Mounts Jeannette, Newton and, St. Elias. Our goal was to have been the long southeast ridge of Mount St. Elias, a sinuous, silver edifice that bursts from the Newton Glacier for 11,000 feet to meet the gentle summit cone. The plan was simple—to la...
FALL ON SNOW, UNABLE TO SELF-ARREST, FALL INTO CREVASSE, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, WEATHERAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn May 26 at 1431, Australian climber John Sides (29), a member of the AUSPAT expedition, fell while descending the Rescue ...
Kangchenjunga, Ascents and Tragedy. On October 5, eight men from three teams set out without any bottled oxygen from their last campsites around 7800 meters, high on the plateau known as the Great Shelf on the southwest face. They included the Swi...
Midnight Rock, Curtains. Left of North Ramp, this route climbs orange lichen flakes followed by face moves, and finishes by moving around roof via horizontal finger traverse (5.10 c/d): Bob McDougall and Kjell Swedin. Frog Suicide. Right of Flame,...
Devils Tower. On June 7 Dave Ingalls and I climbed a new route, “Exit-Us,” on the Devils Tower. It has the same start as for the “Cave.” Pitch 1: Climb up crack and proceed diagonally right to a belay stance. Pitch 2: Climb crack above and nail 60...
Bustle Tower, Club International. Andreas Taylor and I (Canada) spent the month of July in the Cirque of the Unclimbables doing a bit of climbing and a lot of vegging. After a nauseating air drop of the majority of our gear into Fairy Meadows, bus...
Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock. Steve “Crusher” Bartlett. Sharp End Publishing, 2010. Color photos. Hardcover. $49.95.As climbers craving a fix, we accept almost any writing if we cannot get to the rock. A few sexy pictures a...
Snowpatch Spire, South Face, First Free Ascent. With true and conscious minds, Micah Jessup and I entered into the realm of the mighty Bugaboos, bent on exploring new pathways in the vertical world. After brewing in the rain for several days, atte...
The Not So Rotten RockiesThe Great Cambrian Cliffs of CanadaWilliam Lowell PutnamFOR GENERATIONS the mountaineering fraternity has referred to the rock quality of the Rocky Mountains of Canada in terms of somewhat less than admiration; and not wit...
Peter K. ScHOENiNG 1927-2004Pete Schoening died at his home on Lake Washington shortly after dawn. As the day lightened, a lone bald eagle made one slow circle at eye level just outside the window, then rose into the morning sky. It was the 51st a...
London, February 20, 1931.The Editor,American Alpine Journal.Sir:In my article in the American Alpine Journal, Vol. I, No. 2, “Reflections on Guidelcss Climbing,” I stated that to A. F. Mummery is often attributed the distinction of having broken ...
Around Russell FiordWilliam Lowell PutnamAS a result of plans formulated two years earlier, I began in January 1949 to organize an expedition to go into the Saint Elias Range and attempt the ascents of Mount Vancouver’s south ridge and Mount Cook’...
Choquetanga Group and Jachacunocollo of the Cordillera Quimsa Cruz, Sajama and Illimani. An expedition of Tochigi, Japan was led by Shigeo Abe and further made up of Moriyuki Kozai, Tadashi Hasegawa, Teiji Terauchi, Hitoshi Imai, Hiroshi Ono, Mori...
AVALANCHE, POOR POSITIONWyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Mount OwenOn the evening of April 22, Ranger Renny Jackson received a phone call from Jackson resident Christian Beckwith. According to Beckwith, his friend Stephen Koch (29) had not retu...
Cordillera de Ansilta, San Juan Province. Antonio Beorchia, Sergio G. Job and Jorge Varas on February 11, made the first ascent of the unnamed south peak (5100 meters, 16,733 feet) of Pico Ansilta #5, via its rocky southeast slopes. They christene...
Mt. Hunter, South Ridge, third ascent. In mid-June Forrest Murphy and I climbed Mt. Hunter’s South Ridge. It was likely the third ascent. We opted for the “direct start variation,” made by the 1986 second ascent. Here we found high-quality mixed c...
FALL ON SNOW AND ROCK, BAD WEATHER, AND “UNKNOWN”Washington, Mount RainierAt noon on May 23, 1981, Bruce A. Mooney (20) and Douglas D. Fowler (21) checked out from the White River Ranger Station to climb Liberty Ridge. They hiked into their high c...
M. HELEN SMITH(1876-1940)Helen Smith was born in Newark, N. J. She was graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in 1898 and a few years later became a biology teacher in Manual Training High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.From childhood she was an out-of-doors ...
Gasherbrum IV, West Face Attempt. The idea of attempting the unclimbed west face of Gasherbrum IV was formed in 1976 by Martin Boysen and me from the summit of Trango Tower. Even from a distance of 30 miles, the face was impressive; from its base ...
A Traverse of The Dent Blanche1Hassler WhitneyTIME had defeated us on the long ridge from the Triftjoch to the Rothorn. We had descended from the Pointe de Mountet, and were now crossing the expanse of the Glacier du Mountet between large crevasse...