Funded in part by the Lyman Spitzer Award, Tim Dittmann, Jared Vilhauer, and I reached the Kishtwar Himalaya from the north in mid-September. We shared our base camp (4,400m) on the east side of the Hagshu Glacier with Slovenian and British teams....
In 2011, when I traveled to the Raru Valley with a group of young climbers, members of the expedition made the first ascent of GoCook Peak (6,050m, AAJ 2012) and noticed an unclimbed 6,060m mountain to the northeast. In June 2014, hoping to find t...
Galina Chibitok (Russia) and Marina Kopteva (Ukraine) spent seven days in September making the first ascent of the 900m northwest face of Golden Sentinel (ca 5,200m). They graded the route 6B (VI A2/A3). Golden Sentinel is the second major rock to...
Machu Kangri (6,086m), west of Leh, is located 8km south of the Sisir La and 12km southeast of Chomotang. In mid-June, Karl Herberger (Germany), well acclimatized and approaching over the Sisir La, made a bivouac at ca 4,700m, north of the peak. N...
In June and July, Karl Herberger made a number of solo ascents of high peaks in this area. On June 27 he traversed Peak 6,100m from east to west and then climbed the southeast ridge of Spangnak Ri (6,390m). Peak 6,100m (a.k.a. Kiager Ri) is a larg...
Telthop (6,185m) is situated north of Leh and is accessed via the Kardung La (at 5,350m the highest motorable road in the world) and Nubra Valley. This is an area of considerable political and military sensitivity, given its proximity to the still...
I had arranged to lead a commercial group up a peak in the Ladakh Range, south of the Nubra town of Deskit. Unfortunately, the new visa contractor hired by India within the U.S. had a very difficult time issuing the requisite “X” visas for climbin...
Rongdo is a remote valley in the eastern part of the Nubra. Historians of South Asia are familiar with this area, as it holds an ancient trade route between Yarkand and northern India (part of the Silk Road). Rongdo Valley is located south of the ...
In November 2014, Cullen Kirk, Karl Kvashay, and I climbed the first of many new routes on Tucupit Point in Zion's Kolob Canyon. Astrolizard (IV 5.11) climbs a clean, mostly wide crack system on Tucupit’s south face and is comprised of mostly Indi...
In late May, Basque climbers Kepa Berasategi and Odei Girado climbed a new route on Jangyaraju I (5,675m). On May 23 they traveled from Huaraz to Collon (ca 3,400m), entered the Ishinca Valley, and trekked past Jatunpampa. Before reaching a waterf...
In July 2014, Dan Godshall, Greg German, Jackie Kuusinen, and I finished a new route on the right side of the Black Wall: Sinners On Sunday (700’, 5.12 C0). The seven-pitch route takes a line between Rainbow Highway (AAJ 2013) and High Variance (A...
Our friends Paula Alegre and Oriol Baró were already in the Rolwaling when Jordi Corominas, Jonatan Larranaga, and I arrived. In a week or so we were at the base of Chugimago North (5,945m HMG-Finn map), planning to make the second ascent of Infle...
In the autumn season, David Kovarik, Tomas Svoboda, and I, from the Czech Republic, attempted the impressive north face of Kangcho Nup (a.k.a. Kangchung Nup or West, Cholo, or Abi; 6,043m HMG-Finn map). The twin Kangchung peaks (west and east) lie...
After acclimatizing on Chekigo Sano, a two-person team made a spirited attempt on the magnificent southwest face of Drangnag Ri (6,757m). Starting slightly right of center from the glacier basin at 5,400m, they climbed rock to French 5, vertical i...
Paula Alegre (Argentina) and Oriol Baro (Spain) went to the Rolwaling in October with a raft of photos but no clear plans. They left with two new lines, one of them to a previously virgin summit. Alegre and Baro first cast their eyes over the sout...
West of the Naya Kanga group and the mountain recently renamed Baden-Powell Scout Peak lies the Chimisedang Lekh, a cluster of steeper, more difficult, and unnamed peaks rising to nearly 5,900m. There is little information on these summits. The ma...
In 2014 the Russian Championships were held in the Karavshin. Afterward several teams stayed on to complete more climbs. On August 11, Anastasia Ermishina and Alexander Zhigalov made the first ascent of the 3,850m south summit of Silver Wall via t...
In 1991, I was part of a French team visiting the Ak-su and Karavshin valleys. We established a number of routes, the most popular today being Perestroika Crack on Russian Tower (a.k.a. Peak Slesov, 4,240m). In September and October, Christophe Mo...
In November I led a six-member team to attempt the first known ascent of Nar Phu (5,921m HMG-Finn). This peak lies on the ridge east of the Chulu Group, north of the Kang La. It was brought onto the permitted list in 2012. We trekked for seven day...
Matteo De Zaiacomo and I flew to Batken in southern Kyrgyzstan in mid-June and trekked two days to our base camp in the Ak-su Valley. The next day we checked out the south face of Ortotyubek (a.k.a. Ortotubek or Central Pyramid, 3,850m), and on Ju...