North Tower of Paine Attempt. In December, 1987, Matjaž Ravhekar, Ivan Rejc and I entered the Paine area, hoping to climb the northwest buttress of the North Tower. We got to Punta Arenas on December 10 and reached Base Camp on the 18th. The weath...
FALL ON ROCK, OFF ROUTENew Hampshire, Cannon MountainOn August 3, 1985, John Sidonis (?) took a 20 meter fall on the seventh pitch of Sam’s Swan Song. He sustained a broken shoulder, punctured lung, head injury, and numerous cuts and bruises. A te...
Upernivik Island, West Greenland. An expedition of the Club Alpino Italiano’s Ivrea section was led by Giuseppe Patrucco and composed of Sandro Beato, Piergiorgio Bosio, Gianbattista Campiglia, Franco Cena, Nello Delu and Renato Moro. From Søndre ...
Cho Oyu, Winter Ascent. A Polish-Canadian party led by Andrzej Zawada completed the first winter ascent of Cho Oyu (8201 meters, 26,906 feet). They climbed the southeast-face route. Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski climbed to the summit on Fe...
Satopanth, South Face. The members of our expedition were Marek Glogorowski, Tomasz Kopys, Andrzej Mierzejewski, Krysztof Pilawski, Aleksander Rygier, Michal Takarewski, Dr Ryszard Urbanik, Ziemowit Wirski and I as leader. We established Base Camp...
Gurla Mandhata Reconnaissance. In the pre-monsoon season five Japanese and eight Chinese reconnoitered Gurla Mandhata (7728 meters, 25,355 feet), which the Chinese call Namunani. An attempt on this peak is planned for 1985.
Italian Everest Expedition. A colossal 64-man Italian expedition, 56 of whom belonged to the armed forces, invaded Mount Everest by the South Col route. Ninety climbers and Sherpas took part in the actual climb and 44 more were at Base Camp! The l...
FALL ON SNOW, FAULTY USE OF CRAMPONS, UNABLE TO SELF-ARRESTNew Hampshire, Mount Washington, Lion HeadOn March 6, a hiker was descending the steep section of Lion Head trail when snow had balled up in his crampons and he fell approximately 50 feet,...
Cathedral Mountains. In June, John Middendorf, Calvin Hebert, and I visited a small, isolated cluster of granitic peaks with small glaciers to the west of Mount Foraker at the edge of the high tundra. The peaks are bordered by Cathedral Creek on t...
Cho Oyu. A commercial expedition led by Günther Härter climbed Cho Oyu by the normal west-ridge, west-face route from the north. On May 19, Germans Härter, Reinhard Müller, Dieter Albin Porsche, Walter Treibel and Austrian Gottfried Lindebner reac...
Jannu, attempt on the direct north face. Big Walls-Russian Routes is the name loosely given to a series of expeditions that since 1996 have been trying to climb 10 major new routes on some of the most famous big walls around the World. Last autumn...
FALL ON SNOW, CLIMBING UNROPED, FAILURE TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONSBritish Columbia, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Mount MacbethOn June 29, a relatively experienced climber, upon reaching the summit of Mount Macbeth, unroped and fell through the corn...
The Canadian Alps: The History of Mountaineering in Canada, Volume 1. Robert W. Sandford. Altitude Publishing, Banff, 1990. 296 pages, numerous illustrations and black-and-white photographs.I knew I was getting old, but, until I started reading th...
FALL ON SNOW—CRAMPON CAUGHT IN CLOTHING, UNABLE TO SELF-ARRESTWashington, Mount StuartOn July 16, Teresa Soucie (41)—a member of the King County Search and Rescue Team—was beginning her descent of the Cascadian Couloir on Mount Stuart when she tri...
Himalayan Vignettes: Garwhal and Sikkim Treks. Kekoo Naoroji. Bombay, India: The Himalayan Club, 2003. 236 pages. Hardcover. $60.00.Himalayan Vignettes is a large format, coffee table photo-essay of expeditions to the Garwal and Sikkim by Indian t...
Selected Alpine Climbs in the Canadian Rockies. Sean Dougherty. Rocky Mountain Books, Calgary, Alberta. 1991. 320 pages. 129 marked photos. Several sketch maps. Soft cover. $19.95.It is a truism that the younger crowd always believes that its pred...
In late July, after climbing the Ibex Horn [see Afghanistan section], I flew from Kabul to Urumqi, then on to Aksu, where I met local Chinese friends (liaison officer and driver). We drove for a full day to a final military check point at Akqi. I ...
The summer of 2000 was another exceptionally dry one in the Teton Range. Many of the big alpine routes on the Grand Teton were essentially dry rock climbs by midsummer, a condition that has become all too common during the last decade. The Black I...
FALL ON ROCKNew Hampshire, Cathedral Ledge, RecompenseA party of two climbed Recompense, and the leader fell while on the crux third pitch. He fell 10 to 15 feet and hit a ledge, badly breaking his leg. The climbers had the experience and knowledg...
Koskulak (7,028m), first and second ascents by the west ridge and third ascent by the north face. Koskulak is situated in the Muztagh Ata Range and can be reached by the same route and logistics as Muztagh Ata itself. Until 2005 it remained unclim...