Tengi Ragi Tau East, first ascent of peak via south pillar. In autumn 2004 a team of young French alpinists attempted to climb a new route on the northeast face of Tengkangpoche. They were unable to achieve this, due to high objective and avalanch...
Yerupajá. We had hoped to climb Siulá by its west face, but because there was so little snow in the last years, because of March floods and the June earthquake, the approaches were not practicable. We therefore turned to the mountain that blocked ...
The West Buttress of Lobuje EastEric BrandANEARTH-SHAKING CRACK told me I was in trouble. Giant slabs of snow swirled around me as my world fell into chaos. Slow motion became fast forward, which became slow motion again as I began to fall. With f...
Torre Central, Bonington-Whillans. After being in the park for four days, on February 10 Dave Nettle and I decided to hike to the base of the gully leading to the col between the North and Central Towers. The snow from previous days had given us c...
Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, 1947. During the first two weeks of July 1947, six members of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club packed into the Wind River Range for an attempt on Gannett Peak. Unusually deep snow on the Dinwoody and Gannett Glacier...
Craig Luebben 1960–2009News of Craig Luebben’s death while preparing for an AMGA guides exam in the North Cascades on August 9 was a devastating blow to his vast network of friends and the climbing community. But his legacy and dedication to educa...
Mt. Hooker, Northwest Passage. In mid-September, Ryan Hokanson and I hired two horses to pack our luggage up to Hailey Pass. Our objective was the north face of Mount Hooker, a 2,000-foot vertical expanse of beautiful orange granodiorite. After es...
The Front Lines of Climate ChangeMountaineers are the world’s witnesses to glacial decline.Joe StockThirty miles into the Neacolas, clouds spread over the Blockade Glacier and reduced our visibility to zero. We groped along in the murk, making slo...
The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier. Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan. Ballantine Books, 2011. 268 pages. Hardcover. $26.00.On June 21, 1992, Jim Davidson and his friend and climbing partner Mike Price summited ...
The Mt. Logan AdventureAllen CarpeTHE ascent of Mt. Logan in 1925 was perhaps the most arduous feat of mountaineering ever undertaken in North America. In saying this I am not unmindful of the series of efforts, spread over six years, that carried...
On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined.David Roberts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. 415 pages. Hardcover. $26.00.My introduction to the writing of David Roberts was by way of his novella, “Like Water and Like Wind,...
Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rock Climber. Steve Roper. The Mountaineers, Seattle, Washington, 1994. 255 pages, black-and-white photos. $24.95.Read this book. It’s funny. Touching. Revealing. Named after the famous Yosemite Valley campgroun...
The Fairweather ClimbWilliam S. LaddTHE story of the expedition which made the first ascent of Mt. Fairweather in the spring of 1931 has been ably told by others of our party.1 It is not the intention to here repeat the story, but instead to give ...
FALL ON ICE, NO PROTECTION OR BELAYWashington, Mount Rainier, Cowlitz CleaverWhile searching for missing climbers Chris Hartonas and Raymond Vakili on November 15, three rescuers sustained serious injuries after falling off the Gibraltar Ledges ro...
The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father. John Harlin III. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. 283 pages. $26.00.For more than 20 years I’ve known John Harlin III, not really well, but not simply casually either. During all...
K2, South-Southeast Spur, First Chilean Ascent. We departed for Pakistan on May 24, after more than one year of programming and intensive physical training. We arrived at Base Camp on June 11, after a few days in the capital of the country, Islama...
STRANDED, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, DARKNESS, INEXPERIENCEOregon, Columbia River GorgeAt noon on April 19, 1982, Brad Philips (18) and Justin Cramer (17) began their attempt of Beacon Rock. They had been rained out on Saturday and Sunday.Using a 30-me...
FALL ON FROZEN SCREE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT AND CLOTHING, INEXPERIENCEOregon, Three Sisters Wilderness, Middle SisterOn September 29, Pete Acker (39) and Jeff Soulia (22) were descending a steep snow and scree slope north west off the 10,040 foot s...
Roaming the ChuskaCameron M. BurnsMknees knocked TOGETHER. I gazed up at the tattered and torn rope. It had dangled in the elements for a whopping twelve months. My knees knocked louder as I eyed one particular section of the used rope—its sheath ...
San Lorenzo Attempt from Chile. John Hauf, Tom Walter and I went in from the Chilean side, an interesting and varied six-day trip: by bus from Puerto Montt to Quellón, ferry to Puerto Chacabuco, bus to Coihaique, plane to Cochrane, horses to Arroy...