In the winter of 2006, during a plane flight to San Rafael Lagoon to begin the first north-south winter crossing of the Northern Patagonian Icefield, I saw through the window a huge mass of ice surrounded by impenetrable forests and a glacier that...
After four years of working in the Exploradores Valley, west of Puerto Río Tranquilo (toward the west end of Lago General Carerra), and always looking at these incredible and barely explored mountains, it seemed time to invest some effort to climb...
Paolo Marazzi and I set off from Italy on December 24, 2018. Once at Puerto Bertrand, we waited in vain for a gaucho to help transport our gear up the Rio Soler valley. In order not to waste the first window of good weather, we crossed Lake Bertra...
On October 13, Diego Saez Beros, Adam Fabrikant, and I made a ski descent of the south face of Cerro Punta Yamakawa (4,967m). This was the first leg of our annual, autumn pilgrimage to the Central AndesWe began our trip on October 10, leaving Sant...
In July, Colombian climbers Rafa Avila, Diego Cortés, Jhoany Poveda, Luis Ossa, Victor Ortega, and Alex Torres organized an expedition to the Cordillera Huayhaush. They started their trip on July 21. After installing a base camp under Puscanturpa ...
In January 2019, on his fifth expedition to Queen Maud Land, veteran polar guide Christoph Höbenreich from Austria led Michael Guggolz (Germany) and Kjetil Kristensen (Norway) to the Holtedahl Peaks. They circumnavigated the range on skis and clim...
An Australian team—Dave Goldie, Andrew Lock, Liam Silk, and Pat Spiers—visited Anvers Island in February 2019 and made what was probably the first traverse of Mt. Français (2,822m), ascending the Zeus (northwest) Ridge to the summit before descend...
MARCH 2018 Our skis etch crisp lines in a crystalline mat of snow, broken only where we’d stopped to gawk at the deep icy couloirs and jagged buttresses of A Peak’s north face, towering 4,000 feet above. From our camp on the north shore of Gran...
El Capitan continued to produce firsts and speed records in 2018, and a handful of significant new aid and free lines went up throughout the Valley.In addition to the sub-two-hour run up the Nose by Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold in June, several...
ON JUNE 6, ALEX HONNOLD AND I managed to climb the Nose in 1:58:07 after 11 previous attempts. We had toyed with the idea of attempting a speed record the previous fall, but we only climbed the route together once, which was enough to whet our app...
The 2,000-foot-high south face of Abraham in Zion’s Court of the Patriarchs, showing the 2018 routes (1) Munkuntuwap and (2) Pangea. Earlier routes, not shown, were in the vicinity of Pangea. Photo by Dave AllfreyIN ADDITION to one of the heaviest...
In September 2018, Vitaliy Musiyenko and Brian Prince climbed a new route on the southeast face of Langille Peak in LeConte Canyon they called Three Quarters of a Man (IV 5.11c). The two followed slabby crack systems to the base of the main wall...
In August, Jake Smith and I headed into the Sierra, planning to join friends at Tamarack Lake in the Lone Pine Creek drainage below Mt. Stewart (12,205’), keep our options opened, and climb whatever looked good. After the 16-mile march in to camp,...
I met Pete Cutler in Patagonia during the winter of 2017. Since he lives in Des Moines, Iowa, and has a professional career, his climbing time is valuable, and when he does get a chance to take a short climbing vacation, he does things like the Sa...
Ever since Roger Putnam and I started to work on a complete guide to the High Sierra, I became increasingly interested in finding obscure gems around the range. Lone Pine Peak is an often-overlooked giant that has a huge south face and countless b...
In mid-May, Chaz Langlier and I made a trip to East Lake, south of the Bubbs Creek drainage, a beautiful base camp for three days and three nights. During our trip we climbed three routes that were likely first ascents.Climbing with Chaz is always...
The day after a climb on the Ruby Wall in September, Maxim Belyakov and I decided to check out Third Recess Peak (12,520’). We didn’t do much logistical research and were surprised by the approach—about eight miles (including a 12,000’ pass) from ...
In late May and June, Shaun Reed and I made two quick trips to climb on the southeast face of the Cleaver (13,382’), northeast of Mt. Carillon and Mt. Russell. After helping Shaun with the first free ascent of the Butcher (III/IV 5.12, AAJ 2017) i...
Since Roger Putnam and I are in the process of writing a guidebook to the High Sierra, we had planned a scouting mission to figure out all the routes on Mt. Chamberlin. While approaching Crabtree Lakes from the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead in early ...
OVER TWO SEASONS, in the winter and fall of 2018, several partners and I did first ascents of three ice couloirs in the eastern Sierra.The Central Tower of Pine (11,670’) is but a minor bump along the sinuous north ridge of unnamed Peak 12,388’, v...