AVALANCHEBritish Columbia, Selkirk MountainsA neurosurgeon from Mercer Island and a noted mountaineer from Spokane, Washington, were killed on February 4, 1986, when an avalanche buried them while they were helicopter skiing in British Columbia’s ...

Kamet and Abi Gamin. In the pre-monsoon period, I led an expedition to Kamet. We left Joshimath on May 28 in two separate groups. One, led by Captain S.B. Dalai, went to the virgin west face. Captain Dalai, Naik Dhan Singh and Naik Rajinder Singh ...

Dhaulagiri, East Face in Winter. Swiss climbers Erhard Loretan, Jean Troillet, Pierre-Alain Steiner and Pierre Morand began activity on November 21 when they left their Base Camp to begin carries to the foot of the east face. They wanted to do the...

Waseda University Mount McKinley Expedition. Don Sheldon flew the Japanese Waseda University group to the 8000-foot level on May 1 and 2. On May 6, from their 13,200-foot camp, they climbed the west buttress route as high as 14,100 feet and then c...

Shivling North Face Ascent and West Ridge Tragedy. Our joint expedition had 15 Czechoslovakian and three German climbers. From Gangotri we set out with 10 porters and 15 horses and got to Base Camp at Tapovan a day later. To acclimatize, we decide...

Mt. Pissis, Southwest Face and first winter ascent; Cerro Veladero, West Route and first winter ascent.On September 16 Guillermo Glass, Rolando Linzing, and I reached the summit of Mt. Pissis (6,882m), the second highest mountain in the Andes, for...

The Image. This northern offshoot of the Bivouac-Raynolds ridge was first climbed by Jack Davis, Redwood Fryxell, Nick Ellena, and Julie Peterson August 20, 1957 by the moderate northeast ledges. This is the higher and more southerly of the two Im...

Kangchenjunga Solo Attempt. I was accompanied to Base Camp at 5050 meters at Pang Pema, which we reached on October 10, by Jean-Yves Goutte, Mlle Monique Loscos and Jean-Louis Teyssier. I attempted the 1980 Japanese route, placing Camps I and II a...

Lost Pinnacle. Between the chain of lakes and Sunlight Basin lies a small area of granite faces and pinnacles. On a warm weekend in August I hiked into the area and crossed wobbly boulders, raging creeks, and fought my way through vicious thorned ...

FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION Wisconsin, Devil’s Lake State ParkOn July 25,1986, Beth Haynes (21) and Amy Solomon (27) were climbing Schizophrenia when Haynes, who was leading, fell to the ground from near the top of the route, a distance of...

Lhotse Attempt. A Spanish expedition led by Juan Fernando Azcona attempted to climb Lhotse via the west face. They reached 7650 meters on October 4 before having to retreat.Elizabeth Hawley

FALLING ICE, POOR POSITION, MISCOMMUNICATION Utah, Little Cottonwood CanyonOn June 2, 1988, Michael Franklin (42) and Carl Wilmarth (36) were climbing “Great White Icicle” and were at the belay with one pitch to go.While sorting out at the belay a...

FALL ON ROCK, CHOCK PULLED OUT, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, INEXPERIENCEWashington, Icicle Creek CanyonOn April 15, I could not complete a lead in mid-afternoon and was down climbing/being lowered when the top protection pulled out. The chock hit me in...

Mount Rainier National Park (1)—At approximately 1:00 p.m. on July 15, 1954, a summit party led by Mountain Guide, James Whittaker, was descending the Cowlitz Glacier, just below the Beehive, to Camp Muir. About 12 inches of snow had fallen 10 day...

Devil's Tower, Twilight Zone. Grega Lacen and Iztok Mihev climbed a new route on August 31 and September 9 on the southeast face. Twilight Zone (A5) has four hard pitches (A4, A5, A5, A4) and was done in 19 hours. Five bolts were used on the belay...

Himal Chuli Attempt. A seven-man Japanese expedition from the Senshu University Alpine Club attempted the west peak (24,685 feet) of Himal Chuli by its southwest face and ridge. The expedition was led by Hidezumi Komi. Base Camp was established on...

Bugaboo Spire, West Face. On August 5 Elfrida Pigou and I made a new route on the west face of Bugaboo Spire. (Although this route started up the west face it was completed on the west ridge. The first ascent of the whole west face was done a week...

CLIMBING UN ROPED, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT AND EXPERIENCE —Colorado, Maroon Bells. The following was related by James McKinney (29) during an interview regarding the fatal climbing accident of his fiancée, Beatrice Venice Sawyer (24).The two climbers...

STRANDED, LOST EQUIPMENT, UNFAMILIAR WITH TERRAIN British Columbia, Rocky Mountains, Mount Wiwaxy“Grassi’s Ridge” is a 5.7 multi-pitch rock climb on the Wiwaxy Peaks (2704 meters) near Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park. On July 14, 1994, S.L. and ...

Everest Ascent and Tragedy. Junichi Futagami and I were supported by six Sherpas. We climbed the normal North Col route of Everest. We established Base Camp, Camps I, II, III, IV, V and VI at 5154, 5500, 6000, 6500, 7028, 7790 and 8200 meters on A...