Mazamas. The Mazamas of Portland, Oregon, spent their sixty-eighth year in further expansion of their mountaineering activity. In the regular, non-outing schedule the Climbing Committee planned 82 parties of climbers on 36 different peaks. Seventy...
Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island. The Alpine Club of Canada held its second Baffin Island expedition from July 5 to July 30 under the leadership of Pat Baird. Again our objective was the ice-capped peaks of the Cumberland Peninsula just north o...
Denali National Park and Preserve Mountaineering Summary, 1984. In 1984, the climbing season in Denali National Park and Preserve began on two notes of sorrow. At age 59, Frances Randall died from cancer. She was known to many as the “Kahiltna Que...
FALLING ROCK, NO HARD HATCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn May 22, 1981, Jean Ruwitch (25) and Tom Kimbrough (42) were climbing the East Buttress route on middle Cathedral Rock (Y.D.S. IV, 5.10). This route has ten pitches and normally takes less than...
Devil’s ThumbGeorge H. LoweABLUR—too much, too fast. We sat in the sunshine packing for our climb. The past week had seen almost 3000 miles of driving, a major Rockies climb on Mount Deltaform, a ferry ride, the packing and sorting of gear, an air...
LIGHTNING-POOR POSITION, FAILURE TO TURN BACK, INADEQUATE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENTCalifornia, Yosemite National Park, Cathedral PeakOn June 25, my brother Andrew Betts (24) and I, Brad Betts (28), along with our friend Richard Meade (26), set out to...
Nanda Devi, attempt from the north. The aim of our expedition was to make the first ascent of Nanda Devi’s north face as a two-man team, climbing alpine-style, and to descend down the south face to a pre-placed camp. To be fully acclimatized for t...
Killimanjaro, First Descent, and New Route. On February 10, we left the Impala Hotel for the Umbway route, a drive of a few hours. The Umbway route is known to the local porters and guides as the Whiskey route because it is steeper and more techni...
First Ascent of the Nisqually IcefallDee MolenaarAT NOON on 15 July 1948, Bob Craig and I stood on a small rockpile at 13,000 feet on Mount Rainier. We had spent the previous ten hours in the most intensive and exhausting ice work either of us had...
Yosemite Valley, 1984. Information about new Valley routes is not always that easy to come by, especially when one spends as little time there as I did in 1984. Most of this info was supplied to me by Don Reid of the Yosemite Mountaineering School...
Noshaq, Gumbaz-e-Safed, and Other Peaks. From August 1 to 22 our expedition of fourteen from Ljubljana climbed above the Qadzi Deh valley. Noshaq was climbed by the west ridge. We placed Base Camp at 14,950 feet on August 1. Camps I, II and III we...
Rondoy, Cordillera Huayhuash. Walter Bonatti led an expedition of the Monza section of the Club Alpino Italiano to the Cordillera Huayhuash. With him were Bruno Ferrario, Giancarlo Frigieri and Andrea Oggioni. (The latter died tragically on the Gr...
In October, when fall storms lashed the high peaks of Colorado’s Elk Range with almost daily fronts of freezing rain and snow, a thin ribbon of water ice breached the 800' lower granite buttress guarding the steep couloirs and rock bands of Capi...
Ericsson Crags, North Face. East of Mount Brewer the immensity of the surroundings almost renders dimensions immeasurable. So it is in much of the high Sierra. Packing in ropes and iron 19 miles is a proven way to get in shape for a good high-coun...
HEAT EXHAUSTIONNew York, ShawangunksA man (29) was leading the first pitch of Coexistence (5.10) on a hot summer day when he threw up and fainted. He was roped, and so was lowered to the ground, sprinkled, and sent to Coxing to soak. (Source: Brad...
Mt. Thor, Project Mayhem. On July 28 Jim Beyer soloed to the summit of Mt. Thor after completing what he calls “the hardest big wall route on the planet.” The route has five pitches of modern A5 and three pitches of A4+. By comparison, he says the...
Trips and Trails, Volumes 1 and 2, by E. M. Sterling. Seattle, Washington: The Mountaineers, 1967 and 1968, respectively. 221 and 217 pages, 126 and 137 photographs by Bob and Ira Spring, and 106 and 104 maps by Marge Mueller, respectively for eac...
Himalayan Assault, by the French Himalayan Expedition, 1936. Translated into English by Nea E. Morin. Introduction by Hon. C. G. Bruce. 8vo. ; xv + 203 pages, with 48 gravure plates and 3 maps. London: Methuen & Co., 1938. Price 15 s.An expedi...
In the spring, Simon Yates and I did what we thought was the first ascent of the massive Southwest Spur of the South Summit of Mt. Vancouver (Good Neighbor Peak, 15,700') on the Alaska-Yukon border. The line is clearly visible in a Bradford Washbu...
Spokane Mountaineers. Earlier success in 1960 prompted our return to the Tetons in 1965 for another summer outing. Fifty-eight people swarmed over standard routes and trails. The highlight of the outing was an ascent of Mount Moran by the C.M.C. r...