Yerupaja Sur, Furieux Mais Romantiques. The participants on our expedition were Benoît Mont- fort, François Nadal, Julien Laurent, and I. Intending to open a route on the west face of Siula Chico, we left on foot from Llamac, arriving at base camp...
Peak 6553m, Attempt, and Peak 6222m, Ascent. Peak 6553m (a.k.a. Dibiboikri Nala) is an unclimbed peak on the Dibiboikri Glacier. A three-member British expedition led by Anthony Ewan Mecleran attempted it from September-October. However, only the ...
Bandar Punch. On 20 June 1950 the first ascent of Bandar Punch (20,720 ft.) was made by a party including a school principal, a major general, a teacher and a sergeant-instructor. Seven or eight attempts to climb the peak, which can be seen from M...
Siulá Chico, west face. In May Spanish climbers Oriol Baró and Jordi Corominas made the first ascent of Siulá Chico’s (6,265m) sustained, difficult west face (900m, ED+ VI AI5+ A2). The pair carried a portaledge and haul bag, placed no bolts, and ...
Rakaposhi, Attempt on North Ridge. It was obvious that an ascent to the north ridge from Minapin or Pisan would be too dangerous for a porter column but that a steep glacial valley led up from Jul Ghulmat directly to our north ridge. On September ...
Monte Darwin, 1989. Our expedition had as members Takamori Kobayashi, Hiroaki Kino, Yoshiharu Sekino, Taijiro Maeda, Chilean Eduardo García and me as leader. We were a filming crew from TV-ASAHI of Tokyo. For the first of three months, we traveled...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, INEXPERIENCEWyoming, TetonsOn July 31, 1987, Peter Froelicher (24) and Alicia Sams (23) attempted a one-day ascent of Teewinot via the East Face route. At 1345, both were climbing unroped at an elevation of 3500...
Broad Peak. On August 8, I was able to climb my fifth 8000er. I was accompanied by Mischa Saleki and Dr. Reinmar Joswig, a German living in Colombia, who had been a member of a big French expedition but joined us. Saleki had to turn back from the ...
Don Bosco, South Face Ascent and Ski Descent, 1991. Italian Tone Valeruz is well known for his extreme ski descents. On January 14, 1991, he made a new route solo on the south face of Don Bosco (2515 meters, 8251 feet), taking only three hours to ...
Everest Tragedy, North-Col Route. A Chilean expedition was composed of Claudio Lucero, leader, Rodrigo Jordan, Andrés Marambio, Pedro Bralic, Marcelo Gifferos, Fernando and Cristián Garcia-Huidobro, Pablo Straub and Victor Hugo Trujillo. They were...
NORMAN CLYDE 1885-1972Norman Clyde died in Big Pine, California in December 1972 at the age of 87. He had lived as every alpinist wants to live, but as none of them dare to do, and so he had a unique life. When he died, I felt that an endangered s...
Mt. Kenya, Diamond Couloir, ascent. The Diamond Couloir is an African classic, an elegant ice couloir on the south face of 5,199m Mt. Kenya that was first climbed in October 1973 by Thumbi Mathenge and Peter Snyder. At that time the steep headwall...
Attempt on the East Buttress of Mount McKinley. A four-man party (Walter Gonnason, Otto Trott, Paul Gerstmann, Bruce Gilbert) attempted the ascent of the east buttress of Mount McKinley during late July, 1956. Don Sheldon of Talkeetna landed them ...
Mustagh Ata. A commercial Franco-Italian expedition led by Alberto Re and Claude Jaccoux put 17 of its 20 members on the summit and had them ski down. L. Boggi Marzet, M.T. Gaiotto and M. Solari Pastine set a new altitude record for Italian women....
Logan Attempt. On June 13, Alan Plinz, Ian Bornarth, William Hunt, Kurt Dreibholz, Frank Shea, Russ Norton and I as leader were flown to 6200 feet on the Seward Glacier to attempt the Hummingbird Ridge. We set up Advance Base at 7800 feet on June ...
AVALANCHE, CLIMBING ALONEColorado, Cimmaron Mountains, Baldy PeakOn March 30, Heidi Kloos (41), traveling with her dog, went to climb a remote ice climb on the northeast side of Baldy Peak (10,603 feet). Ouray County Search and Rescue was contacte...
Cho Oyu Attempt. On October 13, Dan Langmade and I arrived at the Cho Oyu Base Camp at 5700 meters to attempt the standard route. We set up Camps I, II and III at 6850, 7200 and 7650 meters on October 14, 15 and 16. On October 17 we climbed to 780...
My bouldering mate Pete Hoersy agreed to join me on Mt. Kenya. To minimize the walking distance, he used his rally experience to get his Land Cruiser stuck in the middle of the hiking pass right on some big rocks at about 3,400m. After hours of di...
Aeolian Tower, Howling Winge. In the Courthouse Pasture area, north of Moab, in 1995, Dave Goldstein and I made a first ascent of the east face, Howling Winge (5.8 A4). It was the most difficult aid route I’ve been on. The route climbs right of an...
Thapa, first official ascent. A French team led by Raphael Guilbert went to Thapa, the least important of the nine new peaks opened by the Nepalese authorities in mid-May. This 6012m peak lies just north of Dhaulagiri I and Tukuche, and is really ...