During the dry winter season of 2013, Argentines José Bonacalza, Ian Schwer, and Julián Fehrmann opened a number of new routes in Tierra del Fuego, outside the city of Ushuaia, Chile. On July 14 they established a new route on the south face of th...
From September 29-October 18, Michael Ganter, Jörn Heller, Wilfrid Henselmann, Klaus Hildenbrand, Thomas Nieberle, Hans-Jörg Schelb, and I did the probable first ascents of a number of peaks in the Cordillera Darwin. We left from Punta Arenas, sai...
During the first longitudinal traverse of the Cordillera de Darwin, the French GMHM climbed a peak they called Mt. Beyond the Far, believing this to be the first ascent (AAJ 2012). However, during research for the Uncharted Project, mapping and do...
On December 15, Leopold Fuchs, Philip Schreiner, and I (all Austrians) left Punta Arenas by boat. The aim of our expedition was to explore and climb new routes on Peninsula Buckland, which holds a group of rugged, glaciated mountains west of Monte...
The Cordillera de Sarmiento is the southernmost range of the Andes before they sink under the Magellan Strait. Although these peaks are all under 2,000m, the ragged ridges, sharp needles, and steep faces offer great mountaineering challenges, with...
In October-November 2013, Jerry Gore, Raphael Jochaud, Calum Muskett, and Mike “Twid” Turner made the first ascent of the southeast face of the South Tower of Paine. The South Tower stands tallest among the three towers that form the massif, and t...
In mid-February, Tommy Caldwell and I were lucky enough to get a five-day weather window in Patagonia. We took advantage of it by climbing the “Fitz Traverse,” a complete traverse of the Fitz Roy Massif. From north to south, the major summits on t...
This year marked my eighth season of climbing in Patagonia. After spending three weeks further north attempting the east face of San Lorenzo, I arrived in El Chaltén December 10 to cold and snowy weather.After not much climbing, a short but very c...
A French-Canadian team aboard Spirit of Sydney made the second known ascent of Mt. Walker (2,350m). They also made the first ascent of a 1,712m peak above the Montgolfier Glacier, and completed a south-to-north ski traverse through the Catwalk, a ...
On March 5, 2010, New Zealanders Lydia Bradey, Penny Goddard, and Dean Staples made the first known ascent of Cape Perez (65°24’S, 64°06’W). Prior to this, on February 23, the three made what is believed to be a new route on the east face of the F...
I had the good fortune to visit the Peninsula in January 2013 with a great group of skiers. The team comprised IFMGA guides Jim Kerr and myself, American Ron Mis, Tania Hodgkinson from Germany, and Anto Baird, Stuart Long, Gareth Maker, and Sue Ru...
I made two trips to the Antarctic Peninsula in late 2013 and early 2014. In December, operating from the yacht Spirit of Sydney with Sean Colyer, Matthew Flyn, and Glenn Wilkes, we visited Cuverville Island and made probably the first ascent of th...
It was slightly quieter in the Sentinel Range than in past seasons, with 111 different climbers ascending Mt. Vinson (4,892m). During the 2013–14 season only five climbers ascended Mt. Shinn (4,660m).A historical note on Shinn: Although it was rep...
Ralf Laier returned for his third expedition to the Heritage Range, climbing with Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE) guides Maria Paz “Pachi” Ibarra (Chile) and Seth Timpano (USA). They traveled by Sno-Cat from Union Glacier Camp northwes...
Following my 2010 trip to Koh-e-Iskander, northeast of the Qara Jilga massif (AAJ 2011), I wanted to return and attempt one of the Qara Jilga summits. I persuaded Richmond MacIntyre (South Africa) and Rich Parker (U.K.) to join me. After two days’...
In early September, Mick Follari, Aidan Loehr, and I traveled through Tajikistan to the Afghan border, where we were delayed crossing the frontier for more than a week by a cholera epidemic in northern Afghanistan. Once over the border in Ishkashi...
Learning to Fly: An Uncommon Memoir of Human Flight, Unexpected Love, and One Amazing Dog. Steph Davis. Simon & Schuster, 2013. 304 pages. Hardcover. $24.99Steph Davis’ second book picks up shortly after the release of her first, High Infatuat...
A long line stood at the visa checkpoint in the Islamabad airport. Sleepy faces waited for the next person to inch forward. It was silent except at the front of the line, where five men with matching T-shirts were digging in their bags. A group of...
During several of the short, cold and snowy weather windows in the 2013-2014 season, I turned my attention to neglected, smaller, but still fantastic peaks.On December 4 I hiked into the Marconi Glacier with Sarah Hart to attempt an obvious ice gu...
The AAJ exists to document important ascents, and so it may be surprising that we will publish reports of great climbs with no proof they actually happened. The notable example from 2013, of course, is Ueli Steck’s solo new route on the south face...