It’s likely that more meters of new routes were opened in the 2012–13 climbing season than any other in Cochamó’s history. In addition to the reports that follow, three other difficult routes were established. Chance Traub and partner establish...
In 2012 there were heavy snowfalls in both the rainy and dry seasons, which sometimes made for difficult conditions on the Andean faces. Conversely, the good snow cover made at least one new route possible, on Huayna Potosi’s south peak. The...
Our Slovenian expedition comprised Marta Krejan, Stanko Mihev, Vinko Mocilnik, Domen Petek, Franc Pusnik, Primoz Steharnik, Sebastjan Zapusek, and I, all from the Ravne Alpine Club. On July 8 we left La Paz in two vans for Apacheta Pampa, and on...
For 20 years Argentinian mountain guide Gustavo Lisi has visited Bolivia during the dry season. We know each other, but as I live far from La Paz center, it was sheer coincidence I met him in a shop. Within minutes we'd agreed to make ...
It takes less than 20 years for a new lake to be formed by a retreating glacier. Robert Rauch and I discovered this at Jati Khollu, a rarely climbed mountain for which the only map and photo we could find dated back to 1995. At that time there ...
On July 20 Robert Rauch and I made what we believe is the first ascent of a route on the right side of the southwest face of Serkhe Khollu (the next major break to the right of La Venganza del Don Gringo). Our route, Los Alcaldes de Serkhe K...
On the lower south summit (ca 5,960m) of Huayna Potosi, the Peruvian guide Victor Hugo Rimac climbed a new line to the right of the classic Via de los Franceses (300m, AD+ 55°, Cardon-Mesili, 1974). On December 8 and 9, when the weather wa...
Kazakh climbers Ildar Gabassov, Vaso Pivtsov, and Alex Sofrygin completed a rare ascent of the ca 3,000m direct north face of Khan Tengri over nine days in August. The last ascent, by Russian climbers Pavel Shabalin and Ilias Tukhvatullin, was...
In late September, Ryan Johnson and Samuel Johnson (unrelated) attempted a huge ice and mixed route on the ca 1,400m southeast face of Kyzyl Asker, reaching 5,300m on the first day. The pair hoped to tackle the mixed headwall the following m...
Continuing the work of the 2010 Krakow expedition, Conor Gilmore, Azwan Isa, Ronan Kernan, Bradley Morrell, and Alek and Vladimir Zholobenko visited the Dzhirnagaktu Glacier basin, just west of Kyzyl Asker, where in 16 days they made first...
Our International School of Mountaineering expedition (nine members and three guides) initially set out to explore the Kokgart region of the West Kokshaal-Too, starting in late August. This lies to the west of the established climbing in t...
The Shamsi Tuyuk area lies approximately five main valleys, and 50km east, of the well-developed Ala Archa Range. Before the visit of a British expedition in July-August there were no recorded climbs. In the course of 14 days the team ascended s...
The Corean Alpine Club sponsored a four-man team to climb the northeast face of Teke-Tor in the Aksai Range. Ahn Chi- young, Kim Kyoung-rae, and Lee Ki-geun completed their new route, Korean Light Way, on July 9. The first seven pitch...
In August the Russian and Latvian team of Mikhail Babich, Vladimir Lavrinenko, Andrei Lebedev (leader), Yuri Maksimovich, Valdis Purins, Oleg Silin, and Ivan Zhdanov completed 36 days of trekking and climbing along the Zaalaisky Range, of wh...
During three weeks in August, Anna Backlund and I visited the Ak-su area. Our main goal was the 800m Perestroika Crack. As a warm-up we climbed an offwidth route on Petit Tour Russe: sevenpitches at 7a. Next we climbed a new line on the lowe...
After a long and eventful hike to base camp in August and a week of recovering from illness, Madaleine Sorkin and I set off for a warm-up on Perestroika Crack that ended in us coming down after the crux due to bad weather. A few days later w...
Ben Mitchell, Cecelia Mortenson, Danny Uhlmann, and I traveled to the Big Pamir in May to explore the potential for ski mountaineering and alpinism, and make first ski descents of unclimbed or rarely climbed peaks. We chose the Koh-e-Wakhan ...
In July our international team of five climbers started from Dushanbe (Tajikistan) on a nine-day approach to unexplored valleys in the eastern end of the Wakhan Corridor, southeast of Lake Chaqmaqtin. The team comprised Sarah Sheridan (A...
Alexandre Darrioulat, Franck Mazas, and Arnaud Pasquer (France) visited the Wakhan in July and August. Their original goal was an ascent of Noshaq, but due to the unrest in Tajikistan, the authorities at Ishkashim would not allow them to e...
In August and September 2012, Tom Codrington, Ian Cooper, and I, from the Oxford University Mountaineering Club, took on the big walls of the Karavshin. After patching our way across the country, mollifying men with guns and sharing vodka with...