In early July, Chris Trimble and I had the brilliant idea of climbing the prominent north ridge of Hayden Spire’s East Pinnacle, which looks great from high on Trail Ridge Road—except that it’s a long way away. We convinced ourselves it wo...
Mt. Qungmomanze, First Ascent. It was reported that a Sino-South Korean team made the first ascent of Mt. Qungmomanze (23,123’) in Tibet. Eight members of the joint expedition left Camp 3 at 10:40 a.m. on October 7; they were joined at 2:20 p.m. b...
Cerro Astillado. Armando Aste, Mariano Marisa, Fabrizio Defrancesco and I moved into the mountains of the Hielo Continental from Lago San Martín. On January 17 we began to reconnoiter the north side of Cerro Astillado, but the rock was rotten. On ...
Ganesh Himal IV (Pabil). Our members were Stanley Kent, Dr. Lawrence Dunn, Gordon Seibel and me. Our approach took eight days through an area new to Americans. We had planned to take twelve days on the approach, as had the Koreans and Japanese bef...
Walther Penck, Ojos del Salado Region. Walther Penck, near Ojos del Salado, is one of the world’s highest volcanoes. In February, a group led by Jaime Surez climbed a sub-summit: Volcan de los Arianos (6562m). This was perhaps the first ascent of ...
VARIOUS FALLS, OVERDUE, LOST, AND TWO MEDICAL EMERGENCIESCalifornia, Mount ShastaWith above normal snowpack, climbing conditions remained fairly good through most of the season (May-September). This was the third year with no fatalities and decrea...
Puscanturpa Chiquita, Burro Loco. From July 10-13 Patrik Barjak and I climbed a new route on the north face of a small virgin tower in the Puscanturpa Sur massif. We called the route Burro Loco (Crazy Donkey) and the 5,066m tower Puscanturpa Chiqu...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION California, Yosemite ValleyOn May 5,1986, Yasuhiro Fujira (21) from Kyoto, Japan, fell to his death from the belay ledge of a climb called “Catchy” on Cookie Cliff. He had completed the climb, as had his partner...
Manaslu Attempt. Only the Poles Krzysztof Pankiewicz and Ludwik Wilczynski did any serious climbing. The expedition leader was the Pole Wojciech Szymanski and there were also two Czechoslovaks and a German doctor. The Polish climbers first made ac...
Washington State: (1) Cascades , Mt. St. Helens. On 21 May 1950 two parties, one of ski mountaineers and the other of Ski Patrol members, were descending the mountain, the first party roped, the second, not. One member of the latter party, Joseph ...
Cordilleras Quimsa Cruz and Santa Vera Cruz. During a six-week stay in the area of La Paz, I made three solo trips into these seldom visited ranges. From the Mina Bajaderías, above Pongo, I reached the Coricampana Glacier and the northeast side of...
Punta Italia, Direct West Face. This fine mountain had its first ascent in 1934 by Italians Gervasutti and Binaghi. Some routes were established on the 4,863m peak since then, the last being completed on December 21 by Chileans Andrea Garrido, Val...
One-Day Winter Climbs in the Tetons. The trend, started in recent years, to ascend and descend a major Teton summit in winter during the course of a single day has been extended. On February 19, 1973, a one- day, Beaver Creek to Beaver Creek, asce...
Other Canyonlands Climbs. Jimmy Dunn and Keith Reynolds added a new route to Predator Tower on October 31. The appropriately named Rain of Dust (5.11/5.11+) takes a line on the north side of the tower, traverses continually right and eventually jo...
Traverse of the peaks at the head of Open Canyon. On July 12, Dave Dornan, Mark Melton, Mona Monahan, and Leigh Ortenburger climbed all five peaks at the head of Open Canyon and found two that apparently had not been previously ascended (at least ...
FALL ON ROCK, PROTECTION PULLED OUT, INEXPERIENCEAlberta, Rocky Mountains, Cascade MountainIn July, 1990, a climber (19) fell while leading on cliffs just left of the Cascade waterfall. His first protection, a Friend, pulled out. The next one, a c...
Latok II Attempt. Because of very bad snow conditions when, seven days after leaving Dassu, Paul de Mengel, Dr. John Hancock, Brian Mullen and I as leader reached the Uzzam Brakk Glacier, the porters were unable to reach our intended Base Camp. We...
Cho Oyu Attempts. Seven Swiss climbers led by Karl Kobler failed to climb Cho Oyu. They got to 6200 meters on the southwest ridge on April 28. Seven Koreans led by Chi Yoon-Soo reached 6600 meters on the same ridge on May 9 but could not complete ...
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Western peaks. Ours was the third University of Vermont climbing and spider-collecting expedition to this range. Since Arhuaco Indians had apparently sealed off the sierra to all outsiders, we chose this time the weste...
Change in peak and trekking fees. It is with great relief and pleasure that I announce the formal acceptance by the government of our longstanding demand to waive mountain royalties on all peaks up to 6,500m. Thus anything below 6,500m will be con...