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...
It’s a strange thing to be there for a person’s last moments: to see someone go from bursting with light and energy to being gone forever in an instant. It can be hard to fathom just how much is irretrievably lost in that tiny flash—not just that ...
Years ago I stumbled upon some entertaining written history about a large, unclimbed freestanding tower called the Great Potato (8,510’) in the San Mateo Mountains, southwest of Socorro. The formation was named due to its location in upper Potato ...
During May 18 and 19, Simon Gietl and I completed a new route on the north summit of Devils Paw (2,616m). Our ascent took 19 hours, including a short bivouac below the summit, and the downclimb took another five hours. We named our route Black Ros...
On July 18 I took advantage of excellent local conditions to make the second winter ascent of the east face of the Pope’s Nose (2,700m) in Mt. Aspiring National Park, but failed to link it with the northeast face of Mt. Aspiring (3,033m). Had I be...
... bilo tako lepo jeob?util sem spokoj, vseh belih snov sijo?ih, omamil me je opoj ... (Aleš Holc)What makes a climber climb a sheer cliff, ascend a high and mighty mountain, seek trails where there are none, look for...something wild and magical...
In June and July I led a group to explore the peaks north of the Shaksgam River. The aim of the expedition was to establish the climbing potential of the 6,000m peaks on both sides of the Kizil Davan, the 5,700m pass connecting the Shaksgam (via t...
During late July and August, a Latvian team did a two-week east-to-west traverse of the Muzkol Range, starting in the Ak Baital Valley and exiting the Zortash Valley. They completed several possible first ascents along the way, including Peak 5,58...
Our four-person team—Rebecca Coles, Rhys Huws, Simon Verspeak, and John Vincent (all U.K.)— traveled to the Muzkol area in early August with our primary objective being the unnamed and unclimbed ca 6,123m peak to the west of Dvuglavy (6,148m). Col...
On January 1, Kennya Pimentel (20) of Las Vegas, Nevada, fell while climbing White Lightning (5.7) at the Hemingway Buttress. Unable to place protection or climb through a crux section, she decided to downclimb and lower off from abou...
In 2007 I came across folk tales about ancient glowing orbs on pointy rock summits in the South Pacific. Fascinated by these rumors, I soon discovered images of the Marquesas Islands, north of Tahiti, and the volcanic rock towers of the island...
In April 2013, Andrew Burr, Mason Earle, Bronson Hovnanian (all USA) and George Ullrich (U.K.) climbed an eight-pitch new route (5.10+) up the steep west face of this seaside spire. The tower was first climbed via the lower-angle north ridge by a ...
Kathy Connelly and I are primarily trekkers and not necessarily looking for elevation. In the summer of 2014 we wanted to explore a wild place without seeing other people—or even traces of them. If we could, we wanted to make the first ascent of...
In February, Stefan Glowacz (Germany) and Chris Sharma (USA) climbed a 13-pitch route, Into the Light (8b+), out the ceiling of Majilis al Jinn. This gigantic limestone cavern is 100km southeast of Muscat and was accessed by a 160m free rappel.Ove...
When we planned our trip to Oman in November 2014, terror attacks—according to several media reports—were on the daily plan on the Arabian peninsula. Because we wanted to get our own picture of the situation, we decided to go there and have a look...
British climbers David Barlow, Aqil Chaudhry, Geoff Hornby, Jonathan Preston, and Susie Sammut climbed various new routes in the Western Hajar in the winter of 2013–’14. The Sidaq slabs at the northern end of the range had been visited once by Pau...
Two Slovak climbers, Martin Krasnansky and Jozef Kristoffy, spent a month in the big-wall area of Wadi Rum in November and December. The goal was to establish a hard new route, and they found a line on Northeast Domes in the Jebel Rum massif. They...
As part of the Shaksgam Expedition led by Bruce Normand, Lukas Brexler, Harry Kirchenhofer, and I (all from Germany) visited the Durbin Kangri group in June. From the team base camp, we three followed the canyon leading toward Durbin Kangri I, whi...