A.A.C., Southern California Section. Historically, Hollywood and the alpine world have come together with mixed results. And this was the case once again with the highly touted release in 1993 of the Sylvester Stallone movie, Clijfhanger. Ted Vail...
Longs Peak, The Diamond. In August, 1960, two Californians, Bob Kamps and Dave Rearick, made the first ascent of the Diamond (A.A.J., 1961, 12:2, pp. 297-301.) Their route goes straight up the center of the 1000-foot face. Two years later Layton K...
The Desert, Various Activity. In Canyonlands National Park two new routes were established in the remote Dabneyland. Says Steve “Crusher” Bartlett, “These towers are named after Walt Dabney, the park superintendent who instigated the strict climbi...
Katantica Group, Chaupi Orco and Other Peaks, Cordillera Apolobamba. Hermann Wolf, Otto Reus, Dieter Hain, Dr. Walter Hufnagel, Karl Gross and I as leader of the Upper Franconia Andes Expedition left Germany on April 7 and reached La Paz by ship a...
FALLING ROCKS–DISLODGED BY CUMBERWashington, North Cascades, Mount LoganOn Labor Day weekend, Silas Wild and I climbed the east ridge of Thunder Peak, a satellite of Mount Logan in the North Cascades. On Saturday, we hiked over Easy Pass, down Fis...
Rocks and FellsDavid Allan Robertson, Jr.Neither indeed is there any hill or hillocke, which doth not containe in it the most sweete memory of worthy matters.Coryat : Crudities (1611)LET’S look away for a moment from these Gothic Ablaut Verbs and ...
Ishinca, Northwest Face, Magic Mushrooms. On July 6, while still acclimatizing in the Ishinca valley, Vasja Kosuta and I established the new route Magic Mushrooms (IV 80°, 500m) on the northwest face of Ishinca (5530m). We started early in the mor...
An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring CIA Operation. Pete Takeda. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006. Hardcover. 304 pages. $26.95.Of all the idiotic things the CIA has dreamed up in its half-centur...
Mt. Hunter, first ski descent. This was my first trip to Alaska. I was invited to attempt a ski descent of Mt. Hunter during May with Lome Glick, John “Weedy” Whedon, and Andrew McLean. Our intended route was a variation of the West Ridge from the...
FALL ON SNOW, FAULTY USE OF CRAMPONSWashington, Mount RainierAround 7:00 a.m. on March 12, 1981, Eric Simonson, a Rainier Mountaineering, Inc.(RMI) guide, radioed from Camp Muir to Park Ranger Gerry Tays that an independent climber had injured his...
LOUIS SUSSDORF (1888-1940)Louis Sussdorf was born at Elmhurst, L. I., N. Y., January 7th, 1888, the son of Louis Albert Sussdorf and Rebecca Morse Hyatt. He attended the Cutler School in New York City and was graduated from Harvard in 1910. He ent...
Brooks Range, Alaska. Our wish: to search out and experience the most remote wilderness skiing available; our objective: to ski from the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean, over the Brooks Range. Betties, Alaska (67° N.) April 1. Wayne Merry, Ned G...
THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL MOUNTAINEERING SAFETY PROGRAM Report of the Safety Committee of the American Alpine Club Introduction THE startling increase in the number of mountaineering accidents which occurred during the summer of 1947 suggests tha...
Castle Valley. Layton Kor, with his wife Joy, teamed up with Calvin Lee and Jerry Tomasso for the 1147th ascent of Castleton Tower. The stout 400-foot Wingate Sandstone monolith has the distinction of being the most popular tower climb of the dese...
FALL ON SNOW, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, CLIMBING UNROPEDAlaska, Mount McKinleyOn May 4, 1985, at 1630, Siegfried Mayer (45), a member of the Schwardzwalder-Alaska- Bergfahrt-Expedition, was descending from the summit of Mt. McKinley. He was unroped an...
ILLNESS, FAILURE TO DISCLOSE PREVIOUS MEDICAL HISTORY, INEXPERIENCEAlaska, Denali National Park, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn June 12, Tina James, a client with Mountain Trip led by Todd Ruthledge, was out on a summit bid when she began experie...
A TIME TO LIVE, A TIME TO DIETragedy on the southeast ridge of Mount Everest by Charlotte FoxIn August of 1995, Neal Beidleman, an acquaintance in Aspen, approached me with an idea: his friend, Scott Fischer, was putting together a trip the next s...
Vanishing Trails of Atacama by William E. Rudolph. American Geographical Society Research Series #24; 87 pages, 50 illustrations, maps and bibliography. New York, 1963.The highlands of Atacama include the highest volcanoes of the world, which reac...
Sandersons Hope, northwest face, new route. On July 2 the yacht Northanger set sail for Greenland from Port Kirwan, Newfoundland. On board were the captains/owners Keri Pashuk and Greg Landreth, climbers Chris “Beeker” Romeskie and I, and crew Ang...
SIR ROBERT CHARLES EVANS 1918 - 1995Charles Evans was a mountaineer’s mountaineer: expert, unassuming and self-effacing to a fault, whose love of neurosurgery and climbing demanded judgment, skill and nerve. He began serious climbing in 1938 and a...