I FIRST CORRESPONDED with Brette Harrington in 2016, asking her to write an article for the AAJ about her recent route Hidden Dragon, climbed with Marc-André Leclerc on the Chinese Puzzle Wall in British Columbia. She sent in her story, and we beg...
WORKING AS a trekking guide in Torres del Paine for a few years, it was hard to ignore this incredible line on the south side of Cerro Almirante Nieto. I tried the route alone a couple of times, in different times of the year, without success. I r...
The 2018 season saw continued interest in the granite walls of Quebrada Rurec in the southern Cordillera Blanca.In late July, Steve House and Josh Wharton made the second free ascent of Qui Io Vado Ancora (585m, 7c+/8a-; see AAJ 2007 and AAJ 201...
Martin Elias, Francois Poncet (a.k.a. Ponpon), and I approached the east face of Cerro San Lorenzo (3,706m) for the second time in early October. (Martin and I made a previous attempt in 2017, with Sebastien Corret.) The three of us, longtime frie...
In August, my wife, Vahitiare Beltrami, Simon Schonemann-Poppeliers, and I traveled to the Andean village of Pacchanta, where we met our compadres, the Crispin family, to climb some nearby peaks. We spent 10 days in the area, from August 17 to Aug...
On July 9, 2017, I climbed a probable new route on the west aspect of Oje Punta (5,386m), also known as Lliani, in the eastern Cordillera Vilcanota.I left the Ausangate base camp at 5:30 a.m., carrying a pair of rock climbing shoes and a small day...
Nevado Huayllaco (5,460m, also spelled Huaiyacu, approximately 9°50'4.21"S, 77°11'21.61"W) was first ascended in 1963 by Domingo Giobbi (Italy/Brazil) and the brothers Eugenio and Macario Angeles (Peru), who called it Raria Este; they likely ascen...
In 1967, the southwest face of Chilpariti (ca 5,550m) was so highly coveted by two visiting expeditions that the British team, led by Roger Whewell, literally bargained for it with the New Zealand Alpine Club in exchange for Trident (ca 5,490m), t...
In August, I led a 10-day traverse across the Cordillera Carabaya between the towns of Macusani (4,300m) and Ollachea (2,800m), including various side trips. We were an entirely self-supported group of four enthusiastic people: Giselle Field, Matt...
In May, Guy Fonck (Belgium) and I climbed an unnamed peak (ca 5,400m, 11°56'5.79"S 76° 3'18.95"W) in the southern Cordillera Central. It is part of the Suiricocha Massif (sometimes spelled Suerococha) and located just to the north of a peak (ca 5,...
I took a 40-foot fall on ice at Chapel Pond, smashed my face, and suffered a traumatic brain injury, but lived to tell about it. It was February 8, and I was guiding Rhiannon, a 200-foot WI4+ line in the Power Play amphitheater, above Chapel Pond....
On July 10, two climbers headed to the Barber Wall, a single-pitch crack climbing area on the upper left side of Cathedral Ledge. The pair decided to get on Nutcracker, a popular 5.10a. The leader (male, 30s) placed a number 2 Camalot, followed by...
On February 4, a team of climbers from Amherst, Massachusetts, was ascending the third and final pitch of the Black Dike (WI4 M3), Cannon Cliff’s most popular ice climb. As the leader (male, age 47) moved up the final ice before the route turns to...
Picacho Kasiri (as defined by the IMG map 5945-II) had looked full of promise when Roberto Gomez and I saw it in mid-July during a traverse of neighboring Pucusani. With unusually dry conditions and warm temperatures prevailing at the start of Dec...
In mid-July, Roberto Gomez (Bolivia) and I finally turned our attention to a formation that every rock climber sees when driving over Cumbre Pass and down toward the Bolivian jungle. Even though local climbers had implied the rock quality was real...
In 2007 and '08, the Vladostano Alpine Rescue Service, which operates mountain rescue services in Italy's Val d'Aosta, organized training courses for Bolivia's professional mountain guides. Since then, these IFMGA guides, operating under the title...
After making the first ascent of the east face of Charquini (5,392m) in 2017 with Sergio Condori (see AAJ 2018), I returned several times in 2018 to explore the potential of this small but attractive granite wall.On May 2, Felix Leger, Jules Tusse...
Inspired by a photo in AAJ 2018, and thanks to a Grit and Rock Award, Cecilia Buil (Spain), Ixchel Foord (Mexico), Spanish photographer Dafne Gisbert, and Anna Torretta (Italy) traveled to the Mugu Valley. They used a helicopter to fly from Nepalj...
Between the well-known summits of Khan Tengri and Pik Pobeda sleeps a seldom-visited yet interesting group of mountains known as the Ak-tau Group, after its central peak, Ak-tau. (Ak-tau is 6,181m; the highest summit of the group, an unnamed 6,201...
In far northern India, a number of steep-sided granite valleys are enclosed by the “Great Bend” of the Shyok River. Their mountaineering potential was first recognized by Chewang Motup of Rimo Expeditions, and his company has supported all approve...