The Czechoslovakian ExchangeMark WilfordBEING A SELF-CONFESSED sandstone and adrenaline addict, I’m continually looking for my next fix. Having such traits, a visit to the spawning grounds of my obsession would be quite a treat. That is, as long a...
The UIAA Climbing Classification SystemFritz WiessnerInterest and activity in all phases of mountaineering increased tremendously in nearly all countries following the last world war and in recent years the interchange of information and increasin...
Mixed MessagesIs hard M-sport-climbing influencing high-standard alpinism?Edited by David DornianIn 2002 the American Alpine Journal published a thought piece written by Raphael Slawinski. Raphael's thesis was that the enjoyable pastime created by...
Dark Summit: the True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season. Nick Heil. New York: Henry Holt, 2008. 271 pages. $26.00.High Crimes: the Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed.Michael Kodas. NY: Hyperion, 2008. 357pages. $24.95.The 2006 season th...
Suikarsuak Tower, South Greenland, 1977. The Suiksarsuak Tower is about 3300 feet tall with its principal weakness a 2000-foot dihedral on the northwest face. Our group on the first half of the expedition planned to attempt this, while a second on...
Kayak Ski Mountaineering in Glacier Bay. I left the Salmon River at Gustavus in a single kayak on May 12 with a full load of food, fuel, water, and ski mountaineering gear. My skis and ski poles were mounted on deck in a homemade waterproof bag. T...
Adjacent to Mt. Logan in the Yukon’s remote St. Elias Range, Mt. McArthur is to Logan as Mt. Hunter is to Denali: a beauty of a mountain dwarfed by the heaping mass of a neighbor and often overlooked as a result. McArthur sees what might, at best,...
Peaks above Knud Rasmussen Glacier, East Greenland. On July 10 Douglas C. Anderson, leader, William Jeffrey, Andrea Mountain, Dick Peart, Bob Dunken, Ian Carr, Noel Williams and I* flew to Kulusak. From there we traveled by boat to Angmagssalik to...
August in the ArrigetchDavid S. RobertsCLIMBING ARTICLES, obviously, should notbe written in the off-season. During the sedentary winters that most of us climbers lead, a fermentation sets in in the vats of our memories. Last summer’s expedition, ...
Postcards From The Trailer Park. Cameron Burns. New York: The Lyons Press. 2004. Paperback. 279 pages.When I received Cameron Burns’ book for review, I thought, “Piece of cake. It’s 30+ short articles/stories/vignettes/essays about climbing. I can...
STEPHEN H. HART1908-1993Stephen Harding Hart, who made several first Colorado ascents—Lone Eagle and Crestone Needle—in his teens and climbed many 14,000ers later with his teen-aged sons, died on November 7 in his sleep.Hart is known as one of two...
Clyde Minaret, South Face. In June, Chuck Wilts, John Evans, Dick Long and I made the first ascent of this exceptional route, by far the finest in the Minaret area. The face is over 1100 feet high and involves class 5 climbing on each of eleven 15...
Alaska, Mount McKinley—On May 14, at approximately 6:00 a.m., John Day (51), Peter Schoening (33), Jim Whittaker (31), and his brother Louis (31) arrived in Anchorage, intending to climb Mt. McKinley by the West Buttress Route, the standard route ...
Yerupajá, Traverse, Cordillera Huayhuash. Roger Bates, Peter Barry, Robin Brooks and his wife Judith, Graeme Dingle, Lloyd Gallagher, Allan Sheppard and I left Lima on May 13 by chartered bus for Chiquián. With pack animals we set out on the morni...
Aoraki Mt. Cook and Westland, summary. The Aoraki Mt. Cook region has been particularly quiet in terms of new route activity or ascents of harder routes, suggesting that there are less people heading into the mountains for hard climbing, or that t...
The Ridge of No Return is the southeast-trending ridge which descends from Point 15,000 on Mount McKinley’s South Buttress before ending on the west fork of the Ruth Glacier. It lies approximately one kilometer to the south-southwest of the Isis r...
Alaska, Mt. McKinley (3). On July 3rd John Hinde (34) and two others of the British Joint Service Expedition approached the summit of Mt. McKinley in the early morning. They were feeling the cold but not unduly and only a short distance remained, ...
Ausangate, Second Ascent of Northwest Ridge. On July 6 we placed Base Camp at the foot of Ausangate’s north face near Ausangate Chico to make the second ascent of the northwest ridge to the main peak of Ausangate. (First ascent by Germans in 1966;...
Cinajcira and P 5310, Cordillera Vilcanota. Andreas Anke, Peter Brunner and I climbed P 5310 (17,422 feet) on July 7 and Cinajara (5471 meters or 17,949 feet) via the southeast ridge on July 8. These peaks lie west of Laguna Jalljepuncu and north ...
FALLING ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn June 2,1981, around 7:30 a.m., SAR Ranger Bruce McKeeman was notified by dispatch that Dana Brown (23) was at the lodge and was reporting that someone was seriously hurt near the top...