After the discovery by two Australians in 2014 of an exciting area of big granite walls north of the Arctic Circle (AAJ 2015), Hansjörg Auer (Austria), Jacopo Larcher (South Tyrol, Italy), Eneko and Iker Pou (Spain), and Siebe Vanhee (Belgium), ac...
Somewhere above us the walls were making their presence felt, unfriendly and brooding in the impenetrable mist. Tantalizing photos of granite formations—the Commander and General—towering over the Siberian tundra had drawn us more than halfway aro...
From July 23 to August 30, Australians Chris Fitzgerald, Natasha Sebire, and I completed several routes on the previously unclimbed rock wall of Finger Crack Cirque, and also made the first ascent of a rock tower. Our expedition almost didn’t ha...
On August 25, my climbing partner and I had decided to try a seemingly simple mountain named Mt. Cory. [The south ridge of Cory is rated an easy/moderate scramble in Alan Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies guidebook.] After much evaluation w...
A party of two decided to climb the 3/3.5 Couloir (so named because it lies between peaks 3 and 3.5 in the Valley of the 10 Peaks), located at the far end of Moraine Lake. It was July 15 and had been a fairly warm and dry summer in the Rockies, so...
On June 6 a climber was struck in the lower right leg by a large falling block while climbing Missionary’s Crack (5.10) . This was roughly in the area where a major rockfall occurred in August 2009. Two Kananaskis Public Safety personnel were heli...
On the morning of March 15, two very experienced climbers set out to attempt a series of climbs in the Ghost River Valley. After starting up the first pitch of Malignant Mushroom (WI5), the lead climber fell while placing his first ice screw. He f...
On February 27 a party of two was climbing the classic multi-pitch ice route up Louise Falls (WI4/5). They had climbed the crux pillar and were on the easier last pitch. The less experienced climber attempted to lead this pitch but found it was to...
On August 14 two climbers set out from Lake O’Hara to climb the Grassi Ridge on Wiwaxy Peak. Late in the afternoon, light rain began falling, which made the quartzite very slippery and slowed their progress. As they were approaching the final pitc...
On July 28, two experienced climbers planned to ascend the southeast ridge (4th class) of Mt. Sifton from their Hermit Meadows camp. The weather conditions were perfect and the climb proceeded as planned. The pair topped out on Sifton’s east ridge...
On August 30, a 31-year-old man was rappelling his third climb of the day (Fortuitous, 5.10d, on the Fortress) when he fell about 20 meters to the ground and sustained massive trauma. Three local climbers, two of whom were nurses, immediately atte...
On June 6, at 11 a.m., the Parks Canada Visitor Safety team in Haines Junction received a call regarding a male climber in medical distress and requesting evacuation. The initial call came in via the Delorme InReach coordination center. Fortunatel...
During the early afternoon on September 1, Ben Lee (28) fell while rappelling Burn Crack (5.10c) on the Practice Wall. He was on rappel with an ATC when one of the ropes on the double-rope rappel pulled through the device, causing him to fall 15 t...
The two climbers were probably preparing to lower from thistree when they fell to the ground at Stone Mountain. Late in the afternoon on Saturday, June 7, Lisa Bacon (31) and Brian Sakofsky (35) fell approximately 60 f...
During the afternoon of April 12, a male climber (21) fell 70 feet while showing two friends how to rappel. After threading his ropes through the two-bolt anchor at the top of the cliff he began to rappel. Seconds later, his friends stated, the r...
During the early afternoon of Monday, March 10, Jackson Depew (23) and Zach Patterson (24) were climbing Maginot Line (5.7) on Shortoff Mountain, at the south end of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Jackson was leading the third pitch when he f...
On March 21, MT (30) and her partner (age 35) started an unnamed 5.7/5.8 climb on the Victory Wall. MT began the second pitch by moving right approximately 15 feet. After placing a blue Metolius TCU, she continued up, slotted a nut between a block...
Mark Byers (53), an experienced climber, died as a result of a fall while roped solo climbing on the evening of March 11. Byers was leading the route Balcony (5.5). Witnesses mistakenly reported that he had reached the top of the climb and that on...
Heidi Duartes Wahl, 28, died November 15 after falling to the ground from about 20 feet up Yellow Wall (5.11) at the Trapps. The climber had not placed any protection, which is the norm for the relatively easy but poorly protected start of this ro...
On August 9 a climber was starting either the second pitch of Cascading Crystal Kaleidoscope (CCK) or CCK Direct—the pitches start in the same area of Grand Traverse Ledge. He reportedly placed one cam in a horizontal crack, continued climbing, de...