Huiten, a.k.a Khuiten Uul, first winter ascent of north ridge. On the winter solstice, December 22, Graham Taylor and I summited Huiten (4,374m), the highest mountain in Outer Mongolia. Taylor had made two previous winter attempts, in 1999 and 200...
I was fortunate in 2003 to have good partners and lots of climbing time in Zion N.P. My season started on February 15. My partner Ammon McNeely and I arrived in the park Saturday morning after working late on a rigging job Friday night. Saturday a...
STRANDED, BAD WEATHERCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn February 8, 1981, Dan Abend stopped SAR Ranger Bruce McKeeman about 8:30 a.m. in Lower Pines Campground and reported that two of his friends were climbing the South Face of Washington Column. Aben...
Ascents in the Cordillera BlancaLEIGH N. ORTENBURGERFor nearly a century mountaineers have been attracted by the Andes in South America. Here they have found innumerable ice-covered giants, unclimbed, relatively accessible, with good weather predo...
Sacajewea Peak, Broken Wings to the North Ridge. In mid-May, Aaron Mordicai, Abe Dickerson, and I traveled up the remote canyon leading to the north face of Sacajewea Peak in the Lost River Range. This hanging canyon above the West Fork of the Pas...
SLIP ON SNOW, DESCENDING UNROPED, FATIGUEAlaska, Mount McKinleyOn May 9, 1983, Niklaus Lotscher (36) and Bill Baker flew into the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier to climb the West Buttress of Mount McKinley. At 1630 on May 22, John Wason, a...
Moro Rock, Levity’s End. In January, Dave Hickey, Ken Aubrey and I climbed this route which ascends the central part of the west face of this rock. High on the face is a huge right-facing roof-corner; the route starts directly below this feature. ...
FALL INTO CREVASSEAlaska, Talkeetna MountainsAt 1700 on April 26, Alpine Ascents guide Brian McCullough (42) was traveling with three clients on an unnamed glacier in the Talkeetna Mountains when he broke through a snow bridge and fell fifty feet ...
It’s No Game, Schaffer Buttress, The Needles. In October, Dick Leversee, Steve Brower and I climbed this four-pitch wall which is located across the Kern River from the Needles, near Schaffer Meadow/Cedar Canyon. The climb starts in a gouged-out a...
The Syllable. On November 7, 1971, Sibylle Hechtel shared with me the first ascent of a fine line just left of The Sequel, which we christened “The Syllable”. There is some speculation that Jim Madsen and partner climbed this route before us, mist...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE TIE-INNew York, ShawangunksOn June 2, 1982, a man (32) was following on the first pitch of City Lights (5.7) when he fell. His rope undipped, so his total fall was 18 meters. He died at Vassar Hospital. (Source: Brad Snyde...
Kalabaland Glacier Region. The pre-monsoon expedition to the Kalabaland Glacier commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Mountaineering Club of the Students’ Gymkhana, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The glacier lies in the remote northea...
Mount Adams, Klickitat Face*. Between the two cascading icefalls of the Klickitat Glacier on the east face of Mount Adams is a 3000-foot headwall of almost the same width. This 50° slope of lava, ash, and breccia is adorned by several ice remnants...
On May 3 Paul Claus flew us from the Ultima Thule Lodge to a 10,500' base camp at the head of the eastern branch of the Barnard Glacier, five miles south of Mt. Bear. We were Brad Gessner, Hans Neidig, Stuart Parks, Wayne Todd, Jeannie Wall, Carri...
H. ADAMS CARTER 1914-1995The sudden death of Adams Carter on April 1 brought a sense of loss and sadness to the mountaineering world. Ad, as he was known, was internationally renowned as the Editor of The American Alpine Journal, the world’s outst...
Mt. Kitchener, Rights of Passage, second ascent. The welcoming heat of late June had us on the Icefields Parkway to attempt Eric Dumerac’s route, Rights of Passage. Eamonn Walsh, Greg Thaczuk, and I left in early afternoon and made our way to the ...
On October 17, 1978, Vera Watson fell to her death on Annapurna I. She and Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz were climbing roped together on a steep, icy slope near Camp V when they apparently slipped. Both were killed. Earlier that day they had left C...
Ten years ago I tried to climb in the Arrigetch but failed to do anything, because of rain. I returned in July 2010 with Claudia Nestler and food for 32 days. Nevertheless, we had only five days without rain, operating from a base camp on Arrigetc...
FRANCOIS EMILE MATTHES 1874-1948Mountain climbing was for François Matthes all in the day’s work. Yet he enjoyed this, as he did every process by which he enriched his knowledge of the earth’s surface and the physical causes of its conditioning. H...
Alma Negra and Cerro Negro, Second Ascents, Cordón de la Ramada. Hermann Joos, Héctor de la Vega, Juan Carlos Damonte Taboda, Daniel Burlon, Irene Rost, Helga Brimmer and I on February 12 left the junction of the Colorado and Patos rivers, which i...