Nooksack Cirque Icewall. Once described as the “deepest, darkest, coldest hole” in the North Cascades, the Nooksack Cirque offers many short ice climbs of a high standard. In early September, Dusan Jagersky and I climbed the biggest ice face in th...
FALLING ROCKBritish Columbia, Coast Mountains, Mount WaddingtonOn September 13, 1989, Richard Thomas (35) was ascending a steep snow gully at 1980 meters on Mount Waddington with two companions when a large falling rock struck him on the head, sha...
The Mountains of the World, by Hisatake Murakami, Editor, and Ichiro Yoshizawa, Director. Tokyo: Yama to Keikoku, 1967. 212 pages, 200 color pictures and 8 sketch-maps; paper cover. Price: Yen 480 or $1.40. This small book is a pleasant surprise. ...
Meru, South Ridge Attempt. On July 10 we placed out Base Camp at 4850 meters on the moraine of the Kirti Bamak (glacier) below the foot of the south ridge of Meru. Our objective had been the east face of Thalay Sagar, but the first 1000 meters wer...
Koh-e-Baba. The Frenchmen Jean Emmanuel Michal and Laurent Davenas on August 18 and 19 climbed Koh-e-Baba (16,861 feet), ascending the southeast ridge and descending the east face. A Japanese party from Tokyo Metropolitan University also made an a...
Mushishan Group and Karangutagg Valley, First Ascents. It was reported that in August, 1998, a large group of Italian climbers and scientists travelled via Urumchi to Hotan on the southern fringes of the Taklimakan Desert. From there, they drove s...
Pumori Ascents and Traverse. A notable success was scored by American Andy Lapkass, who climbed Pumori (7161 meters, 23,494 feet) three times; and in a single day, on November 3, made the first solo traverse and the third solo of the peak, when he...
Ak-Su North, Nose Direct. Due to terrorist activity, the government closed the Laylak Valley in the Pamir-Alai in 2000. Only in 2002 did they reopen the Laylak Ak-Su and the neighboring Karavshin Valley. In 1998, we had repeated the Popov Route on...
Dhaulagiri III. Our expedition climbed Dhaulagiri III (25,271 feet), the highest unclimbed peak in the group. The party was made up of Gerhard Haberl, Hans Saler, Klaus Süssmilch, Peter von Gizycki, Konrad Hiller, Bernd Schreckenbach and me as lea...
Bauljuri. The National Outdoor Leadership School sponsored a mountaineering course which climbed Bauljuri (5922 meters, 19,429 feet). From the roadhead at Song above Almora, we walked three days up the Pindari drainage to Base Camp at 12,000 feet....
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION North Carolina, Crowders Mountain State ParkOn May 23,1993, Dan Plaisted (31) was standing on the cliff, preparing to return to the bottom and begin his climb, when he suddenly fell, said park supervisor Joe Sox...
Shisha Pangma Central (West) Summit Illegally Climbed by East Germans. Traveling on next-to-no money (we each spent the equivalent of US $700 on the whole trip from East Germany and back), Winfried Kraus, Dr. Karsten König, Fräulein Sabine Körbs a...
FALL ON ROCK, HASTE—TRYING TO STICK TO A SCHEDULECalifornia, Yosemite Valley, North Dome GulleyOn July 6, Dave Bedell (34) and Matt Niswonger finished climbing the South Face of Washington Column and bivouacked on the summit. Early the next mornin...
Mount Formidable, Northwest Face. On June 28, Gordon Adams and I climbed the northwest face of Mount Formidable. We approached via the primitive Cleve Creek Valley. The route went up the center of the 45° face mostly on névé just left of a rock fi...
Alaska Range, Traverse, and Kahiltna Dome, North Ridge. In March, 1997, Meg Perdue, Peter Yeomans, Greg Wolfgang and I traveled by dog sled from Denali National Park’s north entrance to Wonder Lake with two musher friends who took the dogs back ou...
Bhagirathi I Attempt and Bhagirathi II Ascent. A Japanese expedition led by Kazuo Yamamoto reached 6100 meters on the west face of Bhagirathi I (6856 meters, 22,493 feet) before bad weather stopped them. On October 7, Hiroshi Oda, Shukoh Sakai, Ma...
Sierra Nevada: (4) Devil’s Slide, San Mateo Sea Cliffs. On 17 August 1947 a local practice group from the Sierra Club was climbing on cliffs of disintegrating granite south of San Francisco. John Hood, leading an unfamiliar route, had placed three...
Valley of the Gods. In March, on the Seven Drunken Sailors formation, Mike Baker and Leslie Henderson established Borracho Grande (5.9 C2, two pitches, 180').Eric BjØrnstadt
Kangchungtse (Makalu II) Attempt. A West German expedition led by Bernhard Günther failed to climb Kangchungtse by the Japanese route on the northwest ridge in the pre-monsoon period. The high point was 23,000 feet (c. 7000 meters). They had two B...
Tsha Tung, first ascent. During my 2003 winter attempt on Xixabangma I noticed a small peak on the south side of the Phu Chu Valley just east of Eiger Peak (6,912m), as it was called by Doug Scott’s 1982 Xixabangma expedition. Later study showed i...