Eleven years ago, on an ordinary cold spring morning in Castle Valley, Utah, I met a 16-year-old kid who unexpectedly would become my best friend. The memory is still vivid. After frantically trying to catch an inspiring father-son climbing team o...
In the austral spring of 2017, Tomy Aguilo and Julian Casanova (guides), Sebastian and Stephen Gallie, and I took a four-hour boat ride from Puerto Natales to the Canal de las Montañas on the east side of the Cordillera Sarmiento. We landed at the...
In early 2018, Tad McCrea and I made the first ascent of Cerro Chueco (47°13’46.7”S, 73°02’34.4”W). Clearly visible west of the Carretera Austral (highway), Cerro Chueco rises above a sea of glaciers and lush forest. Though not a giant, even mount...
On February 10 and 11, 2018, Felipe Cancino (Chile), Max Fisher (Canada), and I reached the summits of two previously unclimbed peaks on the Northern Patagonia Icefield (Campo de Hielo Norte). The first, Punta Pantagruel (2,410m), had already been...
I huddled over my gear on the slippery boat ramp of Francois Harbor on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, contents strewn about like a bomb had gone off. I wedged and crammed 200 pounds of climbing equipment and supplies for two weeks into my 18...
On July 25, as he was preparing to lower from a ledge, a climber fell about 15 meters to the ground. The climber was a member of a three-person team attempting a “mock multi-pitch climb” in preparation for a real multi-pitch objective later in the...
THE PATAGONIAN SEASON was marked by very unstable weather. This prevented any groundbreaking ascents, but a good time was had by most and for the first time in years there were no serious accidents. If bad weather is what it takes to accomplish t...
I first met Christchurch mountaineer Norman Hardie in May 1983, outside my favorite old bookshop in New Regent Street. At the time I was Field Operations Officer for the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme, so I introduced myself and asked No...
After making the first ascent of the south face of Pico Tunari in June, Rodrigo Lobo and I decided that we simply had to climb all three of the most significant rock walls in the extensive Cordillera de Cocapata: Tunari’s south face, the southeast...
From June 21-22, during the austral winter, Rodrigo Lobo and I made the first ascent of the south face of Tunari (5,035m, 17°17'8"S, 66°23'30"W), a long escarpment situated well over 200km southeast of La Paz and clearly visible from Cochabamba, B...
AT THE END OF JANUARY, Christian Fascendini, Matěj Svojtka, and I arrived in Basaseachi National Park with one goal: to open a new line. We chose Rancho San Lorenzo as our base camp, an ideal and quiet place. The owner, Don Fernando, helped us a l...
On August 6 we lost yet another incredible man to the mountains that he loved. Tom Zajicek was killed in a 90-foot fall while descending Starlight Peak in the High Sierra of California. It was one week before his 67th birthday. I had the honor of ...
On May 27, a 53-year-old male, climbing solo, sustained frostbite injuries to all ten of his fingers while ascending from the 14,200-foot camp toward the 17,200-foot camp on the West Buttress. At 9:10 a.m., he made a satelite phone call requesting...
AT APPROXIMATELY 6 p.m. on September 16, I responded to the report of a fatal rock climbing accident at the Lower West Bolton climbing area. I was directed to anambulance where the two subjects who had been climbing with the deceased (20-year-ol...
THE PEAKS of the Kondus and Kaberi valleys are mostly virgin. Some rise above 7,000m. The valleys are part of the Gilgit-Baltistan region, once in the ancient kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir and nowadays in territory disputed by Pakistan, India, and ...
AFTER LEADING the first Korean Way project in 2016, climbing the south face of Gangapurna (AAJ 2017), I led a second expedition with the concept of fostering a younger generation of Korean climbers, developing their skills and experience. I was jo...
IN JANUARY 2018 a team of five from the elite Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne (GMHM) visited the Pirrit Hills, an isolated group of sharp granite peaks, around 13km in length, sitting on the icecap around 160km south of the Antarctic Logistics ...
From December 1–17 our team of seven climbers, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-50s and comprising Jimmy Chin, Savannah Cummins, Pablo Durana, Alex Honnold, Anna Pfaff, Cedar Wright, and me, visited the Fenris Kjeften (Wolf's Jaw) in the mountai...
It was 1998 when I first landed in Greenland. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a long love affair with grand rock walls and towers, majestic polar bears, giant diamond-like icebergs, unique Inuit friends, and an endless list of wonde...
THE TRIP STARTED as a 10-year-old dream of Luke Holloway's, one of my longest climbing partners: Boat the Little Nahanni and South Nahanni rivers to Brintnell Creek, hike into the Cirque of the Unclimbables, then boat the Nahanni for another 100 m...