After seeing Clint Helander's incredible article in the AAJ 2013, unselfishly revealing the secrets of the Revelations, Kris Irwin, Darren Vonk, and I flew into the range on April 2. We didn’t have to look far upon arriving to find good objectives...
On April 8 Jess Roskelley and I flew into the Trident Glacier, a triple-forked glacier in the northern Kichatna Mountains. Augustin Peak (ca 8,600’) is the tallest summit in the area and forms the head of the glacier.When we landed, we found the r...
In February, John Crook, Jim Donini, Angela Goodacre, and I spent a week in the Avellano Mountains of Chile. This area is near the northern Patagonian Ice Cap and northeast of the shores of Lake General Carrera. We focused our attention on the Ave...
In March, early in the 2014 season, Alberto Hung (Peru) and I climbed Nevado Tatajayco (5,342m) by a new route up the northwest ridge, which we called A Puro Huevo (D UIAA V M3 60°). We approached from the town of San Mateo and established a base ...
Led by Krzysztof Wielicki, Maciej Dachowski, Wojciech Dzik, Wojciech Kapturkiewicz, Marian Krakowski, Anita Parys, Jerzy Urbanski, Katarzyna Karwecka-Wielicka, and I visited the Virjerab Glacier in July 2012. We were the first to explore this glac...
Eugeny Bashkirtsov and Denis Veretenin climbed a new route in alpine style on the east face of Uli Biaho Tower. After previously climbing the Slovenian Route on Trango Tower in one and a half days, the pair approached from Trango Glacier up the sa...
On July 21, Italians Matteo Della Bordella and Luca Schiera, and Swiss Silvan Schupbach, completed a 40-year-old project by making the first ascent of the south pillar of Uli Biaho Tower. This spectacular granite column, west of the Trango Group, ...
On June 23, with our plans and preparations more or less complete, breaking news shocked the world: "10 climbers and a local Pakistani killed by Taliban at the base camp of Nanga Parbat." We would have to pass Nanga Parbat and the town of Chilas e...
On August 19, Marcin Tomaszewski and I completed a new route on the northwest face of Great Trango. We arrived at Trango base camp on July 29 and were carrying loads to the foot of the face the following day. On the 31st we carried loads and fixed...
Our team of five, hoping to complete a new route on the west face, were Aidin Bozorgi (24), Mojtaba Jarahi (28), Pouya Keivan (24), Afshin Saadi (43), and me (47) as leader. Aidin, Mojtaba, and Pouya climbed the line in alpine-style above 7,000m, ...
It is no surprise that success comes only after years of gathering experience from previous failures. Nor is it any revelation that a suitable partner is crucial to climbing success. Since I have never been a focused climber—I love climbing of a...
Zach Hoyt (U.S.) and his partner “Shaz” (AUS) established a possible new route on the south face of Cats Ears Spire, to the left of the Least Snowed Up Route (900m, IV 5.10+, Edwards-Millar, AAJ 2003), which climbs just right of the southeast arêt...
In May of 2013, David “Whiskers” Hertel and I launched our plan to explore and attempt new routes in the Mt. Emmerich Cirque, just outside of Haines. Our pilot Drake Olson, wasn’t even sure if landing in the Emmerich Cirque was possible at that po...
A lot of things had to come together to get Ryan Johnson, Gabe Hayden, and I all on the tarmac at the same time on a sunny autumn afternoon in Juneau. I had been in town for almost two weeks, testing my short-lived Coloradan patience for waiting o...
In the first week of March, John Kelley and Ben Trocki established another new route on the Heritage Wall, a seldom-climbed, 3,900’, Scottish-like wall located outside of Anchorage [see AAJ 2005 and AAJ 2013 for more information]. The new route, B...
On May 19, our group of five—Greg Encelewski, Galen Flint, Hannah North, Ben Still, and I—flew to the Ultima Thule Lodge with pilot Paul Claus. The next morning Paul dropped us at a ca 8,500’ base camp on the northeast fork of the Bear Glacier. Th...
The 2013 climbing season in the University Range proved to be challenging. Dangerous snow conditions and temperamental weather brought close calls, false starts, and more failures than successes—and just plain tough climbing.However, on April 20, ...
In April, Samuel Johnson soloed the southeast face of Mt. Hayes (6,500’, AI3 M3) in 18 hours round-trip from a base camp on the Trident Glacier. He and Ryan Johnson (unrelated) had hoped to attempt a more north-facing line on Hayes’ east side, but...
In March, Chad Diesinger, Andy Ducomb, and I made our fourth trip to McGinnis Peak, the easternmost peak in the Hayes Range. A 14-mile approach brought the three us to the east face and provided easy access to a col on the northeast ridge, our obj...
After enduring the fury of a 10-day Alaskan storm, we were rewarded with one six-hour period of sunshine during which we established a new four-pitch route on a small, unclimbed wall in Little Switzerland. Green Couch (III 5.10a) was a fun and hig...