In midmorning on October 23 Eric Dumerac (Canmore, Alberta), Philippe Pellet (Briançon, France), and I (Canmore) stepped from the warm interior of a Jet Ranger helicopter and into the early winter environs of Berg Lake, below the Emperor Face. For...
Sam Doyle, Miles Hill, George Ullrich, and I formed the British Ummannaq Climbing Expedition. After flying to Kangerlussaq on July 27, Miles, George, and I first had to walk 250km (in 70 hours), and then travel 800km aboard the yacht Gambo, to rea...
FALL INTO CREVASSE–UNABLE TO SELF-RESCUEAlaska, Denali National Park, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn May 25 about 1900, Val Todd (61) fell into a crevasse at the 7,500-foot level, about 2.5 miles out from basecamp on the Kahiltna Glacier. He drag...
JOHN GRESHAM MACHEN1881-1937John Gresham Machen was born at Baltimore on July 28th, 1881, and died in Bismarck, N. D., on January 1st, 1937. He was graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1901 and took his M.A. degree at Princeton in 1904. Taki...
Early season snowfalls in the Cordillera Blanca created unstable conditions in the mountains. Most of the “action” was taking place in the bars of Huaraz. Undeterred, two small teams set off for the Laguna Parón area, hoping to find something not ...
Mount McKinley. There were 27 successful expeditions to Mount McKinley, which put 145 people on the summit of the South Peak. There were two deaths. On May 27, the Japanese Yoshikazu Okada, while descending at about 11,000 feet on a fixed line wit...
Dhaulagiri I, Northeast Ridge. From April 12 to June 10, 14 members of the Slovenian Alpine Club (Tone Škarja, leader; Dr. Damijan Meško, Viktor Grošelj, Tadej Golob, Tomaž Jakofcic, Dušan Polenik, Rafael Vodišek, Davorin Karnicar, Miha Marence, J...
Cordón Granito, various new routes. Ice avalanches roared into the big gorge looming in front of our base camp. The immense Cipreses Glacier, which forms one of the largest ice plateaus of the Andes outside Patagonia, forces its way through this 1...
North Face of the Devils Tower. After a thorough reconnaissance, Jim McCarthy and I proposed to put a route through the only remaining unclimbed face of the tower, the north. The climb followed a single crack from the easy base slabs to within one...
TWENTY years ago, in 1956, four parties attempted to climb Mount McKinley but none were successful in reaching the summit. Ten years ago, 22 climbers in five parties were on Mount McKinley. Ten of these climbers reached the summit. On July 6, 19...
DONALD G. ONTHANK1891-1981At the Annual Meeting of The American Alpine Club on Mount Hood in 1979, Don Onthank was given a standing ovation as the first Endowed Life Member of the Club. This recognition was symbolic of the respect and affection fe...
Andringintra National Park, Mitsinjoarivio, east face, Relief. In July and August 2007 Pawel Wycislik, and I visited the Tsaranoro massif, where we repeated six established routes, one of these a redpoint ascent of the 1998 Piola-Robert route Le C...
FALL ON ROCK, TOP-ROPE ANCHOR PULLED OUT Wyoming, Blacktail ButteOn July 5, 1986, Chuck Blackwell (27) was attempting a 5.11 move on Blacktail Butte when he fell about a meter. His partner, Chris Lloyd (24), was belaying from below—the rope being ...
FALL ON ROCKWyoming, Grand Tetons, Cloudveil DomeOn July 1, about 0630, Heather Paul (34) and Susie Schenk (38) departed from Lupine Meadows with plans to complete a traverse of Cloudveil Dome from the South Fork of Garnet Canyon. When they arrive...
Wet and Wild in KichatnasFour thousand feet of rainy big wall on Middle Triple Peak by Kitty CalhounKitty, something is bothering me,” Jay Smith said with apprehension.“What?”“I’ve gotta go back and do that route on Middle Triple that Steve Gerber...
West of the Stikine — Part II*Fred BeckeyThe highest and most rugged mountains in the British Columbia and Alaska Coast Range between the Waddington and Fairweather groups are the majestic peaks between the historic Stikine River and the Pacific O...
Mountains of the Pyrenees. Kev Reynolds. Cicerone Press, Milnthorpe (Cumbria), 1982. 151 pages, 72 black and white photographs, 17 sketch maps, bibliography. £10.00.Not a guidebook but a general introductory work to the high borderland peaks betwe...
South Georgia, various activity. Bad weather thwarted attempts by a team off the 15m ketch Gambo to make three first ascents on South Georgia, and a new route up the island’s highest peak, Mt. Paget. During the team’s month-long stay, mass balance...
Jabal Yiti, Hassal Hidn Pillar, Jabal Kawr-Kawr Tower, Mawal Needle, Jabal Awi, various ascents. Drawn by an exotic fascination with the Arabian Peninsula, Roberto Masia and I left Sardinia on December 23. Our idea was to explore the central part ...
Huascarán. Generally this was a disappointing year for climbers in the Cordillera Blanca. The weather never completely stabilized, a condition which has grown progressively worse in the last four years. Twenty-four groups composed of 134 climbers ...