For three months I traveled alone in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan, near the Tibet border, spending time with local inhabitants and exploring unclimbed mountains and little visited valleys. Shaluli Shan I first visited Shaluli Shan ...
Nanga Parbat in RetrospectFritz WiessnerTHE partial failure of the Nanga Parbat Expedition, which had started with such high hopes, raises the question as to what were the causes that prevented the party from reaching the summit, and what are the ...
Rims Recreation Area, Various Ascents. Thirty miles south of Moab (via U.S. 191) is the BLM’s Rims Recreation Area, a high mesa bordered by Indian Creek (south) and the Colorado River (west). Hatch Wash slices through the mesa, exposing high-quali...
Xiashe (5,833m), first ascent. On October 13 Patricia Deavoll of New Zealand and I made the first ascent of Xiashe, via the south face and southwest ridge. We arrived in the region on October 1 accompanied by an interpreter, Zhengling Cheng (Lenny...
July 31, 6,900 meters. I’m in the murky space of a deep dream, in which I’m standing in a wooden boat, seized by the swift current of a river and speeding headlong toward the horizon. Somewhere far away, along the shore, a small boy is running, wa...
Beforehand, there was a feeling of fear, fear that I could make a mistake. If a hold broke, if I fell backward into the tremendous space, what would I think about? Would I be angry? What would happen when my body smashed onto the talus? Would I ...
INADEQUATE PROTECTION AND COMMUNICATION California, TahquitzWhile belaying the leader at Tahquitz, I held a 30-foot fall that should really have been only a ten-foot slide. The extra rope footage was supplied when two chocks, placed after a traver...
Birch Mountain, Bardini Route. This climb is hidden in plain sight. You can study the north face of Birch Mountain (13,665') from downtown Big Pine. But it took a decade of driving up to guide in the Palisades before I began to notice the huge dar...
Diran Peak, South Face, Attempt and Ascent. Shigero Aoki led a 15-member team that attempted the south face of Diran Peak (7257 m). The face proved unclimbable due to bad weather and constant avalanches. Two members, Iguchi and Hiruta, were able t...
Scotland the Brave and Aussie Peak, First Ascents, and Arctic First Born, New Route. An expedition entitled “Greenland 2000: Tilman in a New Millennium” sailed from Scotland to the west coast of Greenland and climbed two peaks and a big wall from ...
In late May Andy Stern and I skied, walked, and swam into McGinnis to attempt the north ridge route’s second first ascent. But we had to take down my Bibler and bail as the wind whipped up my arse hole, while I screamed at Andy to get all his stuf...
DUDLEY TYLER SMITH1902-1994Dudley Tyler Smith was born in Denver on February 28, 1902 and died there on May 26, 1994. He became a member of the American Alpine Club in 1928 and in 1920 joined the Colorado Mountain Club after being a guest on a clu...
Fairweather and St. Elias mountains traverse. On April 25 a group of four acquaintances- cum-friends were shuttled across Haines inlet in an outboard motor boat. At Davidson Point, just across the water from Haines, Kari Medig, Merrie-Beth Board, ...
Ascent of the Natural Bridge, Zion National MonumentFRED D. AYRESIn Utah, one natural bridge, more or less, makes little difference. The state already has within its boundaries most of the known bridges and arches of any consequence in the United ...
Dartmouth Mountaineering Club. Outstanding among the numerous 1958 mountaineering accomplishments were an ascent of Mount McKinley and a 100-mile ski traverse of the Purcell and Selkirk ranges in British Columbia. Jake Breitenbach and Dave Dingman...
SITTING next to our big tent we were unlikely candidates for the Alpine Hall of Fame. Jeff Lowe looked quite natty in a white shirt, glacier hat and army-surplus woolies, and kept us amused with his Don Juan fantasies and ribald jokes. George Lo...
Mooses Tooth, Swamp Donkey Express. Zack Smith, Renan Ozturk, and I flew in to the Ruth Gorge on May 17, psyched to find perfect conditions: hard freezes at night but warm enough daytime temps to comfortably wear rock shoes. After a day to pack an...
Lost Feather Pinnacle, Back at Bob's. From August 11-20 Duncan Burke and I enjoyed excellent weather and conditions in Bugaboo Provincial Park. Driving north from Colorado, our main goal was to climb a new route in The Pigeon Feathers group, locat...
TABLE III Numbers Refer to Persons Directly Involved*1951-81USA1959-81CAN.1982USA1982CAN.TerrainRock17602207516Snow10341875925Ice702396River10200Unknown10401*Ascent or Descent:Ascent14342248926Descent11301414718Unknown2072844Immediate CauseFall or...
OFF ROUTE–UNFAMILIAR WITH DESCENT, WEATHERWyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Grand TetonOn June 11 around 0100, Swis Stockton and Michael Feldman left the Lupine Meadows trailhead with the intention of climbing the Exum Ridge on the Grand Teton i...