Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu. Both peaks were climbed by the standard routes, by which the first ascents had been made. Shisha Pangma was climbed in classic style from Base Camp at 5100 meters but without high-altitude porters. Camps were at 5700, 63...
INVOLUNTARY GLISSADE—Vermont, Smuggler’s Notch. At 2:30 p.m. on 4 January 1974, Tom McCrumm (28), Allen Gaines (34), and Harvey Goldstein (26) hiked into Smuggler’s Notch to find an ice gulley to climb. Only a short distance from where we left my ...
FALL ON SNOW, ASCENDING TOO FAST, HAPE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, PLACED NO PROTECTION, DESCENDING UNROPED Alaska, Mount McKinleyOn May 14 Charles Cearley (40) and the Edwards brothers flew into Kahiltna base camp. Their climbing itinerary was first t...
The Naked Mountain, by Elizabeth Knowlton. vii + 355 pages, 34 illustrations, diagrams and index. New York and London. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933. Price $5.00.This book, devoted to the assault on Nanga Parbat (26,620 ft.) by the German-American exp...
The Hall of the Mountain King, by Howard H. Snyder. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973. 207 pages, 35 photographs. Price: $8.95.Mount McKinley was first climbed in 1913. From that time until 1967, four people died while climbing the mountain....
“Someday you will be perfect,” said the charming shopkeeper in Lhasa, through a teasing smile. She gently touched my badly sunburned nose with her finger and consoled me. Someday I will be perfect…maybe. I giggled the whole day.Ten years earlier. ...
Hunter’s North Buttress DirectMugs StumpABSORBFD in my thoughts, I listlessly watched the craggy peaks go by as Doug Geeting instinctively maneuvered the plane through the passes to the Kahiltna Glacier. I don’t even remember whether the other two...
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, 1986 was a big year for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s Mountaineering Section. At the beginning of the year we set out to accomplish a few things: increase membership, establish new trip leader and safety guid...
Absolute Zero on Longs PeakMark WilfordIN MARCH OF 1980, inspired by who knows what Bonatti, Messner or Kor epic, I set out for the 2000-foot east face of Longs Peak alone. The mountain wasn’t impressed with my dreams of grandeur. After 600 feet o...
Mt. Edgar, tragedy. In late May Colorado residents Jonny Copp, Micah Dash, and Wade Johnson lost their lives in an avalanche below the southeast face of Mt. Edgar (E Gongga, 6,618m). The face was a much talked about objective, which has received w...
Gepang Goh, Southeast Flanks. It was reported that an Indian Army team climbed a new route on Gepang Goh in July, 1997, via its southeast flanks. They gave the peak an altitude of 6088 meters; in the past, it has been given 5870 meters. (High Moun...
Sarapo, West Face. An Italian expedition led by Rodolfo Sinuello was composed of 13 climbers, a doctor and nine trekkers. The expedition climbed the west face of Sarapo, apparently to the right of the one pioneered by French in 1980. (See above.) ...
Wind River Peak, Tempest Tower, Second Ascent. It appears that Matt Flicek and I unknowingly managed to do a second “first ascent” of the Wind River’s Tempest Tower route in August. We set out on the ten-mile approach to the Deep Creek Lakes cirqu...
Tranquility Dome, Sierra National Forest. In August Mark Blanchard, Fremont Bainbridge and I climbed a six-pitch route on the central face of Tranquility Dome between Visions (A.A.J., 1977) and Blind Ambition (A.A.J., 1979). We named the route “Su...
Oregon, Mt. Hood. On August 28, Dean Smith (19) left Tiberline Lodge at 10:30 a.m. and arrived on the summit via the South Side Route. He crossed the big crevasse in the Chute on the left side apparently near the rock wall. Because of the icy cond...
FALL ON ROCK, PLACED NO PROTECTIONCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn April 8, 1980, Bunny Phillips (29) fell from the second pitch of Split Pinnacle. He fell a distance of 100 feet to a point below the belay ledge. His rope did not catch the fall, acco...
Yangmolong (6,066m), Dangchezhengla (5,830m), historical notes. Yangmolong is the highest of a small group of snow peaks in the middle of the Shaluli Shan, north of the Genyen massif and immediately east of Batang on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway. Thr...
Haydon Peak Correction. On page 183 of A.A.J., 1985 Roach stated that he believed Barbara Stitt to have been the first woman to have climbed Haydon Peak. Actually, Betty Kauffman was the first, having made the ascent in 1946, when she also climbed...
Elephant Rock, Sixes Mountains, Southern Oregon Coast Range. On July 4, Wayne Wallace, Tim Olson and I climbed five pitches up the Elephant’s Trunk (as seen from the northwest) with a sixth pitch on the summit block, an incredible andesite plug. L...
Polemonium Pillar. Approaching Mt. Russell from the Whitney-Russell col, while dropping down toward Russell’s towering west face, the climber is stunned by the beautiful cracks, corners, and aretes that make up the south and west sides of the moun...