First Ascents, 1991-1993. Aside from some pleasant repeats with Chilean climbers, I made several first ascents in the upper Río Negro and Río Colorado basins in Central Chile. Isolated and with only medium-sized peaks, these areas seldom attract v...

Cordillera Blanca. Dr. Duane Ewers made two ascents in the Cordillera Blanca, the exact identification of which is not altogether certain. With François Mégard of the French Embassy in Lima, and the Peruvian porter, Eugenio Angeles, he climbed a p...

Phantom Pinnacle, Center. In early May 1965, after several futile starts, Joe Faint and I made a new route up the center of Phantom Pinnacle. We began from a large ledge at the bottom of the face. A short section of direct aid brought us to a thin...

Pacokeuta, South Face. It was reported that Marite Perez (Venezuela), Harold Shoemaker (Holland) and guide Juan Villarroel made the first ascent of a direct route on the South Face of Pacokeuta (5520 meters). The 350- meter route sported snow clim...

Elephants Perch, Southwest Face, Sawtooth Range. On August 9, 1977, Ried Dowdle and I completed a very fine route on the prow of the “perch”, where it turns from a south into a west face. The route follows the large corner system located on the pr...

Crazy Peak, North Face. On June 13, Paul Richer and I hiked into Big Timber Canyon to climb the north face of Crazy Peak. Access is through Half Moon campground (24 miles northeast of Big Timber). Two and a quarter miles of easy hiking brings one ...

Mesahchie Peak, Northwest Ridge. On June 18, 1978 my brother Gordon and I completed this 1400-foot rock climb. The approach route traversed the Mesahchie Glacier from the east; then made a rotten, exposed scramble to reach a prominent notch on the...

FALL ON ROCK, NUT FAILURE, NO HARD HAT California, Yosemite ValleyJohn Jinishran and Joe Bryant were climbing the North Buttress of Middle Cathedral on June 23 when Jinishran, who was leading, fell. He had just placed a nut and was testing it. It ...

Devils Tower. El Matador route on the west face was first climbed in September, 1967 by Eric Bjornstad and me; it ranged from one to three columns south of the McCarthy route. We followed a south-facing vertical dihedral for two serious pitches an...

Northwest Chugach. The northwest Chugach is separated from the main range by an 8950-foot untraversed pass between the Marcus Baker and Matanuska glaciers. This elliptical segment of mountains measures 50 miles east to west and 25 miles north to s...

Chacraraju, East Face, The Shriek of the Black Stone. 1999 was an El Niño year in Peru, and climbing conditions were very poor. Andrej Markovic and I were members of a Slovenian expedition. Our main goal was to open a new route on the east face of...

Eldorado Canyon. Left of C’est la Vie, Christian Griffith and Pat Ament climbed Pointe Sauvage (80 feet, 5.11a R), a vertical face protected by bolts drilled from stances. The climb joins C’est la Vie at the base of the corner. Starting off the lo...

Rocky Ak-Su, North Face, Various Ascents. Out of the six teams that entered the Technical Class of the Russian Mountaineering Championships, four decided to climb the north face of Rocky Ak-Su (5217m) in the Lailak region of the Pamir Alai. The ch...

Mount Sir James MacBrien, Logan Mountains. In July Jim McCarthy and I made the first ascent of the southeast arête of this mountain, highest in the entire region. We had hoped to make a multi-day route of the neighboring Lotus Flower Tower, but th...

Shisha Pangma, Second Ascent. An expedition of the German Alpine Club’s Mountain and Ski School was led by Dr. Manfred Abelein and Günter Sturm and further composed of Manfred Sturm, Fritz Zintl, Michael Dacher, Otto Wiedemann, Sigfried Hupfauer, ...

Kotur Glacier Region, Various Ascents. Guides Pat Littlejohn (U.K.), Alan Delizee (France) and Vladimir Komissarov (Kyrgyzstan), with Dr. Jane Whitmore, Alan Dunworth, Richard Smith, Ingrid Crossland, Christopher Clarke and Joanna da Silva, approa...

North Tower of Paine Attempt. In December, 1987, Matjaž Ravhekar, Ivan Rejc and I entered the Paine area, hoping to climb the northwest buttress of the North Tower. We got to Punta Arenas on December 10 and reached Base Camp on the 18th. The weath...

FALL ON ROCK, OFF ROUTENew Hampshire, Cannon MountainOn August 3, 1985, John Sidonis (?) took a 20 meter fall on the seventh pitch of Sam’s Swan Song. He sustained a broken shoulder, punctured lung, head injury, and numerous cuts and bruises. A te...

Upernivik Island, West Greenland. An expedition of the Club Alpino Italiano’s Ivrea section was led by Giuseppe Patrucco and composed of Sandro Beato, Piergiorgio Bosio, Gianbattista Campiglia, Franco Cena, Nello Delu and Renato Moro. From Søndre ...

Cho Oyu, Winter Ascent. A Polish-Canadian party led by Andrzej Zawada completed the first winter ascent of Cho Oyu (8201 meters, 26,906 feet). They climbed the southeast-face route. Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski climbed to the summit on Fe...