In August 1999, Jonny Copp and Mike Pennings climbed a new line on the 3,200’ west face of North Howser Tower. They called their route Armageddon (VI 5.11+ A2) and free climbed most of it. “Arghh,” Copp wrote in AAJ 2000, “a pecker and a blade; da...
The Minaret is a gorgeous prow shaped like a rocket ship that leans against the south side of South Howser Tower. Despite having made many trips to the Bugaboos, I’d never climbed on it. In August, Maury Birdwell, Leo Houlding, Jesse Huey, and I p...
During late April and early May, an expedition of the Groupe Excellence Alpinisme National, a mentorship program of the federation of French alpine clubs (FFCAM), led by Mathieu Détrie, Frédéric Gentet, and Christophe Moulin, completed several new...
I had intended to try the unclimbed east face of Kang Nachugo (6,737m) in 2015, but the massive earthquake prevented access to the region and forced us to change our objective to the north face of Kantega, on which we were unsuccessful. A year lat...
Nangamari I (center) and II (left). The 2016 first ascent of Nangamari II gained the col between the two peaks, then followed the northeast ridge. In 2013 the Kanzai section of the Japanese Alpine Club had discussi...
On May 3, at approximately 11:30 p.m., a climber notified park rangers that his climbing partner might have sustained a broken leg during a rappelling accident while descending from the route Sons of Yesterday. The patient was located on a belay l...
John R. Filsinger of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, died September 24 at the age of 95. He was married to Marjorie Filsinger from 1949 until her death in 1977. In 1980 he married Elaine (Guildalian) Filsinger, who survives him. He is also survived by h...
In 2002–’03 the leashless revolution was just starting, and it brought together a small group of Salt Lake and Provo, Utah, climbers. Focusing on the steep choss of Provo Canyon limestone, they farmed ice and created new routes, and one of Scott...
Hooman Aprin, climber and mountain guide, succumbed to frontal temporal dementia in May 2015 at age 68. At death he was surrounded by loved ones: Lisa Goldoftas and their children, Dora Aprin and Joey Aprin, Hooman’s daughter Tara Aprin, and his g...
I climbed the classic west ridge of North Twin Sister Mountain near Mt. Baker on a fine August day. It was very warm and I got a late start. As many do, I used a mountain bike for the approach, which follows about nine kilometers of logging roads....
In late July, Tim Halder and I ventured into the remote and mythical Arrigetch Peaks for three weeks of packrafting and climbing. I’d first read about this range in David Roberts’ autobiography years ago, and had dreamed about granite towers, blue...
Two and half weeks, one African country, and three completely unique objectives: Why not? In December 2016, I traveled to Kenya with Alex Honnold, Cedar Wright, Ted Hesser, and Taylor Keating to climb the country’s biggest rock wall, put up firs...
Isolated by wide longitudinal valleys, the At Bashi Range extends 100km in a southwest to northeast direction, with an average width of 25km, and has a collection of mostly rocky peaks reaching about 4,790m. It is bordered on the northern side by ...
In mid-July, Mark Chonofsky, Sandy Fowler, Sam Newmark, Calum Nicoll, Neil Smith, and I set out for unexplored and poorly documented valleys in the Djenghi-Djer, a subrange between the At Bashi and Borkoldoy. The Dejnghi-Djer, which in Krygyz mean...
From August 4 to 28, Giovanni Pagnoncelli and I climbed three long new rock routes in Ala Archa National Park, all on trad gear. The weather was very bad throughout our stay, with only one day that was fine; the rest had at least two to three hour...
Maria Dixon, John McEvoy, Will McEvoy, Claire Stringer, Guy Williams, and I (all U.K.) drove to the village of Tamga, south of Issyk-kul, where we stayed in a brilliant guesthouse run by the parents and sister of mountain guide Misha Danichkin, wh...
This year's expedition to Kyrgyzstan was planned somewhat more on the hoof than normal: I only booked flights three days prior to departure. On the morning of September 19, Vladimir Komissarov, director of the ITMC agency, kindly met me to pass on...
From August 19–22, 2015, Giorgi Tepnadze, Levan Tsibadze, and I climbed the Kartvelishvili Route on the southwest face of Dzhangi-tau (a.k.a. Jangi-tau or Janga, 5,058m, the second-highest peak in the Georgian Caucasus), creating a new variant of ...
From February 9 to 13, Giorgi Tepnadze and I climbed a new route up the Dragon's Wall on Kazbek (5,047m, a.k.a. Kazbegi), which rises 3,200m above the village of Stepantsminda. Our route climbs the east face via a steep icefall through the left si...
East of the higher and better-known peaks of the Caucasus, the Chaukhi massif is one of the most popular mountain regions of the range. It is only about 100km north of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, followed by a short walk to base camp at around 2,6...