Popocatepetl. The earliest English version of the first ascent on Popocatepetl, by Diego de Ordaz in 1520, is found in a chapter entitled “The hill called Popocatepec” in The Pleasant History of the Conquest of the Weast India (London, 1578), a fr...
FALL OR SLIP ON ROCK, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, FAILURE TO FOLLOW ROUTE, NO HARD HATNorth Carolina, Looking Glass Rock, The NoseOn June 19, Keith Ballencourt (30) and two less experienced friends were climbing The Nose (5.8), on...
Ketil Attempt. During four weeks in July and August, three Danes, Sören Smid, Uffe Mortensen and I, and Swede Magnus Nilsson climbed in the granite section of Tasermiut Fjord. Our main objective was the smooth west face of Ketil Fjeld. We gave up ...
CORNICE FAILURE, AVALANCHE-DISREGARDED INFORMATION REGARDING SNOWPACK HISTORY, WEATHERBritish Columbia, Mount Robson Provincial Park, Mount Robson, North FaceOn July 28, a European mountain guide and a very experienced climber (38 and 49) left the...
Ngojumba Kang and Cho Oyu. An expedition of twelve Poles and two Americans was led by Waclaw Otreba. The Americans were Mark Richey and Rick Wilcox. They hoped to climb the south face of Ngojumba Kang to the col just west of the summit of that pea...
Annapurna Attempt and Tragedy. A ten-man Spanish expedition to the north face of Annapurna was led by Juan Maldonado. The climb came to an abrupt halt when Andrés Ferrer died from head injuries received in a 300-meter fall. He fell while rappellin...
New Altitude Measurements for Aconcagua and the Ojos del Salado. In February, a team of Italian scientists from the University of Padua and Italian climbers, supported by the Argentine Institute of Glaciology and Nivology and Argentine climbers, m...
Mount Maude, Central Couloir, On July 19, Tim Boyer, his brother Keith, and I climbed the couloir in one day from the car. Apart from a short rock pitch to gain the snow above the bergschrund, the climb was uneventful 45°-50° snow (at the steepest...
Adela Group, Cerro Grande. In the Fitz Roy Range, in November, Italian Luca Maspes made two solo attempts on Techado Negro (located at the southern end of the Fitz Roy group) climbing 300m of mixed ground and bad rock. On December 5, Maspes and Ma...
Gigante Grande, Cordillera Quimsa Cruz. On August 9 and 10, Kevin Starr and I climbed the western face of Gigante Grande (5749 meters, 18,862 feet), bivouacking near the summit and finishing the climb in a total whiteout at midday during an unseas...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING UNROPED, EXCEEDING ABILITIES, FAILED TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONSColorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Longs PeakOn August 26 at noon, Spencer Hannah (32) and another teacher were leading a group of six juveniles and another teach...
Sierra National Forest, Balch Camp Flake, JCA’s Wide World Of Sport. Normally I wouldn’t bother to report such a short route, but the uniqueness of this climb makes it significant. Balch Camp Flake is a 240-foot freestanding flake above the road t...
P6352, Seta Glacier, 1988. On June 9, 1988, Mukul Mukhopadhay, Dilip Chakrabarty and I made the first ascent of P 6352 (20,840 feet) at the head of the Seta Glacier. We established Base Camp on Vasuki Tal in late May. Two camps were placed on the ...
The Fin, West Face. This strenuous class 4 and 5 rock climb was first done in July by Roy Harniss and Don Anderson. The ascent is fairly short but touchy.
Echo Tower. Fisher Towers. Nestled against the La Sal Mountains, not far from the Colorado River east of Moab, lies the pink and orange skyscraper city of the Fisher Towers, weird, bizarre shapes honed strangely by the desert wind. Fragile ridges ...
Jogin I and III. An Indian expedition led by Animesh Bose climbed both of these peaks. Base Camp was set up at Kedar Tal at 15,500 feet on May 26. On May 31, Guha Neogy, P. Roy, S. Seal, Nima Tashi with porters Chandra Bahadur and Dorje Sherpa rea...
Chopicalqui. Matej Megli climbed a line on the west face of Chopicalqui (6345 meters), reaching the south ridge at an altitude of 5800 meters. He did not continue to the summit. He encountered snow up to 65° to 75° on the 600-meter climb, which he...
Half-Dome, Northwest Face, Zenith. Zenith follows a line between Tis-sa-ack and Bushido. It joins Tis-sa-ask’s famous bolt ladder near the top. Jim Bridwell and I climbed the route in July. We watched two helicopter rescues and about fifteen ascen...
Gunsight (main summit), Southwest Arête. On August 2 Gary Brill, Carl Skoog and I made this climb. Crossing the Chickamin Glacier, we tackled the obvious face which lies below the buttress and makes up the lower third of the route. By ascending th...
El Capitan, Solo Ascent of the West Buttress. From April 21 to May 1, I made a solo ascent of El Capitan’s west buttress via the classic Kor-Roper route. The first five days were straightforward climbing through the lower face’s wet jam-cracks and...