On September 8, two men were climbing Shealyn’s Way (5.7), a sport route approximately 75 feet high. As the leader was lowering from the top, approximately 25 to 30 feet from the ground, the tail of the rope passed through the belayer’s device and...
Our original goal was to climb the north face of Lobuche West (6,145m). Joao Garcia and I approached up the Changri Nup Glacier from the village of Lobuche (ca 4,940m). Five hours of walking over difficult moraine took us to a base camp at 5,100...
Punchen Himal (6,049m, 28°39'40N, 85°08'48E) lies on the Nepal-Tibet border, 30km north of Ganesh I (7,422m). It had seen two known previous attempts. In 2007, a Japanese party led by Tamotsu Ohnishi followed the northwest ridge from its base, wit...
The At Bashi Range is particularly suitable for ski mountaineering and still has around 60 peaks above 4,000m that remain unclimbed. In 2016 our team explored the potential in the heart of the massif, which contains the highest peaks, and learned ...
In February 2016, just a few weeks after the presumed first ascent of Chon-tor (ca 4,180m) by Egor Suzdaltsov and Ivan Temerev from Russian Siberia (AAJ 2017), a new route was climbed on the northwest face of Chon-tor by the brothers Eugeny and Se...
Will and James started climbing Matthes Crest in the late morning on September 11. Both have spent decades climbing in the Sierra. (Their names have been changed here.) The day had started out with clear blue skies, and both climbers felt that the...
On November 13 a party of six scrambled to the summit of Mt. Haig, in the far southern Canadian Rockies, via the east ridge. At about 4 p.m., as the party was descending, one member of the group stumbled forward and at the same time lost her grip ...
On November 29, while leading the second pitch of Kemosabe (100 meters, WI4), a 35-year-old climber took a 40-meter fall from near the end of the pitch, pulling out two ice screws before his fall was arrested. The climber sustained life-threatenin...
An experienced party of two was climbing Forbidden Corner (5.9 R) on April 12 when the leader fell about 10 meters on the fourth or fifth pitch as a result of a broken hold. A piece of protection pulled out and lengthened the fall. As the belayer ...
At 3:40 p.m. on February 4, two ice climbers were descending the lower portion of the Aquarius ice climb (WI4). The first climber walked across a large ice ledge to the anchor at the top of the final rappel while his partner pulled the ropes from ...
A group of seven skiers was attempting the southern portion of the Great Divide ski traverse, which goes from the Columbia Icefields to Lake Louise. On May 4 they were using the standard bolted rappel route off the west glacier of the Mons Icefiel...
On February 21, a party was climbing Professor Falls on the slopes of Mt. Rundle and attempting to combine pitches in order to complete the route quickly. The leader, a very experienced climber in his 50s, climbed and protected the upper portion o...
OVER CHRISTMAS OF 2016, pictures of a large icefall strongly resembling a Christmas tree circulated on Wechat (a free messaging and calling app widely used throughout China). It took He Chuan and Liu Yang five days to determine the location of thi...
A party of two departed the Hind Hut at 5:30 a.m. on August 30 to attempt the north ridge of Mt. Assiniboine. This is the most popular route up this peak, rated 5.5 and Alpine Grade II. Moving relatively quickly, the two climbers gained the ridge ...
On December 28, two experienced climbers started up the classic Field ice climb known as Carlsberg Column. Carlsberg has an “approach pitch” that starts out with a steep little pillar (WI3) and then continues for another 30 meters of low-angled ic...
On July 15, a loose boulder shifted as a 32-year-old apprentice guide approached the west ridge of Pigeon Spire, sending him into a 10-meter tumble. The boulder then rolled over the climber, breaking 14 ribs and two vertebrae and collapsing a lung...
At the end of August, a party of three climbers attempted a lightweight traverse of the peaks that bound the headwaters of the Illecillewaet River, including Mt. Sir Donald. This is a 37-kilometer trip with nearly 6,000 meters of vertical gain and...
On June 20, as a pair of climbers was ascending the south buttress of Mt. Tupper, wet, snowy conditions slowed their progress in the upper third of the route. The climbers did not bring ice axes and crampons for traversing the final snowy ledges t...
On July 25, while ascending the classic west ridge of Mt. Tupper, an unroped climber pulled on a loose block along the ridge top and fell down the south face. His two climbing partners witnessed him falling with the large block, then cartwheeling ...
Route 3 is the 2015 Aitken-Potockiy Route. See photos below for other routes. The Ala Archa is a popular and easily accessible mountain group, lying only 40km south of Bishkek, and contains some of the best alpine, ro...