THE IMPOSSIBLE CLIMB: ALEX HONNOLD, EL CAPITAN, AND THE CLIMBING LIFE. Mark Synnott. Dutton, 2019. 416 pages, hardcover $28, paperback $18. If the quality of Mark Synnott’s book, The Impossible Climb, were on trial, I would be struck from the ju...
BLACK CAR BURNING. Helen Mort. Chatto & Windus (U.K.), 2019. Hardcover, 336 pages, £14.99. A crowded soccer stadium in 1989, a throng of fans so large that nearly 100 of them are crushed to death. The modern-day crag outside the northern Engl...
Bronwyn Hodgins on the summit of Thor Peak with the Weasel River far below. Photo by Jacob Cook I crouched on a rock ledge that was barely wider than a picnic bench and sloped disconcertingly toward the abyss. Both my hands supported our litt...
Meltwater channels near Cape Mouat on Ellesmere Island. From this aerial vantage, one can see how drones would help in quickly identifying safe crossing points over the channels, which were up to 50km long. Photo by Greg Horne The Inglefield ...
Looking east from the ascent of Mai Dur Sar in 2016 to (A) Trident Gunj-e-Sar (6,093m), (B) Point 6,000m, (C) Gunj-e-Sar Main (6,376m), (D) Gunj-e-Sar Middle (about 6,200m, climbed in 2017 by Ross Davidson and Karim Hayet and named Yad Sar), (E)...
Two-Headed Massif from the Polish Massif to the east. Photo by Boguslaw Magrel The Two-Headed Massif lies to the east of Yawash Sar and northwest of the North Ghidims Glacier. When developing a sketch map of the Ghidims Valley, I bestowed the...
Looking southeast up an arm of the Fork Beard Glacier. The Swiss team climbed the 500-meter north face of the mountain at left, calling it Valkyrie Peak. Their route was Rien á Déclarer (“Nothing to Declare,” 7a A2+). The other faces are probabl...
Looking south from Mario Sar at Karun Koh (variously 7,164m 6,977m). Photo by Mariusz Saramak The Ghujerab Mountains form the northern Karakoram. This vast mountain area can be conveniently partitioned into four areas or subgroups: Khunjerab...
The west face of unclimbed Yawash II with the route attempted by Krzysztof Wielicki and Jalal Uddin in 2018. Above the narrows, this face is around 850m high. Photo by Karim Hayat The peaks of Yawash Sar (I, 6,258m; II, 6,125m; and III, 6,06...
Starting the crux “blade traverse” at 6,520m, heading toward the summit of Panpoche I. Photo by Archil Badriashvili "Those mountains are so beautiful!" Giorgi Tepnadze, Baqar Gelashvili, and I all said the same thing while gazing eastward to...
Nevado Tunsho (5,730m) is in the central mountain range in Peru, the Cordillera Central. Few climbers have managed to reach its highest summit. In May, Peruvian guides Octavio Salazar Obregón and Eloy Salazar Obregón, along with Erick Llantoy, cli...
On July 3, David Mateo (Spain), Beto Pinto (Perú), and I climbed a possible new route on the snowy southern face of Pongos Norte (5,680m), reaching a western subsummit. Although the main summit was first reached by its north face in 1964 and has b...
At the end of May, the prolific Catalan climber Oriol Baró and partners arrived in Cusco without plans or a set goal in mind, but knowing they would be able to find a real adventure. Like Baró, his teammates Ferran Rodriguez and Guillem Sancho wer...
Our team consisted of three people: Alessandro Fracchetti, Andrea Spezialli (both Italy), and I. Alessandro and I first attempted the northeast face of Huandoy Este (5,950m) in 2017, but we were stopped about 200m from the summit ridge due to poor...
Breathing rapidly, I try to get more air into my lungs, wordlessly opening my mouth as a fish would struggle for the last bits of oxygen. It is a nasty feeling to suffocate slowly. Especially when it is purely voluntary. Why am I doing it then? Th...
About five years ago, Peruvian climbing expert Sergio Ramirez Carrascal told me about a beautiful unclimbed ramp on the south side of Siulá Grande (ca 6,344m). Of the peak’s three main faces, the south is the least frequented, due to difficult acc...
At the beginning of May, Pablo Rosagro and I visited the Pariacacca subrange in the Cordillera Central. We accessed the area from Canchayllo and installed our base camp at Lago Tembladera (4,480m). On May 9 we ascended the southwest face of Tukum...
From August 23–27, we (Simon Bustamante and Felipe Proaño) ventured to the Parón Valley, north of Huaraz. On August 25, after summiting La Esfinge by the 1985 route in about four hours, we spent the afternoon hiking over to scout a line up an int...
For the quality and quantity of new routes—with heights always above 4,000m—and exploration, our expedition to the Peruvian Andes with Manu Ponce in June was one of the most important in our long career. Our Andean journey began south and east of ...
In May, Malu Espinoza (Peru), Beto Pinto Toledo (Peru), and I climbed the southwest face of Antachaire III (11°54'5.95"S, 76° 2'59.00"W). There are three Antachaire peaks—I (5,700m), II (5,650m), III (ca 5,670m)—that form a west to east chain. Ant...