Colorado, Quandry Peak. On July 4, Charles Hardin (43) and his daughter Marilee (18) ascended Quandry Peak. They apparently were standing on the summit watching an approaching storm. Local persons noted severe lightning in the area on the afternoo...
STRANDED, EXCEEDING ABILITIESAlberta, Banff National Park, Mount Lefroy, Lemire RouteAfter 32 hours on this alpine grade IV, 5.7 route a party of two was reported overdue to Warden Service dispatch. They were located near the top of a rock buttres...
Blackburn and P 10,565. On May 3, Paul Claus flew a party from Anchorage Community College’s Alaska Wilderness Program to 7300 feet on the Nabesna Glacier below P 9111, north of Mount Blackburn (4995 meters, 16,390 feet). Led by Todd Miner and me,...
Gangapurna Tragedy. A six-man expedition from Meiji University in Japan was led by Yuichi Suzuki. They made Base Camp at 16,550 feet on September 13. They attempted the unclimbed northwest ridge, which had been unsuccessfully tried ten years befor...
Granite Park Spire, first ascent, White Peregrines. Em Holland and I were lured to Granite Park by Rick “The Chief” Poedtke’s tales of stellar climbing on an untouched high point of the Sierra Crest. Rick had climbed half the route the previous ye...
Bear’s Tooth, You Can’t Fly. A six-man Polish Alaska 2002 expedition operated as two independent teams. Two younger climbers repeated routes in the Ruth Gorge, while the four more experienced ones were interested in climbing a big new route on one...
Cordillera Apolobamba. A second Italian expedition was active in the little known Cordillera Apolobamba, which lies northeast of Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia. These members of the Milan section of the Italian Alpine Club were Carlo Frigi...
Ala Archa National Park Kyrgyzskiy Alatau Mountains, Various Ascents. At the end of August, Brady Van Matre and I traveled to Kyrgyzstan with the intention of climbing Khan Tengri in the Tien Shan mountains. We arrived in time to drink vodka with ...
Campanile Esloveno, Cerro Catedral, Southeast Face. In February Argentines Gabriel Ruiz and Sebastián de la Cruz climbed a new very difficult route on the 500-foot-high granite spire, Campanile Esloveno of the Cerro Catedral above Bariloche. Their...
Quimsa Cruz, Various Ascents. The 1998 Scottish Bolivian Expedition (Tony Barton, leader; Ken Marsden, Tom Wiggins, Tony Hill, Russel Weedon, Dougie Bayne and John Miller) touched down at El Alto on June 7. After ascents in the Condoriri group (Ta...
King’s Canyon, Buck Rock. Old bolts give evidence of people climbing at Buck Rock for years. Below the lookout, there are some short, very overhanging faces. These short routes are both classics. Mowin’ the Yawn (5.10a), a candidate for the steepe...
El Toro, Huevos a la Mexicana. Rudy Salinas and Emilio Plasencia (both Mexican) and I opened this route, on the northeast face of El Toro in Potrero Chico, in extreme heat in August. We used Sendero Luminoso ledges as our base camp and could only ...
In mid-September, three other guys and I flew to Georgetown, Guyana. None of us knew each other before leaving. It was for a TV show, and I was asked to join at the 11th hour as a climbing guide. The goal was to find a way through the jungle to a ...
STRANDED, OFF ROUTE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT–LEFT ROPES BEHINDCalifornia, Yosemite Valley National Park, Washington ColumnOn July 15, two climbers (22 and 20) were attempting to climb the Prow on Washington Column. They decided to retreat from the wa...
Memorials to Conrad Kain. On June 21st, 1936, a memorial tablet to this guide was unveiled at the foot of the Ochsenwand, Raxalpe, near Nasswald, Kain’s birthplace, under the auspices of Sektion Reichenau of the German-Austrian Alpine Club and the...
New Ascents in the Cascade Range. Early in the summer of 1955 two new climbs were undertaken in the Washington Pass area of the Methew Cascades. One, a new route of difficult standard, the southeast buttress of The Temple, on Kangaroo Ridge, was a...
A new route was done by Greg Thomsen and me on April 21, 1973. Awkward chimney pitches from the east gully lead to the uphill (north) notch. Starting slightly west is a textbook series of parallel cracks that lead to the summit in two pitches. The...
West Face of Kat Pinnacle. On April 2 Tom Frost and I forced a new route on Kat Pinnacle. This starts on the 110° north face and then follows hairline cracks on the west face to the summit. The entire climb was artificial and included a very diffi...
Broad Peak, Attempt and Tragedy. Eric Escoffier and Pascalle Bessieres (F) were last seen on the summit ridge of Broad Peak (8047m) on July 29 by Poitr Putzelnik and Ryszard Pawlowski, members of a Polish expedition. The two were climbing up to a ...
STRANDED, LATE START – BENIGHTED, INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT, WEATHERAlberta, Canadian Rockies, Mount NorquayOn October 24, two scramblers started up a difficult scramble on Mount Norquay in Banff National Park at 1300. They reached the rid...