On February 9, 2015, we completed a new route on the north face of Trollveggen (Troll Wall) in the Romsdal area. Katharsis (1,100m, 27 pitches, VI A4 M7) was climbed over 18 days (January 23–February 9), including two rest days during Hurricane Ol...
Gyao Kang (6,735m), the most northerly of the bigger peaks in the Lapche Kang Range, is a fine snowy summit that can be climbed in a day from a base camp to the north at 5,890m. The slope angles are such that it would be an agreeable peak to climb...
I had visited Alaska several times, but this time Junji Wada and I—“Team Wasabi”—had the extreme luxury of not seeing anyone during our seven-week stay on glacier (April 21–June 6). This was a real treat that gave us significant time to face each ...
Fred Beckey shifted conspicuously in his chair, looking over his shoulder as if someone were about to steal his most prized possession: Before me lay Beckey’s “Black Book,” a file of tattered photographs of unknown mountains scrawled with hand-dra...
It was only by chance that I teamed up with Jason Stuckey, a Fairbanks climber, an upcoming alpinist Angela VanWiemeersch, to climb the east face of Mt. Hayes (13,832’). I had met Jason a few seasons earlier on the remote Nabesna Road in interior ...
“Does everyone have a good feeling about this?” Scott said, before we descended south 2,000’ into the formidable Valley of Death of the Tokositna Glacier. Scott Adamson, Andy Knight, and I were hoping to climb a new route up the center of the west...
Christian Ledergerber, Silvan Schüpbach (both Swiss), and I planned to climb the striking 900m northeast face of the Shark's Tooth (1,555m) in the best possible style: by fair means, clean, and completely free. This proved to be a rather bold, com...
In the summer I made another Tilman-type sailing and climbing expedition withmy 10-meter boat Dodo's Delight. My crew and climbers were the “Wild Bunch” from 2010: Ben Ditto, Nicolas and Olivier Favresse, and Sean Villanueva. In early July they jo...
On July 10, Sion Brocklehurst, Robert Durran, Pat Ingram, Simon Smith, and I were dropped at the head of Tasiilaq Fjord. We began the first of three arduous hauls up the Tasillaq Kuua (valley) to the foot of Fox Jaw Cirque, where climbing potentia...
Our idea was to kayak from Nanortalik around Cape Farewell, as a two-man autonomous team, and then return, attempting rock routes on any suitable peaks we came across. Cape Farewell is the southernmost tip of Greenland, and one of the windiest pla...
Nikita Balabanov, Viacheslav Polezhaiko, and I, all from the Ukraine, established base camp on the Morimoto meadow at 4,600m, opposite the northwest face of Langshisa Ri (6,412m), in October. From here we crossed the glacier and ascended 200m on m...
Charlie Porter and I crossed paths only briefly, in his adopted home of Tierra del Fuego. His greatest climbing achievements were all in North America, most notably in Yosemite. I have only visited the Valley once, climbing just a single easy pitc...
On the 10th of February, as he was headed out the door with partner Jens Holsten to attempt Fitz Roy, Chad emailed me with instructions to have a specific bouquet delivered to his sweetheart Mandy back home in Seattle on Valentine’s Day. Tragicall...
Jean Bouchet (expedition leader and Chamonix guide), Marlène Cugnet, Bernard Frésier, Emilie Guilleman, Alexis Maget, Arnaud Pasquer, and I left the Falkland Islands on December 21, 2013, aboard Jérôme Poncet’s robust motor-sailor Golden Fleece. W...
In August, before making a rare south-to-north crossing of Chapchingol Pass, an expedition of mountaineers from Austria and Pakistan visited the Ghidims Valley to attempt an unclimbed and unnamed summit clearly visible from the upper valley and Ya...
At the age of 24, a Smith College graduate, Barbara Polk was happily employed as the secretary of the Harvard biology department. But in the spring of 1939, Clarkie, the mailman, convinced her to audition for a job opening at the New England Museu...
In September and October I led a multinational team to the Adi Kailash range of Eastern Kumaun. This massif is wedged between the Kali Ganga, Darma Ganga, and Kuthi Yankti valleys, and between the Nepalese and Tibetan borders. The range contains a...
Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see th...
Prompted by Sergi Ricart, a guide, photographer, and great friend since adolescence, Sidarta Gallego and I decided to forgo our main mountain guiding season and head for Zanskar. Our objective was a peak we knew only as "Tapion," a photo of whi...
On April 22, Dave Barker, Phil Booth, Ken Hopper, Rory Sellar, and Paul Vardy (U.K.) made the first known ascent of Lumba Sumba Peak (5,740m), the most easterly and lowest of a collection of three summits sometimes called the Three Sisters. The ...