In mid-July 2008 Dave Stewart and I climbed what we believe to be a new route on the east face of Watchtower. We started from camp in the Cirque and approached up the broad scree directly below the formation. Our route takes nondescript rock lef...
South Platte Region. On Big Rock Candy Mountain, an 11-pitch face climb, Childhood’s End (IV, 5.11d), was put up by Eric Winkleman, Ken Trout and Brian Hansen. The climb features a nearly vertical crux headwall (pitch 7) that was pre-protected by ...
On December 18, a man (24) was on the second pitch of Stairway to Heaven when he fell attempting to climb over an ice bulge. Both feet popped from their holds. He dropped 50 feet to the ground, suffering a compression fracture of L-5. (Source: D...
Peaks Above Kaskawulsh Glacier. After climbing 8500-foot Vulcan above Slim’s River and the Alaska Highway as a reconnaissance, the Québecois Bernard Faure, Léopold Nadeau and André Robert returned to Whitehorse to get final permissions. Then under...
FALLING ICEWashington, Snoquera FallsOn December 28, 1983, Chris Gentry (19) and Kurt Fickeisen (19) were ice climbing on Snoquera Falls when giant chunks of ice broke away from the falls and bombarded them.They had planned to climb to a huge ledg...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT–ROPE TOO SHORT, FAILURE TO TIE STOPPER KNOT, NO HARD HATColorado, Eldorado Canyon, Red Garden WallOn October 13, Kelly Elverum (34) was being lowered down Darkness ’til Dawn (5.9+) when the end of the climbing ro...
Stanford Alpine Club. The Stanford Alpine Club was very active during 1961, but as most of the members are new and inexperienced, the quality of the climbs has not matched that of climbs in previous years. There is a practice climb every week end ...
Dolomites, by Félix Germain. 200 pages, with many photographic illustrations and two maps. Paris and Grenoble: B. Arthaud, 1950.The 95th volume in the Beaux Pays series, this is one of the best picture books of the Dolomites. A map shows the locat...
Mururata, South Ridge. In late June John Hudson and Roger Whewellmade the first ascent of the south ridge of Mururata, approaching from the Bolsa Negra road in one day. The climb then took a day and a quarter over extremely unstable snow and slate...
This elegant rock-and-ice pinnacle (c. 3000 meters, 9843 feet) was climbed for the first time on August 15 in the Southern Hemisphere winter by Casimiro Ferrari, Bruno Lombardi and Egido Spreafico. They ascended the very difficult east-southeast i...
At 4:30 a.m. on March 26, 2008, in bitter cold, Steve House and I left the Lloyd McKay hut and approached the ridge leading to the rappel station down to the north face of Mt. Alberta. A harsh breeze made it was hard to fully appreciate the beauty...
FALL ON ICE, CLIMBING UNROPEDNew Hampshire, Willey’s SlideOn January 12, 1985, Arthur Urbanski (?) fell from above the bulge on Willey’s Slide and got big air on the way down. He came to a screeching halt about 30 meters from the base of the slide...
Expedición Navarra al Himalaya 79, by Gregorio Ariz (in Spanish). Pamplona, Spain: Grafinasa, 1979. 104 pages, 146 color photos, 10 drawings and maps.The seventh ascent of Dhaulagiri was accomplished in May 1979 by an expedition from northern Spai...
Another Gongga Shan Tragedy. A horror story comes from another Japanese attempt on Gongga Shan. The five-man, two-woman expedition was led by Hideaki Saito. They reached Base Camp at 11,500 feet on the Hailoko Glacier on March 19, hoping to comple...
Northeast of Angmagssalik, East Greenland. Clara and Leonardo Mosca with Jean Bich, Pacifico Pession and Marco Barmasse, guides from Valtournanche, climbed five peaks between 2755 and 4610 feet northeast of Angmagssalik.
P7629, P 7819 and P 8567, Bagley Icefield, Chugach Mountains. On May 30, Sean LaRiche, Chuck Ellington, Craig Truitt and I as leader were landed at 6000 feet some 30 miles northwest of Mount St. Elias. We set up Base Camp near the base of P 7629 a...
The south face of Ranrapalca (6,162m) ca 6km wide, with rock, ice, and snow rising for 750-850m. Peruvian mountaineers and guides (AGMP-UIAGM) Eloy Salazar Obregón, Octavio Salazar Obregón, and Eric Albino (aspirant guide) started in the Cojup V...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE SELF-BELAY California, Santa Barbara, San Ysidro RockExcerpts of an account sent to us by a climber (27) may be instructive for solo attempts on rock:I was climbing the 5.9 variation of Face Lift on San Ysidro Rock. It was...
Thamserku. Koreans led by Yong Tae-Shin climbed Thamserku by a new route, the east face to the south ridge. They had three high camps. Chang Jae-Shin, Jong Back-Ro and Sherpas Ang Dorje and Ang Temba reached the summit (6623 meters, 21,730 feet) o...
Chopicalqui, significant repeats. The Spanish climber Jordi Corominas made a rare repeat and possibly the first solo of what is thought to be the 1979 Japanese Route (Kamuro-Uejima) on the south face of Chopicalqui (6,395m). The steep face has a s...