Mooses Tooth. On April 27, members of the Mountaineering Club of Alaska climbed the steep German route of the Mooses Tooth to the western summit, taking 17 hours from the Ruth Gorge. The climbers were Julian Mason, Harry Johnson, Pete Panarese and...
Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Symmetry Spire. On June 10 Carlee Hendrix (26), Dale Swinney (31) and Ray Gump (35) had completed ascents of Ice and Storm Points and were glissading down the Symmetry Spire Couloir. Ray Gump had gone down about...
ALTITUDE SICKNESSAlaska, Mt. McKinleyKonrad Schumann (45), a member of the Stroebel Expedition from Germany, was evacuated from 12,800 feet on the West Buttress of Mt. McKinley on June 1, 1980.The group had initially planned a quick ascent of the ...
FALL ON ICE, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONBritish Columbia, Lillooet, Oregon JackOn January 7, H.C., S.P., and I headed into the hills south of Cache Creek for a day of ice climbing on “Oregon Jack.”The ice was in good shape, although quite “platey” on th...
After an injury in our party halted our attempt at the standard King Trench route on Mt. Logan, Morgan Lakey and I turned our frustrations to a pyramidal rock and snow peak five kilometers northwest of the standard Base Camp on the Quitino Sella G...
Dhaulgiri Tragedy. The recent Argentine expedition chose the still unclimbed Pear route, pioneered in 1954 and 1956 by Argentines. Mario Serrano organized the expedition well and it got to the base of the climb by early March. By the end of April,...
Squamish Chief, Grand Wall, First Free Ascent. On July 18 at 7 a.m., Annie Overlin and I embarked on what would become a historical day. Our plan was to make the first free ascent of the Grand Wall. I planned on red-pointing every pitch, and Annie...
Cerro Castillo, Southeast Face, North of the Southern Continental Icecap, 1982. Yugoslavs Tone Golnar and Ljubo Hansel, New Zealander David Waugh and Korean Chil Kyou Son teamed together to make the first ascent of the southeast face of Cerro Cast...
Ruth Gorge, Mt. Dickey, Blood from the Stone. In March, Sean Easton (Canada) and Ueli Steck (Switzerland) established a remarkable mixed route on the 5,000' east face of Mt. Dickey. The route, which they named Blood from the Stone, includes diffic...
C.l.S. Competitions, 1996. Russia is the only country in the world where mountaineers who make ascents in various mountains then send in their accounts to an arbitration board appointed annually by the Russian Mountaineering Federation to contend ...
Cerro Torre, Winter Ascent. On June 30 there was almost one meter of snow at Base Camp, but luckily Maurizio Giarolli, Andrea Sarchi, Paolo Caruso and I had skis. In about nine hours we reached the col on the southeast spur of Cerro Torre on the M...
Coast Mountains, remote areas summary. 2004 was an astonishing year in the Coast Mountains, especially the Waddington Range. The new Waddington Guide was felt dramatically, with perhaps triple the usual number of climbers entering the range. Moreo...
Yalung Kang Attempt. I had originally hoped to climb Yalung Kang by the normal southeast-face route with a small alpine-style team. When the members of my original team could not come and I could find no others, I decided to attempt it alone with ...
FALL ON ROCK, FALLING ROCKColorado, Mount AeolusOn July 6, 1984, Joseph Stolla (37), an experienced climber and an attorney from Englewood, Colorado, fell to his death from Mount Aeolus when a large block of rock broke off. A month later, a hiker ...
Cerro Selk’nam, First Ascent. On October 4, I made the first ascent of a peak near Bahia Pary, naming it Cerro Selk’nam after the historical indigenous people of the area. On September 25, I was dropped off and made Base Camp at Bahia Pary. After ...
Mount Williamson, Direct South Arête. The south face of Mount Williamson is a complex wall of chutes, ribs and faces. The easiest approach to the face is via George Creek. However, this is closed for ten months of the year as a bighorn sheep prese...
Nevado Ulta, Andinista-Rifnik, to summit ridge. On July 18, after two failed attempts in 2006 and 2007, Slovenian Viktor Mlinar and I made the first ascent of Nevado Ulta’s south face. The whole climb took four days from Huaraz. The first day, aft...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT–SANDALS, OFF ROUTE, NO HARD HATColorado, Boulder Canyon, Near Security Risk CragOn April 2, a 31-year-old male was attempting to set up a top-rope system when he suffered a fatal fall from a rock outcropping near...
El Gigante, Logical Progression. Over a seven-and-a-half-week period in spring Peter Baumeister (Germany), Luke Laeser (U.S.), and Bert van Lint (Belgium) established an entirely bolt-protected 28-pitch route on El Gigante's northwest face. All of...
Washington, Mt. Baker. On 25 May John Dallmeyer (27), Mario Strim (30), Margaret Secrett (28), and Judy Small (26), had been siding on Mt. Baker and decided to climb to the summit. The party was last seen on the summit of Mt. Baker in a rising sto...