Late in the day on August 29, Chris Hirsch and I began the grueling 13-mile hike from Bighorn Reservoir into the Sawtooth Lakes valley. We arrived in the valley around 1 p.m. on August 30 and began to scope objectives. Minding the limitations dict...
Africa Son. Photo: Zach Lentsch The Palisades are a row of tall limestone fins on the southwest flank of Rattlesnake Mountain, visible from the Buffalo Bill Reservoir on Highway 14, heading west out of Cody. Many years ago (probably in the la...
In September 2023, I returned to Storm Dome, eight miles into the backcountry outside of McCall, Idaho, after having established two long free routes there in 2021 and 2022 (see AAJ 2023). Accompanied first by my wife, Erin, and later by several f...
The east face of Sinopah Mountain. The east face of Sinopah Mountain. Photo by Seth Anderson Collection.Finding quality rock in Glacier National Park is a challenge, yet the plentiful steep faces provide endless potential for adventure climb...
Loaded for Bear (IV 5.8) on north face of Flinsch Peak. Photo by NPS / Jacob W. Frank. It started with a photo taken on a gray day during an overnight ski trip in March 2021. A friend and I had skinned into Old Man Lake. While the skiing wasn...
The ridge at the eastern edge of the cirque below Begguya’s Southeast Spur. Ben Dewey and Chris Dewey made the first ascent of the 9,957’, snow-pyramid-capped summit at the left, which they named the Water Tower. They believe all the other summi...
The large, basalt west face of Shipnoor (a.k.a. Shipnur), near Ghatghar village (19°32'38.50"N, 73°38'11.18"E) in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State, had never been climbed until January 2025. In January 2024, four members of the Giripr...
Our all-female expedition of Ana Baumgartner, Urša Kešar, Patricija Verdev, and I (all from Slovenia) headed southwest from near the Pensi La with 18 porters on August 26 to climb in the Lalung Valley. We had thought that our base camp would be a...
Camilla Reggio and I met on the Eagle Team of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and immediately became friends, connected by our huge passion for the mountains. We decided to plan our first expedition together and ended up in Kyrgyzstan, with the inte...
In July 2024, Anton Kashevnik and Ivan Temerev (both from Russia) completed a new route on the northwest face of Peak 4,810m. Graded Russian 6B (approx. ED+), the climb spans 1,300m of sustained technical difficulty, threading between the Sakharov...
The British quartet of Theo Elmer, Sam Harvie, Oliver Hill, and Patrick Hill trekked to the Ashat Valley from the Ak-su Valley after climbing several routes there, including the famed Perestroika Crack (800m, 5.12-) on Slesova Peak. After a five-d...
Japhy Dhungana and Rainbow Weinstock soloing the final ridge to the summit of the Miter after making the first ascent of The Pen is Miter than the Sword (600’, 5.10). Photo by Zach Lovell. From July 16 to 24, Japhy Dhungana, Rainbow Weins...
In June, Honz Mikhalek and I approached remote Mt. Hitchcock (13,186’) from Whitney Portal, hiking up and over the Sierra Crest to Guitar Lake basin, where we set up camp. The line of Shadow of a Doubt (8 pitches, 5.10) on Mt. Hitchcock. Pho...
For five packed seasons, from 2018 to 2022, my main mate, Chase Leary, and I established hard multipitch first ascents on some of the best climbing formations in the High Sierra. In the northern Sierra, we looted the Incredible Hulk, establishing ...
The east face of Mt. Hunter, showing the original Diamond Arête (yellow line, Donini-Tackle, 1985) and One Way Out (red line, Gardner-Hennessey-Smith, 2024). The 2024 climbers intended to continue straight up the rock wall to gain the upper arêt...
Cody Winckler climbing a sustained M7 crack to bypass a snow mushroom on the first day of his and Dane Steadman’s first attempt on In the Shadow of the Wall (1,200m, AI6 M7). Photo: Dane Steadman. The last 100m had been the wildest alpine cli...
Naseer Baig I (ca 6,100m, left) and II from the northeast with the first ascent routes. The climbers reached Naseer Baig II first (yellow line, mostly hidden), then traversed to the higher summit on the left after a bivouac in the col. Photo by ...
Genya Takenaka climbs through the First Rock Band on the Cassin Ridge, with the Kahiltna Peaks in the center background. Photo by Toranosuke Nagayama. The Cassin Ridge, the famed south buttress of Denali (Mt. McKinley), rises from Kahiltna No...
Mt. Russell from the southeast, rising above the Dall Glacier. (1) Drummond-Wilkinson (2017). (2) Hennessey-Westman (5,700’, 50° ice, 80°+ rime ice, 2024). (3) East face (Auble-Townsend, 1989). (4) Northeast ridge (Brown-Hauck-Jablonowski- Kensl...
The North Face Direct on Phole (6,652m, a.k.a. Pholesobi), seen from Merra Peak. The summit immediately left is Sobithongie. The summit of Jannu is out of picture to the left. Photo by Hidesuke Taneishi. The ridge extending west from Jannu cr...