Notwithstanding feeble protests by a few climbers, mostly of the past generation, hammers, pitons and safety snaps have definitely entered into modern climbing technique. More recently they have been used on ice with excellent results. The notes t...
Cascade Pinnacles. These three easy pinnacles lie directly west of the Ice Point-Symmetry Spire saddle and are at about the same altitude. They were climbed July 22, 1957 by Fred Ayres and Ellis Blade in an attempt to find the difficult and elusiv...
Peru: Cerro Yerupajá (21,769 ft.). From an expedition of six members, ages 24 to 31, James Maxwell and David Harrah left high camp at 20,500 feet about 10 A.M. 31 July 1950 in a try for the summit. Late in the afternoon they reached the final 300 ...
Like so many good missions in Patagonia, it started with the painful task of changing our plane tickets. A possible good weather window was coming, so it was go-big-or-go- home time. A day and a thousand bucks later we were committed to trying a...
FALLING ROCK, FALL ON ROCK, SEVERED ROPE California, Yosemite ValleyOn May 20, 1988, around 1230, Robert Dietmar Kuhn (24) of West Germany was leading the Pancake Flake pitch just above the Great Roof on the Nose Route of El Capitan. He was being ...
FALLING ROCK–PULLED LOOSE BY CLIMBING ROPESColorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Lumpy RidgeOn August 8, two climbers were descending from a completed climb of Batman Pinnacle. The climbers were rappelling down a loose, talus-filled gully when t...
The Arwa TowerAn old-fashioned adventureby Mick Fowler, United Kingdom“Probably never photographed before,” the caption said. I peered closely at the photograph again. It showed a wild, ice-streaked, rocky spire that was beginning to give me quite...
They came to the Hills, by Claire Eliane Engel. 8 vo., 273 pages, with bibliography and index and 17 illustrations. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1952.This is a group of seventeen short biographies, set down in “an attempt to outline the ...
Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Table Mountain. On 9 August Peter Wollen and Morgan Broman (18) set out from the upper south fork of Cascade Canyon to climb Table Mountain. Since the hike up to the bottom of the climb is nine miles (from Jenn ...
Mount Stalin, Northern Rockies. The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) Canadian Rocky Mountains Expedition spent over six weeks in the mountains around Wokkpash Lake, which is 25 miles south of Mile 403 on the Alaska Highway. The range was ...
The First Ascent of ChorichoGeoffrey ChildsA COCK was pecking wood. There was laughter, arguing and the trot of sheep heading out of the village to graze on empty fields. Old men approached tapping the ground with their walking sticks, small cloud...
FALL ON SNOW, INEXPERIENCEAlaska, Eklutna GlacierOn July 13, five climbers were injured, one critically, in a 60 meter fall on Eklutna Glacier. The climbers, part of an 18-member international expedition, tumbled down the glacier on Saturday after...
Everest’s Northeast RidgeChristian BoningtonTHE EXPEDITION was one of the most arduous any of us had ever been on. Our small team was tackling the long, unclimbed northeast ridge of Everest without oxygen and with its main difficulties situated ne...
Khan Tengri, North Face, New Route. There are 12 existing routes on Khan Tengri (7010m) that lead to the summit from the North Inylchek Glacier. Nine of these routes are on the north face. The giant buttress on the left is, between 6300 and 6400 m...
On April 13, Steve (45), Will (23), and Brent (22) set out to climb the classic Lost Arrow Spire (two pitches, 5.8/5.10 A2). Steve had climbed at least 15 big walls in the park over 30 years, as well as five previous trips up the Spire. Will an...
1980. Makalu West PillarDan MazurOn May 15, at 3:45 p.m., a small bold team from Spokane, Washington completed the first American ascent of Makalu and the first lightweight ascent of its difficult west pillar. This was a seminal moment in Himalaya...
An Early American Attempt on Mont Blanc(Dr. Grant—1839)The first American ascent of Mont Blanc was made by Drs. Howard and Van Rensselaer in 1819. The second American ascent, by Dr. I. T. Talbot, was not accomplished until 1854. In the interval, h...
Everest Northeast Ridge Attempt. Our expedition arrived at Base Camp at 5000 meters on September 3. We were British climbers Doug Scott and Rick Allen, co-leaders, Nick Kekus, Michael Scott, and I, Austrian Robert Schauer, American Steve Sustad an...
On May 12, during a Mountain Trip expedition led by guide Dave Staehli (56), Jeremiah O’Sullivan (40) suffered a fall while descending Pig Hill at approximately the 19,700-foot level, below the summit of Denali. During the fall, he broke his leg...
The Crystal SnakeOverlooking the Everest circus and yet a world away, a rivulet of water ice plunges down the huge north face of Nuptse, Nepal.Willie BenegasOne phone call changed our lives. It came from a guiding company in January 2003, with an ...