French Alpine Club: Our former president, Dr. William S. Ladd has recently been made an honorary member of the Club Alpin Français. Professor Piccard of stratosphere fame and F. S. Smythe, the conqueror of Kamet have been likewise honored.

Torre Central, Riders on the Storm, second ascent. David Stastny and I, both Czech, repeated the route Riders on the Storm on the east face of Torre Central in February 2002. The climb took 12 days (1/31-2/10), with four days spent in a portaledge...

Makalu, Post-Monsoon. There were two successful Spanish expeditions on the Kukuczka ridge of Makalu in the post-monsoon season. An expedition led by Jordi Bosch placed Josep Permane on the summit on September 24 and Xavier Robiro and Carles Figuer...

Mustagh Ata. The French guide Michel Vincent led eight clients to the summit of Mustagh Ata in August.Claude Jaccoux, Club Alpin Français

Windslab, by Cochrane Stewart. 253 pages, with 3 sketch maps. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1952. Price, 12/6.Scene: an Austrian hut in the Grossglockner region.Time: November 1945.Weather: a raging snow blizzard.Characters: an Austrian Huettenwar...

Vinson, summit register removed. On January 1, 2005 I removed the summit register book from the aluminum cylinder in which it had been housed for decades. The book was full, no longer useable, and I felt it would be too tempting a prize for a thie...

Patagonian Altitude Corrections. On page 181 of AAJ, 1993, the altitude of Cerro Cristal should be given as 2105 meters and that of Gorra Blanca as 2907 meters.

DARKNESS – STRANDEDCalifornia, Pinnacles National Monument, Condor CragOn the evening of November 15th, park staff assisted two climbers down from a climbing route after they had become stranded due to nightfall. Both climbers were uninjured.The c...

Khan Tengri, North Face, 1986. One of the most notable Soviet climbs of 1986 was the new route on the 2800-meter-high, very difficult north face of Khan Tengri (6995 meters, 22,950 feet) in the central Tien Shan. Eight climbers from Moscow, led by...

Foraker Attempt. The Foraker-Russell Expedition, consisting of Dick Morse, Tim Carpenter, Jerry Croft, Ralph Moore, Jeff Thomas and me, failed to reach the summit of either of our goals. The route up the south spur of the west ridge of Foraker was...

Vermont, Norwich—On October 12, 1954, J. B. Corbett (18) was climbing with two members of the Dartmouth Mountaineering club. They were traversing wet rock about 8 feet above the ground on a practice climb. They were unroped. Corbett slipped and in...

Canyonlands National Park, Airport Tower, Sky Pilot. Mike Baker and Leslie Henderson climbed a new route on Airport Tower in September. Their route, Sky Pilot (IV 5.9 A3), was probably the second ascent of the tower, and the second route on the la...

New Hampshire, Cannon Mountain. On August 12th Dana Jones (age 27) and Mark Lawrence (24) were completing an ascent of Sam’s Swan Song. They had reached about the eighth pitch. According to another climbing party, Dana, in the lead, went slightly ...

Nun and Kun, 1988. A 95-member team from the Indian Army was led by Lieutenant Colonel H.S. Mann. Nun was climbed by two different routes. Four men made the first Indian ascent of the difficult east ridge, while 21 others did the normal west route...

Yalungkang. A very strong team of the German and Austrian Alpine Clubs made a new route and the second ascent of Yalungkang or Kangchenjunga West (27,625 feet). The first ascent had been by the Japanese via the west ridge in 1973. (See A.A.J., 1...

RAPPEL FAILURE, INADEQUATE PROTECTION Alberta, Rocky Mountains, Lake Louise, Back of the Lake CragOn July 26, 1994, D.O. (29), a sport climber, took a serious fall at the Back of the Lake, a rock climbing area at Lake Louise. The accident occurred...

Monolith, Northwest Face. After the ascent of the long chimney that splits the north face of the striking formation of Monolith, south of the Popo Agie River, the other logical technical climb to do was the magnificent buttress to its right, on th...

Kun Ascent and Attempt. A French expedition led by Jacques Duevisson climbed Kun by its east ridge in mid August. A month later, British climbers under the leadership of John Harris Schwelm failed.Kamal K. Guha, Editor, Himavanta, India

Aconcagua, Expedition Inspiration. An expedition of breast cancer survivors attempted to climb Aconcagua to raise awareness of the disease and to raise money for breast cancer research. The 17 women were divided into two teams; six attempted to su...

FALL ON ROCK, NO HARD HATWest Virginia, New River Gorge National RiverOn June 5th, a male climber (22) was leading Layback and Enjoy It (5.10) located at the Bubba City climbing area. The following is a synopsis of the most likely scenario that oc...