Cerro Chepical, first ascent and Cerro Fandango, ascent. In February 2005 Antonio Pontoriero and I erected a camp on the southwest shores of the salty Laguna Brava (Fierce Lagoon). Nearby were Inca ruins, the Inca Trail, and a wrecked airplane tha...
Mt. Louis. Essentially the route up Mt. Louis that I did in 1952 with Walter Perren, the Zermatt guide then with the CPR in Lake Louise, was identical with the standard one to the base of the final tower. There it diverges to the right (direction ...
Watchman, West Face, Zion National Park. In May 1973 Mike Weis and I climbed the west face of the Watchman via a direct route below the summit. The 13 pitches were all free save for a pendulum on the twelfth. On the first lead we passed a rappel n...
“Wallace Stegner Spire.” In the summer of 1992, Peter Cummings and I explored the granite towers and drainages to the south of Hamilton Lake in Kings Canyon National Park. The most spectacular tower in the region, however, was marked by a smooth a...
Peaks 6222m and 6140m, Ascents. A 12-member Japanese expedition led by Takako Kato climbed two unnamed peaks of 6222 and 6140 meters in July-August. Peak 6140m was climbed on August 5 via its north face by seven members. Peak 6222m was climbed by ...
Pumori Tragedy. Our 7-member expedition established Base Camp on September 16 at the foot of the southeast ridge of Pumori. From the 17th until October 3, we worked at placing camps on the mountain, having many difficulties because of the weather....
Gran Trono Blanco. The Libro Abierto route on the north face follows a continuous right-facing dihedral for six pitches. There was a little aid on the first three pitches, but these went largely free. The steep route is delightful, mostly cracks a...
During April, while Graham Dudley was making a ski ascent of Kazbek (Kasbegi, or more properly Mkinvartsveri, 5,034m) in the Eastern Caucasus, he noticed an attractive range of lightly glaciated peaks ca 30km to the southeast and was determined to...
KIM MOMB1956-1986Kim was with me in thought the day before his tragic avalanche accident. The air temperature and continuous drizzle was such that it made me think of avalanche. I dismissed the thought easily knowing that the man I had climbed wit...
Djungart Range, first recorded visit and exploration. After an acclimatization ascent in the Ala Archa, Graham Sutton and I traveled from Bishkek via Karakol to At Jailoo (2,655m). From there we were able to make a 25-minute flight by helicopter t...
Kanchenjunga Attempt. Jean Troillet and I set out to climb the world’s third highest peak by the southwest ridge to the south summit and then to traverse northwards on the long, high ridge to the main summit. We arrived at Base Camp at 5350 meters...
Feather Peak, Feather Peak Couloir. In December Mike Grabor and I climbed the left-hand branch of the couloir on Feather Peak’s north face via six pitches of moderate, enjoyable ice climbing. Although the angle never exceeded 60°, the beautiful se...
Mount Bona. On April 18, Gavin Vaughn and I (George Pinney) were flown into the St. Elias by Paul Claus. We landed on a fork of the Russell Glacier directly below the north face of Mount Bona. We skied to 8,000 feet on the glacier and established ...
Everest Attempt. After their successful ascent of Dhaulagiri, on May 30 Oreste Forno, Graziano Bianchi, Fausto Destefani, Sergio Martini, Silvio Mondinelli and Claudio Schranz on May 30 left Kathmandu by bus for Kodari and traveled from there by j...
Jannu. A strong French party, led by Jean Franco and composed of Lionel Terray, Jean Bouvier, Pierre Leroux, Maurice Lenoir, Robert Para-got, Guido Magnone, René Desmaison, P. Dreux, J.-M. Freulon and Dr. J. Lartizien, failed to climb Jannu (25,29...
Mount Hunter, 1977. A Japanese expedition led by Itaru Inui and composed of H. Kamuro, K. Tsutagawa, H. Kudo, M. Tanaka and S. Mori landed on the Tokositna Glacier on June 14, 1977 below the northeast face. They placed a camp at 11,500 feet on the...
California, Yosemite (3)—On August 29, 1956 Ronald W. Beck (19), fell about 150 feet and was killed while attempting to climb Grizzly Peak near LeConte Gully, off from the Sierra Point trail. He had removed his shoes and tried to cross a smooth se...
FATIGUE, FROSTBITE, INEXPERIENCE—Alaska, Mt. McKinley. Robert Larsen (44), Merilyn Swanson (47), and Kevin Duffy (25) were clients of a guided expedition to Mount McKinley. On May 10 the group was at 17,000 on the West Buttress. They got an early ...
FALL ON ROCK, ROPE SEVERED, CARABINER BROKE California, Yosemite Valley, El CapitanOn April 1, Matt Baxter (26), an experienced big-wall climber, set out alone to fix the first few pitches of Zenyatta Mondatta, a difficult multi-day aid route on E...
Peaks Above Ruth Glacier, Alaska Range. We Swiss, Heinz Aleman and I, were in the Ruth Glacier region from July 21 to August 5. On July 21, shortly after midnight, we reached the summit of P 11,300, which is 2½ miles north of Huntington across the...