Two climbers were attempting the west ridge of Chancellor Peak (3,266 meters) on July 24. They were expecting low fifth-class climbing and instead encountered what felt like 5.8 or 5.9, with little protection, on poor rock. The two simul-climbed a...
On July 15, TP and AM climbed the classic northwest ridge of Mt. Sir Donald. On the summit they met another pair of climbers and decided to descend together via the West Face Bypass route. As the group made their way down, they had to cross a few ...
Our party of six attempted an abbreviated version of the North Selkirks ski traverse, starting on April 16. On Friday, April 21, we left the Great Cairn (Ben Ferris) hut for the Guardsman Glacier and the summit of the Footstool, adjacent to Mt. Si...
On October 8, a 24-year-old woman caught her climbing partner’s fall at the Lower Deck of the Sunnyside climbing area. (Whether the climber was leading or top-roping was not clear from reports.) The belayer was pulled forward, slamming into rock a...
On June 27 my climbing partner and I witnessed an accident on Cardhu Crack (one pitch, 5.8) in the Shannon Falls area. After successfully completing the climb, the leader was being lowered. When she was about four meters above the ground, the bela...
My climbing partner, Scott, and I were first responders to an accident high on the Chief on September 7. We had climbed Rock On and planned to continue up the Squamish Buttress (mostly 5.6 with one 5.10c pitch; about six more pitches). At the top ...
In April, a party of three climbers attempting the east ridge of Mt. Logan required evacuation from approximately 4,800 meters (15,748 feet). One of the members was experiencing symptoms of high altitude cerebral edema (HACE).In early May, a femal...
THE IDEA CAME UP as it often does, after a nice afternoon of climbing and a well-deserved beer. A good friend told us about the spectacular Pico Cão Grande (“Big Dog Peak”), a volcanic plug rising out of the jungle on the island of São Tomé, off t...
On July 22 our Estonian expedition summited Peak 6,801m GPS (6,751m on the Indian map; 34°37'06.3192"N, 78°04'38.7084"E), the highest unclimbed peak in the Kunzang Range. [The Kunzang Range is generally defined as the mountainous region north of t...
After searching for a destination offering a potential first ascent, Alex Gammeter and I decided on the Gangotri. Two different contacts told us about mountains lying within the so-called Inner Line, an area of restricted travel near the border wi...
Dhechyan Kang (6,019m, 29.036532°N, 84.249716°E) was opened for mountaineering in 2014 but has no recorded ascent. I found this rather surprising, as satellite images show it to be a broad, rounded hill without technical difficulties. The main cha...
On May 5, in poor weather, Carole Chambaret, Boris Langenstein, and I (all French) established base camp at Dalsampa (ca 4,200m) on the Gondokhoro (a.k.a. Ghondogoro) Glacier, intent on skiing from the summit of Laila (6,096m). The safest approach...
In January a four-man Kyrgyz-Russian team climbed a new route up the middle of the south face of Korzhenevskaya (7,105m) in the Academy of Sciences Range. The main difficulties of this line are associated with icefalls that in summer often produce...
Tomaž Goslar, Mojca Švajger, and I arrived in Pakistan on July 10 with the aim of climbing a high peak in the Hindu Kush. However, due to security issues on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, our permit was denied and we had to focus quickly on anot...
On April 2, at 5:10 p.m., Canadians Vern Stice of Edmonton, Pascale Marceau of Canmore, and I (from Minnesota) reached the summit of Jeannette Peak, which we believe was previously unclimbed. At 3,089m/10,135’, it is the highest summit in the Selw...
From mid-June to mid-July, Brian Houle and I visited the Cordillera Real to explore new technical routes on some of the big ice faces in the range. Our main objectives were the southeast face of Cerro Arkhata (5,650m), believed to be unclimbed, an...
Browsing Google Earth, I came across an impressive wall of 5,000m mountains on the Georgia-Russia border. By searching the AAJ, I soon learned this was the 13km-long Bezengi Wall (named after the glacier on its north side). There was a proud cou...
In the summer of 2010, Boris Avdeev (an American resident) and I went to the Caucasus, where we climbed Shkhara (5,193m) by the Beknu Route on the south pillar (2,200m, 5B 55°). I was then able to make a partial ski descent of this route, from the...
THE IDEA of going to Peru wasn’t sparked by some coveted unclimbed line. It was simply out of convenience and practicality. As the winter season in the Canadian Rockies wound down, I was getting antsy to go on a trip. Peru seemed ideal: big mounta...
THE IDEA of linking the three Howser Towers in a single day dawned on me back in 2010. It was my second season in a row climbing above the East Creek Basin; the year before, Jason Kruk, Matt Segal, and I had done the first free ascent of the west ...