From September 11–October 5, I visited the Shuangqiao with 33-year-old Marcos Costa, a Brazilian living for the last seven years in China. Marcos is undoubtedly the driving force in the current explosion of new route development in the country, fr...
I arrived in Siguniang on Christmas Day 2013 with the goal of developing hard dry-tooling and mixed climbing. Ice climbing is a relatively new sport in China, and mixed climbing has only recently picked up traction. There were only three establish...
Huang Guan Feng (5,515m) or Crown Peak, due to its three-pinnacle summit in the shape of a crown, is the first large peak immediately east of Yutu Feng/Jade Rabbit Peak (5,578m), on the north side of the upper Bipeng Valley (Peak 38 in Jon Sulliva...
After climbing Haizi Shan, we headed to the southwest side of the Minya Konka Range with Garrett Bradley. A number of southern outliers of Minya Konka (Gongga Shan, 7,556m) remain unclimbed. From the road end at 2,700m, the approach to these peaks...
When Simon Gietl was climbing with the DAV expedition squad in the Dolomites during the summer of 2013, he learned about their trip to the Minya Konka (Gongga Shan) range the previous year, during which they did the first ascents of two peaks (AAJ...
In late January, accompanied by Garrett Bradley, we traveled to Haizi Shan (a.k.a. Yala, 5,820m) to attempt a line on the west face. Base camp was at an excellent hot springs beneath the face. On the 29th we started climbing up the central snow co...
We were attracted to the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Region by Tom Nakamura’s map depicting “Sichuan’s most outstanding unclimbed peaks.” One of these was Kawarani I (5,992m). From the road head near Garze town, to the northern side, we walked for tw...
Over 14 days in July and August, Marcos Costa, Liu Yunqing, Zhoulei, and, for part of the time, Dawei (a 5.14 climber from Yangshuo) climbed eight routes, opened seven new lines, and summited four different peaks. Routes included Jarjinjabo’s four...
In August 2014, Garrett Bradley, Christopher Miller, and I headed to the Jarjinjabo area in the Garrapunsum Massif. There, we climbed a 10-pitch (ca 400m) route on the south face of Jabo Tower. The upper portion of the route joined lines establish...
In November the predominately Irish expedition of Jack Bergin, Martin Boner, Kevin Higgins, Ursula McPherson, Keith Monaghan, Alan Tees (leader), Jimmy Tees, Thendup Sherpa, and I became the first group to complete the traverse of the Zumthul Phuk...
In May I took part in an expedition organized by Alberto Peruffo to explore the Talung and Tongshyong glacier basins, southeast of Kangchenjunga. While the rest of the members busied themselves investigating the countless possibilities for new rou...
After abandoning an attempt on the unclimbed east ridge of Meru, due to “abominable” snow conditions, Daniela Teixeira and Paulo Roxo switched to the direct northwest ridge of Shivling. Starting on the right side of the north face, beginning at ca...
In the winter of 2014, Tyler Adams, Bryan Hylenski, and I organized a trip to Sikkim with the help of Anindya Mukherjee. When the government refused access to our first-choice mountain, due to winter conditions, we opted for the seldom-visited are...
From April 12 to May 31, Francesco Canale, Enrico Ferri, Davide Ferro, and Andrea Tonin (Italy), Cesar Rosales Chinchay (Peru), Anindya Mukherjee (India), and I as leader operated on the Zemu side of Kangchenjunga, one of the most fascinating and ...
Steve Kennedy, Andy Nisbet, and I traveled as far as the Nama Glacier as part of a larger group led by Martin Moran. While he, Michael Page, and Gordon Scott were ascending screes below Cheepaydang, prior to making its first ascent, we left camp o...
On October 1, Jim Elzinga, Steve House, Buster Jesik, Colin Simon, and Steven Van Sickle gathered in Delhi for the final expedition of the 2012–2014 Alpine Mentors program. [This is a U.S.-based, volunteer-run program to train young alpinists. See...
In May our five-member expedition planned to attempt two routes on Shivling (6,543m). Rainer Treppte and I (German) wanted to try a new route on the left side of the northeast face, while Niels Delenk, Henning Stoll (both German), and Heiner Heim ...
Sitting on our ropes on the summit, falling stars zooming around us, I’m afraid I might be freezing to death. I huddle as close as I can get to my partner, skinny Ken Duncan. We are bivying in the boulders, and I would give my left nut for just ...
The door to the cockpit swung open and a Russian voice emanating from somewhere inside a camouflage jacket shouted “Where do we go?” It made my heart sink. I had not been concentrating on where we were going at all. Instead, I had been joyfully st...
On August 30, thanks to the logistics of our excellent agency ITMC, Maarten Altena and I were dropped off just 10km from base camp. Over two days we ferried loads to a site at 3,500m at the confluence of the Grigoriev and Palgov rivers. We made an...