To Stand at the Pole—The Dr. Cook-Admiral Peary North Pole Controversy. William R. Hunt. Stein and Day, New York, 1981. 288 pages. 21 photographs. $19.95.To Stand at the Pole is an extremely interesting discussion of the Dr. Cook- Admiral Peary co...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING ALONE AND UNROPEDWyoming, Wind River Range, Mount BonnevilleOn September 6, Ken Koski (56) fell to his death while either ascending or descending the Southeast Ridge of Mount Bonneville. He was in 4th and 5th class terrain.A...
Aguja Val Biois, Mi Mundo de Contradicciones; Fitz Roy (3,405m), Pilar Goretta, Crux del Sur; Aguja de la Silla (2,938m), Destreza Criolla. Last season, after opening Al Abordaje!, a new route on the west face of Fitz Roy’s Goretta Pillar, I desce...
Ala Dag Mountains, Demirkazik, east face, Uc Muz. Parmakkaya, east face, Mezza Luna Nascente. Occasionally in jazz three people from different backgrounds join forces to form a trio, with the aim of playing just one type of music. In 2003 Rolando ...
Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Pagoda Peak. On 18 June Dave Whiteman and Steve Day started off from Black Lake at 0445 to climb the west ridge of Pagoda. They cramponed up the snow tongue to the Pagoda — Chiefshead col which they reached ...
FALL ON ROCK, IMPROPER RAPPEL ANCHOR REPLACEMENT, INEXPERIENCECalifornia, Yosemite Valley, Royal Arches—Devil’s BathtubOn October 16, 1991, James Murphy (25) fell over 100 feet when his rappel anchor came loose from the tree around which it had be...
Lobsang SpireDouglas Scott, Alpine Climbing GroupTHE PROBLEM with Himalayan holidays is that very little actual climbing takes place. We planned our 1983 expedition to the Karakoram hoping to remedy this state of affairs. In 1981 I booked K2 and B...
Summit: Vittorio Sella, Mountaineer and Photographer, The Years 1879-1909. Essays by Ansel Adams, David Brower, Greg Child, Paul Kalmes and Wendy Watson. Newark, NJ: Aperture, 1999. 125 duotone photographs. 129 pages. $50.00.Vittorio Sella’s eye, ...
FALLING ROCK - BLOCK CAME OFF, FALL ON ROCK – INADEQUATE PROTECTION, BAD LUCK/GOOD LUCKCalifornia, Yosemite Valley, EI CapitanOn August 24 in late afternoon, Kyung Bok Su (47) and three Korean partners finished pitch 19 of the Nose route (31 pitch...
Hoggar Mountains, general notes and new route activity. Algeria is comprised of two big mountain ranges: the Atlas chain in the north, and the Sahara in the south, including the Hoggar, which has a surface area similar to that of France. Due to th...
Activity in Yosemite Valley. On the free climbing scene, this year’s big news was the third free ascent, in July, of the Salathé Wall by Thomas Huber, accompanied by fellow German Anderl Heiss. Huber led all the cruxes, including the difficult 19t...
CONRAD KAIN1883-1934In the little village of Nasswald, Lower Austria, not far from Vienna, Conrad Kain was born on August 10th, 1883. His death occurred in hospital at Cranbrook, British Columbia, on February 2, 1934. These dates bound the life-sp...
EVELYN RUNNETTE1904-1984The first time I met Evelyn Runnette she was hanging upside down in a tree—caught by her skis—on Berthoud Pass, Colorado. Her deep love of mountains led her into many activities; she skied, she climbed, she trekked, she boa...
Picacho, in California about twenty miles north of Yuma, Arizona, offers an interesting rock climb. On December 1st, 1933, John Poindexter and Glen Dawson made a new route directly up from the “crevice” near the regular route. Nearby, there are se...
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Teton Range was a dynamic training ground for American alpinists. The creation of the Climbers Ranch pulled climbers out of the crowded tourist campgrounds and created a competitive scene similar to that foun...
La Strada e Questa, by Adolfo Balliano and Irene Affentranger. Bologna: Edizioni Alfa, 1957. 195 pages; 16 ills.; paperbound. Price 1300 lire (approx. $2.10).This series of fifteen essays is written from an unusual angle. It draws attention to the...
FALL ON ROCK, EQUIPMENT FAILURE DUE TO MIS-USEWest Virginia, New River Gorge, KaymoorOn June 12 Karen Feher (33) and her partner were climbing Rico Suave (5.10a). Upon reaching the anchor, she clipped in. Her setup: She had two thin dyneema slings...
Arwa SpireSpicy granite on pointed peaks—two amazing routes on the stunning north faces of Arwa Spire’s main and west peaks, in India’s Garhwal Himalaya.By Stephan HarveyThe graceful, sky-scraping granite monoliths known as Arwa Tower and Arwa Spi...
Farol East, solo first ascent; spire below K7 West, first ascent. Louis-Philippe Ménard and I had big plans for the Charakusa Valley, but LP was injured when we attempted the south buttress of Farol Central during acclimatization, and he had to de...
Spitsbergen. The two German climbers, R. Eidenschink and K. Schmitt, spent the months of July and August in Spitsbergen and are understood to have made some eleven new climbs.K. A. H.