K2, Attempt from the West and Ascent from the South. Poles Wojciech Kurtyka, Krzysztof Wielicki and I spent three and a half weeks of hard work on the Sickle on the west side of K2 before we abandoned the effort as being too dangerous. We then red...
This is the fifteenth annual report of the Safety Committee and the second in conjunction with the Alpine Club of Canada. The addition of the reports from Canada has been worthwhile and documents more completely the accidents that have occurred in...
The Denali Medical Research Project, 1982-85Peter H. Hackett, M.D., Robert C. Roach, M.S., Robert B. Schoene, M.D., Frank Hollingshead, M.D. and William J. Mills, Jr., M.D.IN THE MONTHS OF MAY and June of 1982, 1983, and 1985 the Department of Hig...
El Capitan, Aurora. In August 1981 Peter Mayfield and I climbed a new route left of Tangerine Trip. We used the bruised and beaten start of the Trip to reach the huge arch where that route traverses right. At this point we went left 180 feet, gett...
This is the fifty-fifth issue of Accidents in North American Mountaineering and the twenty-fourth issue in which The Alpine Club of Canada has contributed data and narratives.Canada: This was the year of the stranded climber in Canada. Four of the...
Silence of the Lands—AntarcticaJay SmithNo other region offers mountaineers more spectacular, unexplored climbing potential than Antarctica, the last expanse of true wilderness on our planet. Far from the flat, featureless wasteland that many imag...
Peaks above Ruth Gorge. Sepp Jöchler and I spent two weeks climbing peaks that rise above the Ruth Gorge. We set up Base Camp below the east buttress of “Mount Bradley” on July 3. On July 4, we climbed the 5000-foot-high east buttress of “Bradley”...
The Alpine Conservation PartnershipA global initiative to protect and restore alpine ecosystems.Alton C. Byers, Ph.D.Alpine ecosystems, gateways to the world’s highest summits, are among the world’s most beautiful and important landscapes. They ar...
Mountaineers: Great Tales of Bravery and Conquest. Ed Douglas et al. DK Publishing, 2011. 360 pages. Color photos. Hardcover. $40.00.Ignore the vulgar subtitle and open the book. It’s filled with hundreds of glossy 12x10 pages and abundant photogr...
Polar Bear Spire, First Ascent. Gerhard Heidorn, Stefan Glowacz, Holger Heuber, and I arrived in Clyde River, Baffin Island, on August 7. In the months of August and September, the sea is normally free of ice and can be traversed by boat. We wante...
What’s Behind that Battle StarHugh W. EvansAll the glory, laud, and honor May fall 'round our shining armor That only rotting cloth doth be,But this is not for what we fought.THE individual stories that have had their source in our recent war are ...
Kayak-Mountaineering: Mount AbbeWalter R. Gove and William PillingGove begins:AS A MOUNTAINEER, I have come to aspire to the goals I associate with an earlier era. Besides a hard and good line to an unclimbed summit, I want unexplored and difficul...
Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature. Christopher Van Tilburg. New York: St. Martin’s Press,2007. 304 pages. Hardcover. $24.95.Few titles dramatize with greater flair the nervy, adrenalin-driven world of mountain r...
Coast Range, South of Bella Coola. This year’s journey into the Coast Range took Floyd Burnette, Allen Steck, Jim Wilson and Dick Houston for three weeks into unexplored territory south of Mount Snowside. After driving to Bella Coola from Californ...
In September 2009, Chris McNamara and I climbed First Amendment (IV 5.11a), a new route just right of center on Le Petit Cheval’s northwest face. The rock is excellent, but, as is normal for the area, many cracks were filled with dirt. We approach...
On Foot to Distant Canadian SummitsSterling B. HendricksHOW fortunate is man to forget the ardors of back-packing that he once endured and how foolish is he consciously to plan for more. The only excuse to the knees that ache and the back that hur...
FALL ON ROCK, BEGINNER UNCLIPPED CLIMBING ROPEOregon, Rooster RockIn late June 1982, a man (37) fell 30 meters to his death from Rooster Rock. He had unclipped from the climbing rope and when he fell, he was unprotected. He was part of a climbing ...
The First Ascent of the Diamond, East Face of Longs PeakDavid Rearick, Sierra ClubLongs Peak, in Rocky Mountain National Park, is one of the best-known and most-climbed mountains in the United States. At 14,255 feet it is Colorado’s northernmost "...
Bugaboos, various ascents. On East post Spire in August, Aleksey Shuruyev, Elizabeth Whitcher (age 17), Sam Adelman (age 17), and Andrew Freeman put up two new routes that, combined, would make a logical seven-pitch outing up the center of the sou...
Cerro Fitz Roy, West Face, Ensueño. Silvo Karo (Slovenia) and I arrived in Chaltén in the very last days of January with the obvious intention of doing some climbing, but also hoping for a lot of bad weather so we could enjoy the peaceful and calm...