018, to summit). (1b) Dreaming Spires (2012, not to summit). (2) An Inconvenient Truth (2012). (3) Awesome Fucking Dihedral (2012). (4) Krukonogi (2019). (5) Czarna Wolga (...
Kotina seen from the southwest. (1a) Russian Direct on Dreaming Spires (2018, to summit). (1b) Dreaming Spires (2012, not to summit). (2) An Inconvenient Truth (2012). (3) Awesome Fucking Dihedral (2012). (4) Krukonogi (2019). (5) Czarna Wolga (...
Pik Minteke (5,482m). The Swiss route of ascent followed the right skyline—the northwest ridge. Photo by Silvan Schüpbach A group of seven Swiss female alpinists (Anne Flechsig, Florence Nikles, Lisa Pfalgraz, Rahel Schönauer, Ramona Volken, ...
Rereading Classics on the north face of Pik Blok. Supplied by Anna Piunova From August 6 to 10, and in a total climbing time of 57 hours, Alexander Parfenov, Alexey Sukharev, and Vjacheslav Timofeev, from Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk, Siberia,...
Drew Marshall climbs a 5.10c pitch on Deep Impact (5 pitches, 5.11a) on the Slhanny’s Dog Wall. Photo by Danny Guestrin New route development continued to be very popular in Squamish and the surrounding Sea to Sky corridor during 2017–2019, p...
The Princess Louisa Inlet Wall, rising about 1,400 meters at the head of a fjord off Jervis Inlet. (1) PLI Trail (17 pitches, ED1/2 V 5.10+, Brodie-Rowat, 2002). (2) Journey to the Center of the Earth (25 pitches, VI 5.10+ C2, Besen-Heinrich, 20...
The route line for Kootenay Canaleta (350m, D+ WI4 M5) on the north face of Gimli Peak (2,774m). Photo by Douglas Noblet The Valhallas are primarily a summertime rock climbing destination, but that doesn’t mean winter-season climbing is impos...
The southwest face of Rugged Mountain in the Haihte Range of Vancouver Island. (The photo was taken in a dry February.) The route line for Ahren Rankin, Garner Bergeron, and James Rode’s Thunderbird (ca 800m, 22 pitches, 5.10 A1) is in red; the ...
THE ADVENTUER'S SON. Roman Dial. William Morrow, 2020. Hardcover, 351 pages, $28.99. In this heart-wrenching memoir, Roman Dial walks the reader through that most horrific of losses, the death of one’s child. On July 10, 2014, Cody Roman Dial be...