Pleasant Point (9,690’) is located two miles north of the historic mining town of Cerro Gordo in the southern Inyo Mountains, a limestone range to the east of the Owens River Valley and south of the White Mountains. When viewed from the Owens Va...
In May, Chaz Langelier and I checked out the largest tower in the group of rocks collectively labeled the Broken Towers in the old Sequoia guidebook. It is immediately west of Castle Rock Spire and plainly visible from many vantages around Moro ...
I first saw the east side of Seven Gables (13,080’) several years ago while traveling through the area with my wife. Subsequent research revealed a confusing climbing history that seemed to be only focused on neighboring Seven Gables North (Peak...
A few years ago, Richard Leversee encouraged Brian Prince and me to take over a project he had worked on for several years in the 1990s with Scott Cosgrove, Jay Smith, and Jim Zellers: creating an all-free line up the prow of the Watchtower, ori...
On January 26, Joel Kauffman and I made the strenuous approach up Fifth Canyon in knee-deep snow to the Rocketship, where we had been watching an ice and mixed line form throughout the month. On the right side of the formation, a north-facing sn...
Over the course of 2019, solo and with several partners, I climbed three ice couloirs that were likely first ascents in the eastern Sierra. The colorful and obscure Piute Crags, southeast of Mt. Emerson, are plainly visible along the Bishop skyli...
Tad McCrea and I made the notorious approach up rugged George Creek late on the afternoon of July 21, bivouacking near the confluence of the north and main forks of the creek around 10,000’. We cast off for the long northeast ridge of Trojan Pea...
On August 8, my wife, Giselle Field, and I established a lovely camp by Crocker Lake and the following morning started up the north pillar of Mt. Crocker (12,457’). This imposing feature sees little to no sunlight, so we were freezing cold the e...
On August 25, Katie Lambert and I topped out a new 16-pitch route on the north face of the Citadel (11,744’) in Kings Canyon National Park. Our original ambition was to free the original north face route (IV 5.7 A2, Herbert-Hennek-Lauria; see...
Bubbs Creek, named for the 19th century prospector John Bubbs, flows 16 miles through a deep, glaciated canyon to the mighty Kings River. Equidistant from the east and west sides of the Sierra, the drainage’s namesake wall rises prominently from t...
In 1989, Steve Porcella and I scoped out the massive climbing potential on the west side of the Middle Palisade massif, which includes peaks like Norman Clyde, Middle Palisade, and Disappointment. The obvious standout line was a massive chimney ...
Having both been born within a few days of each other in mid-August, Drew Smith and I have made a tradition of celebrating together with an annual backcountry getaway. This year we decided to make it a real party and invited our good buds Jack C...
This year in southwest Utah began with a wet winter and spring, swinging wildly to a record dry spell over the summer and autumn, allowing for more climbing in the monsoon season than the average year. In March, Derrick Fassbender and Steffan G...
In early 2019, while teaching university geology in Southern California, I made two trips to Red Rock National Conservation Area. Local wise man and climbing historian Larry DeAngelo convinced me to investigate First Creek Canyon for new route o...
Twenty-one years ago, I camped beneath the north face of Mt. Breitenbach (12,140’), the fifth-highest peak in Idaho, on a six-day solo backpacking trip through the Lost River Range. Of course I wanted to stand on the summit, but climbing the fac...
The 800’ walls on the west side of Bear Canyon are visible from the road, east of the town of Questa, but perhaps due to New Mexico’s lack of climbers, the steep, overgrown terrain, and dubious-looking rock, they stood unclimbed until recently. ...
From May 3–5, Kevin Boyko and I made a continuous, 38-hour, unsupported push expanding a previous traverse (see AAJ 2015), climbing all of the major and minor technical summits with prominence in the ridge of the Organ Mountains, between Fillmor...
Gilson Butte is a hefty formation just west of Highway 24, midway between Green River and Hanksville, with a quarter-mile plateau summit surrounded by 400' cliffs of shale (or worse). The formation promised lousy free climbing but stimulating ai...
The thin streak of ice seemed to defy gravity as it clung to the gently overhanging, blank granite. As I tiptoed onto the ice sheet, I noticed how my rope arced through space to Justin at the hanging belay. With a bolt still above my waist, I bo...
In January 2020, Bayard Russell and I put in three days of work to establish and send Maidenhead (165m, 5 pitches, M8 (M6+ R) NEI5+) above Lake Willoughby. This adventurous new route explores a less-traveled section of a famous and popular wall ...