A large boulder at the base of the route Hawks Nest creates a deep gap. On September 20, a climber fell, struck his head on the boulder (blue oval), and had a seizure. In order to protect him from further striking his head within the confines of...
At approximately 7:50 a.m. on December 22, the Transylvania County Rescue Squad was dispatched to the Sun Wall area of Looking Glass Rock to search for a pair of overdue male climbers who had spent an unplanned night on the wall. The pair had last...
Looking Glass Rock offers sweeping multi-pitch slabs to classic cracks on its flanks, making it a prime Southeast climbing destination. Photo: daveynin On March 29, Lauren Hierholzer and Kelli Talley (both AMGA-certified Single Pitch Instruc...
While bland in appearance and modest in elevation compared to Western ranges, the Black Mountains are complex and rugged, and conditions can become intensely cold. Photo: Kolin Toney On August 24 at 6:03 p.m., Yancey County Emergency Services...
Dan Cassidy on Grease Gun Direct (5.10). The Gunks PSAR program is his four-year brainchild and passion project. Photo: Chris Vultaggio I write this on the cusp of the 2026 climbing season in the Shawangunks. It’s spring—Gunks climbers are pu...
On August 23, my rangers responded to a climber assist on Betty (2 pitches, 5.3). A father and his teenage daughter (approximately 16) had completed the route with the daughter leading. She was a more experienced climber than her father. After to...
On August 28 at 1:20 p.m., an individual called the Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center reporting that a 63-year-old male and self-described experienced climber had fallen from the upper section of Horseman (120’, 5.5). Approximately 20 feet from the t...
Mohonk Rangers responded to 20 climbing-related accidents during the 2025 season. These included five bouldering accidents, eight trad leader falls, one top-rope injury, a climbing bystander injury, three rappel/lowering accidents, and one instanc...
The Whitney Crest is the home of the highest peak in the Lower-48: Mt. Whitney (14, 505 feet). As such, it is the scene of many accidents, including a disturbing number of fatalities. Photo: Brandon Riza Mt. Whitney is unique in many respects...
A shared lexicon like ANCHORs can help all climbers to recognize and discuss patterns that can lead to climbing accidents. Photo: Bryan Miller THE ANCHORS FRAMEWORK Most climbing accidents are not random. In ANAC 2025, I reported grounded th...
Base camp near the junction of the Baltar and Toltar glaciers, with Aikache Chhok most prominent in back. The 2026 route up the northwest face climbed along the sharp ridge angling up from right to left. Photo by George Ponsonby The expeditio...
On March 29, Climber 1 (46, male) was finishing a long day of climbing. He wanted to onsight Spring Chicken (5.12a) as the last climb of the day. Climber 1 encountered a chossy section halfway up. Though he took precautions by tapping on blocks to...
On May 28, at the popular Rumney area, a climber fell and struck the ground following a misconfiguration of his lowering system. Photo: Anonymous On May 28, a climber (male, one year of experience) led the sport route Three Easy Pieces (5.11a...
On July 2, a climber (red circle) was free soloing the classic Northeast Ridge of Pinnacle Buttress (900’, 5.7) in Huntington Ravine. Toward the end of the technical climbing, he fell. Fortunately, his fall was witnessed and rescue was available...
Colin Haley finishing the first pitch above the Headwall on Cerro Torre’s Ragni Route, with Cerro Chaltén in back. Photographer Ty Lekki captured images of Haley’s solo ascent with a drone operated from near the base of the peak. Photo by Ty Lek...
The Black Dike is one of New England’s classic winter routes. The deep gully funnels snow from above, making the approach and base among the more consequential avalanche terrain in the Northeast. Photo: Kris Gorny On the morning of February 1...
The Reepschnur technique allows the climber to rappel using a single-rope-device like the Grigri. It provides a retrievable full-length rappel on a single rope when combined with a light tag line. This technique was involved in a fatal accident ...
On November 9, my partner and I (Declan West, 22) started hiking from the Middle Oak Creek trailhead at 5 a.m., and reached the base of Solar Slab Gully (500’, 5.3) at 6:15 a.m. We racked up and started climbing the gully at 6:20 a.m. to access So...
The morning after an adventurous day of climbing, a team at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area discovered that their brand-new rope had been skinned in an 80- to 100-foot nighttime leader fall. Photo: Opal On December 28, my partner M...
Harrison Ogle above the crux of Fibrulator Direct (5.11d); he has just clipped his last placement before he took a ground fall. Photo: Lazlo Reed I had spent two sessions on Fibrulator Direct (5.11d) at the Indian Creek Crag with my climbing ...