Patrice Bret, David Girard, and I (France) spent mid-July to mid-August in Pakistan with the main goal of repeating one of the routes on Trango Tower. We spent around a week climbing the Slovenian Route, though the top pitches were in poor conditi...
On June 30 Spanish-Basque mountaineers Alberto Iñurrategi, Juan Vallejo and Mikel Zabalza arrived at their 3,400m base camp below Paiju Peak (6,610m) for a second attempt at the south pillar. In the summer of 2013 they had climbed the first 500m o...
In August, Phil De-Beger, Tim Oates, and Peter Thompson (U.K.) attempted unclimbed Muchu Chhish (7,453m, among the highest unclimbed summits in the world for which it is possible to obtain a permit). The plan was to climb alpine-style along the so...
Getting to Languta-e-Barfi (Langua-tai Barfi, 6,827m) was an organic process. Originally, Chris Todd and I intended to approach the mountain from the north via the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan. But by chance we discovered Languta-e-Barfi hadn’t ...
Before making a rare south-to-north crossing of Chapchingol Pass, a team of mountaineers from Austria and Pakistan visited the Ghidims Valley to attempt an unclimbed summit clearly visible from the upper valley and Yahya Camp (4,400m). Starting fr...
“Are you going to climb on the Trango Towers under the supervision of some Western climber?” This was the usual opening question. This would be followed by a barrage of inquiries about our skills, gear, past accidents, and everything that pointed ...
Ryo Masumoto, Takaki Nagato, and I visited the Charakusa Valley for one month, and after acclimatizing on Sulu Peak we made our goal the southeast ridge of a previously unclimbed sub-peak that lies on the ridge extending southwest from K7 West (6,...
In October 2014, Choi Ji-won, Kim Jeong-yeop, Ku Eun-su, and Wang Jun-ho attempted Peak 41 (6,648m), starting up the left-hand couloir on the north face, a little to the right of the line tried by Jack Geldard and Rob Greenwood in 2012. On October...
On April 6, after a six-day trek from the rough road at Num, we arrived at Makalu base camp (ca 4,800m). With sponsorship from the Millet Expedition Project, we had come to try Peak 4 (6,736m), which at the time we believed to be unclimbed.The eas...
On April 6 a female climber (approximately 20 years old) broke her leg after taking a large, swinging top-rope fall from a sport climb in Kolob Canyon. The climber was part of a group of seven that visited the very overhanging crag that day. The g...
On a lovely spring day in April, I met several friends at the Oceanic Wall in Dream Canyon, a deep tributary of Boulder Canyon. After several warm-ups, I got on a 5.11d I had climbed several times in the past. The crux lies between the third and f...
Gibson Reynolds, who took part in pioneering expeditions that helped open the Saint Elias Range to mountaineering in the 1950s and made first ascents of several of its peaks, passed away on April 20, 2014. Born and raised in the flatlands of Alaba...
A native of San Francisco, John Boyle was a global adventurer. After serving in the U.S. Army in Germany (1954-1956), he worked on a satellite program that took him to tracking stations in remote regions of the world, inspiring him to explore Afri...
Mark Hesse, climber, conservationist, and access activist, passed away in early 2014. A fit 63-year-old man, he was climbing alone in a Boulder, Colorado, climbing gym and no one saw him fall. The gym employees who rushed to his aid were unable to...
In July, Nobuyuki “Yuki” Fujita and I established a new climb on the southeast face of Storm Point in Cascade Canyon: Highway to Heaven (11 pitches, 5.8). Our climb is located far to the right of the Guides Wall and what guidebook author Leigh Ort...
Ben Silvestre and I spent March 25–April 13 in the Revelation Mountains. Our initial objective was the central couloir on Pyramid Peak. However, landing on the melted-out Revelation Glacier was out the question. We re-routed to try the unclimbed n...
Ironically, Bill Putnam’s long prominence in mountaineering organizations, national and international, tended to obscure his stature as one of the foremost mountaineers of his generation. Brought up by his father to love the outdoors, he began his...
Joe Firey was one of the most endearing, enduring, and accomplished mountaineers in the Pacific Northwest. An active hiker, climber, and skier for nearly 70 years, he pioneered exploratory mountaineering and ski touring in the Northwest, especiall...
On May 31, Eitan Green, 28, a fellow guide, and four other climbers were swept off of Mt. Rainer’s Liberty Ridge, apparently in an avalanche. Eitan died far too soon, but at least he lived having never lost the magic of climbing. Eitan first climb...
Don Liska, 85, died at home after a brief illness, with Alice, his wife of 59 years, by his side.Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Don received his bachelor and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin. Do...