“Libecki! I have never been so fucking scared in my life!” Ethan Pringle’s yell from 80 feet above startled me to attention. I’d been lost in the view of electric-blue icebergs floating in the sea a mile away. We were 1,500 feet up—...
After their climbs in the Trango area, Aymeric Clouet, Christian Trommsdorff, and Patrick Wagnon continued up the Baltoro for their main objective, the west face of Gasherbrum IV (7,925m). Once established at base camp, after more bad weather a...
Before Aymeric Clouet, Christian Trommsdorff, and Patrick Wagnon ventured further up the Baltoro Glacier to make an attempt on Gasherbrum V (see report), I accompanied them to the Trango Group. After an approach to Shipton base camp, a warm-up ...
In June the four-man French team of Antoine Bletton, Pierre Labbre, Matthieu Maynadier, and Se?bastien Ratel connected lines of weakness up the previously untouched right side of the southwest face of Latok II (7,108m), just failing to rea...
After returning to Skardu for a rest after a new route on K7, Kyle Dempster and Hayden Kennedy joined Josh Wharton (USA) on the Choktoi Glacier. There have been many attempts to climb the Ogre from the southeast, nearly all via the elegant sout...
In five expeditions to different areas of the Karakoram, I’ve climbed virgin peaks and new routes up to 7,000m, but never seen a place like Snow Lake, its particular features making it so aptly named. In July and August we had to approach th...
While completing the classic trek from Skardu up the Baltoro Glacier and over the Gondokhoro La to Hushe, Anis Hussain, Raza Meer, Zakir Hussain Sadpare, Fida Ali Sultanpa (all Pakistan, the first a guide), and Carlos Penalva (Spain) climbed...
Searching for a part of the Karakoram that might offer solid rock and had rarely been visited, I decided on the Solu Glacier. Only a few expeditions had ever gone there, most peaks were still untouched, and parts of the valley featured some of ...
Approaching from Chalt through Bar and Baltar, Italians Florian and Martin Riegler, accompanied by photographer Monika Mehlmauer and Christoph Mohl (Austria), attempted the ca 1,000m rock wall that forms the southwest face of Darwo Chhok on ...
Led by veteran Himalayan winter mountaineer Krzysztof Wielicki, a small Polish expedition arrived at Broad Peak base camp on January 23 and began establishing camps on the normal route. At 5:15 a.m. (dawn) on March 5, Maciej Ber...
Although difficult weather conditions shut down all but one expedition attempting 8,000m peaks in Pakistan, a Spanish pair succeeded on the lower Laila Peak above the Ghondogoro Glacier. Laila (6,096m), well seen on the standard trek...
The idea of climbing the Mummery Rib accompanied me to Nanga Parbat in 2008. Retracing the line attempted by the British legend Alfred Mummery would have been unsporting in anything but alpine style, and in 2008 this was not possible. Inst...
The complete Mazeno Ridge of Nanga Parbat was undoubtedly one of the most famous unclimbed lines on the great peaks of the Karakoram/Himalaya, having been attempted many times, and by some of the world's greatest mountaineers. It is arguably th...
During climbs of Koh-e-Rank in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, Pat Deavoll from New Zealand photographed the little-known Shayaz Massif, across the border in Pakistan. (This massif should not be confused with the much higher Shayoz Zom, ...
In 2013 the Pakistan Government continued with existing peak royalties. To recap, these are: (1) no peak fee for mountains below 6,500m; (2) only 10% of the normal peak fee for any mountain situated in Gilgit and Ghizer, except Spantik; (3) 5%...
On August 15 four experienced climbers were climbing the south face of Mt. Geikie. This is a remote, alpine-style rock climb located at the western portion of the Rampart Mountains in Tonquin Valley. They were climbing roped in teams of two, bo...
On July 30, Lloyd Ramsey (70), a local climber well known to the park staff and climbing community, was found dead at the base of the Foreign Trade Zone/Bat Out of Hell area. He had fallen a distance estimated at 50 feet by authorities. He was...
The accident occurred on August 2 during a descent from the shoulder of Rambler Peak, heading toward El Piveto Mountain. This was day two of a planned six- day mountaineering traverse of the Wolf-Cervus Divide, and all members had full packs. D...
In 2012 the section enjoyed a record number of local AAC events, from informal climbing-video nights and first-aid and climbing safety classes to full-on banquets. Let it be said at the outset that all of these events were possible only throug...
On July 8, Eric Metcalf (19), Ian Rogers (19), Addison Guranious (25), and Mitchell Martishius (23) began bouldering around 11 a.m. They planned to finish the day by rappelling Sentinel Buttress, a prominent 200-foot feature near the central pa...