Soul of the Heights—50 Years Going to the Mountains. Ed Cooper.Guilford, CT: Falcon Press, 2007.224 pages. $39.95.Ed Cooper’s Soul of the Heights is a beautiful collection of photographs and stories spanning his 50-year “vision quest” in the mount...
El Capitan, The Prophet. On October 27, Jason Pickles and I completed our nine-year quest to establish a new free route on El Cap. The Prophet (E9 7a, 5.13d R) is on the far right side of El Cap, home to many of Yosemite’s scariest and most tec...
AVALANCHE, POOR CONDITIONS, INEXPERIENCEUtah, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Stairs GulchOn April 28, Martin Gleich (38), a doctor from Salt Lake City and Scott Dull (39), also a doctor, from Eagle River, Alaska, were killed in Stairs Gulch, a tributary o...
South Howser Tower, Serge Overkill. In mid-August, Steve Su and I tried to make the most of a week off of work and a 10-day spell of perfect weather. After ticking off a couple of Bugaboo classics, we hiked over from the Apple- bee Campground to s...
THE vertical rock and steep ice of 21,658-foot Payu (less correctly written Paiju) was the target of the first all-Pakistani expedition, organized by the Alpine Club of Pakistan. The peak, which rises from just below the tongue of the Baltoro Glac...
Makalu Attempt. Accompanying us were Georges Narbaud and Erich Beaud. We established Base Camp on April 12 on the Chago Glacier at the foot of the west face of Makalu. Our route was to the Makalu La and up the northwest face, the normal route. Fro...
STRANDED–OFF ROUTE, WEATHER, INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT, EXCEEDING ABILITIESCalifornia, Tuolumne Meadows, Fairview DomeOn July 27, Randy Popkin (46) and his son, Cameron (16), climbed the Regular Route on Fairview Dome. They got to the base...
Mt. Trinidad, Eides of March, Ascent, and Exploration. Cochamo is part of the Chilean Lake District, or Northern Patagonia, and lies two hours inland from Puerto Montt in central Chile. The climbing area was first discovered by Crispin Waddy after...
CARBON MONOXIDE, FAILURE TO VENTILATE TENT, WEATHER, FATIGUE Alaska, Mount McKinleyA party of six climbers from Switzerland departed for their ascent of Mount McKinley on May 29,1986. Four members planned to climb the West Buttress while the other...
Lhotse South Face Attempt. An International expedition to the still unclimbed south face of Lhotse was led by Krzysztof Wielicki. The climbing team had eight Poles, two South Tiroleans, one Briton and two Mexicans, some of whom joined the expediti...
The West Face of Latok IIEl Cap on top of Denaliby Alexander and Thomas HuberAlexanderAugust 13, 1995: The four of us sit at 6600 meters on a tower on the northwest ridge of Latok 11. A difficult decision must he made. For three days, we have been...
Gronau Nunatakker Range, first ascents. On July 4 British climbers, Owain Jones, Euan Lawson, Stephen Phillips and John Starbuck, British/American, Will Cross, and myself flew from Reykjavik, Iceland to Constable Point, before continuing on to Gro...
Jindrich Mandat and I came to Tasermiut mainly to repeat existing routes. It was only after we had picked the areas most famous jewels that we began contemplating a moderate first ascent. We decided on the east-northeast face of Half Dome, which i...
RAY DAVID DYKEMAN1932-1996I first met Dave Dykeman after being invited to join a group of friends who were climbing Tehipite Dome in the High Sierra over the Fourth of July weekend of 1983. That was a very heavy snow year, and I was astounded by h...
STRANDED–BENIGHTED, EXPOSURE–INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT, WEATHER, LATE STARTCalifornia, Yosemite National Park, Royal ArchesMy son Sascha (21) and I (54) climbed the Royal Arches (5.7) route in Yosemite Valley on April 10. The weather forec...
Success on KangchenjungaEDITORIALTHE ascent of Kangchenjunga last year by the party led by Charles Evans deserves a good deal more acclaim than seems to have been accorded it. In several respects it was a greater mountaineering achievement than th...
Traverse along Alaskan-British Columbian Border from the Stikine to the Samotua. On May 7, fingers were crossed that Craig Hollinger and our ski-plane pilot, Ron Janzen of TelAir, would complete the food placements and meet Markus Kellerhals, Stev...
Mount Stuart, East Face. Even more jagged, glaciated and spectacular than the famous north face of Mount Stuart is the cirque of the Ice Cliff Glacier and its headwalls on the east and northeast face of the peak. The entire glacier has been climbe...
Northern Selkirks. The Harvard Mountaineering Club 1957 Camp was held during the first three weeks of August in the Edfalls, Adamant, and Sir Sandford groups in the northern Selkirks. Access was by way of Swan Creek. With the assistance of airdrop...
IN the decade since Al DeMaria’s pioneering visit to Alaska’s Cathedral Spires, the range has gained a reputation for towering granite peaks, claustrophobic glaciers, and abominable weather. Until 975, the relatively small number of people who d...