Three climbers flew to the Pika Glacier on July 16, spent a few days rock climbing in the Little Switzerland area, and began a traverse out of the mountains on July 19. The team had planned to return to Talkeetna on foot and by packraft. At approx...
On June 13, the six members of expedition “Extreme Travel” completed their orientation at the Talkeetna ranger station and flew to the Kahiltna Glacier to begin a West Buttress climb. The team moved to 17,200-foot camp on the eighth day of their t...
On June 16, a mountain guide radioed NPS mountaineering rangers from the upper West Buttress Route to say that one of his clients was exhibiting signs and symptoms of high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). The guided group was returning from a summ...
The four climbers of expedition “TEAM ECS’16” flew to Kahiltna base camp at 7,200 feet on May 31. Thirteen days later, on June 12, TEAM ECS’16 moved to 17,200-foot camp and then left for a summit attempt the following day. Throughout the day, this...
At 11:17 a.m. on May 25, a 49-year-old male and his 40-year-old male climbing partner contacted the mountaineering rangers at 14,200 feet via family radio service (FRS) to report that both individuals had deep frostbite injuries. The injured climb...
On April 17 the “Gonna Die!” expedition team flew to the Kahiltna Glacier for a planned 21-day ascent of the West Buttress climbing route. Expedition Gonna Die! was the first team of the 2016 season to reach the 14,200-foot camp and the only exped...
A climber departed Talkeetna on January 21 for a planned 65-day winter solo expedition on the west ridge of Mt. Hunter. At 7 a.m. on April 1, the Alaska Region Communication Center (ARCC) received an emergency notification and GPS coordinates from...
On June 16, at approximately 12:30 p.m., Yosemite Dispatch received a 911 call about a climber injury on El Capitan in the vicinity of the Heart Ledges rappels. Pete, Mark, and Vlad had just finished climbing Little John Right, a three- to four-...
On the afternoon of May 22, a female climber (age unknown) was attempting to lead the route Layback, a 5.9+ trad climb at the popular Bridge Buttress area. The climber took a short fall, loading her highest piece, a finger-size cam, which then pul...
Celeste and her partner, both 36 and experienced climbers, were approaching the technical crux of Kamp’s Ridge (5.6) on Mt. Olympus. It was a warm, sunny day around noon. They were in fourth-class terrain when Celeste fell approximately 100 feet. ...
On the afternoon of September 18, a two-person party was near the summit of Bear Creek Spire (13,726 feet) after climbing the east ridge, one of the longest routes in the Sierra (5.8 and more than 20 pitches, if the entire route is belayed). Altho...
On July 17, at 9 a.m., Yosemite Dispatch received a call from a distressed party at the base of Cathedral Peak. The caller’s 38-year-old male climbing partner had fallen while off route on the first pitch of the Southeast Buttress Route (5.6). The...
My wife and I were climbing at Pie Shop, a granite crag in South Lake Tahoe where we had been multiple times. I was leading the first pitch of True Grip, a right-angling 5.10b finger crack. While I am an experienced trad leader and have comfortabl...
On May 4, Much Mayr and I completed a new route on the Black Canyon’s Diagonal Wall, ground-up and in a single 11-hour push. This was my second trip to the Black Canyon, after traveling there with Ben Lepesant in 2011 to make the first free ascent...
On the afternoon of June 3, a male climber (age unknown) was attempting to lead the route Ritz Cracker, a 5.9 trad climb at the Fern Buttress area. According to a National Park Service report, the climber fell above his last piece of gear and impa...
Standing proud as the tallest peak in the Battle Range, Mt. Proteus (3,198m) has a striking south face that just begs to be climbed. Yet no direct route had been completed up this rock face. It’s no easy task to get there. The surrounding glaciers...
At approximately 5:30 p.m. on March 25, a 25-year-old male climber set up a rappel at the bolted anchors of Frigidator Crack (5.10b) and began to descend. Approximately halfway down, the climber rappelled off the end of one of the strands of his 6...
At 7:15 p.m. on July 15, a 22-year-old male climber rappelled off one of the ends of his rope while descending from S’more Energy (5.11c) on the Party Buttress. He fell approximately 40 feet and landed primarily on his feet, suffering multiple inj...
OUR EXPEDITION was an adventure from beginning to end. Our proposed route on Pumori (7,148m) followed a direct line up the central section of the south face, left of the 1986 Scottish Route. The project felt ambitious and would be totally reliant ...
In October-November 2015, we organized our first “Himalayan Camp,” with the aim of helping Japanese newcomers to the Himalaya climb safely and motivate them to step up their Himalayan experience. Approaching through the Khumbu and then operating f...