Southern Continental Icecap, exploration and ascents. Chilean climber Camilo Rada, interested in classical andinism, asked me in 2001 for details of the 1986 and 1999 exploration and climbing visits I made to the Riso Patrón Range and Dos Hermanos...
BrigupanthSusan Coons, Harvard Mountaineering ClubI REMEMBER SPRING in another country, the snow just gone from the dry meadows. We walked up river with Hindu pilgrims seeking the source of the Ganges. Women in bright saris asked us why we had no ...
Cerro Pier Giorgio, Patagonia. The Cerro Pier Giorgio (ca. 9500 feet) lies northwest of Lake Viedma, closing in on the north the valley of the Torre Glacier. This glacier descends from Pier Giorgio between FitzRoy and the Cerro Torre, which are si...
LIGHTNINGMaine, Mount Katahdin, Baxter State ParkOn August 27, 1990, David Passalacqua (13) was struck and killed by lightning while hiking the Knife Edge near Pamola Peak. He was with a Boy Scout troop consisting of ten Scouts and two leaders. An...
Ancohuma's South-Southeast RidgeDavid IslesJorge Urioste is a persuasive man, and very enthusiastic about mountaineering possibilities in his native Bolivia. While climbing in New Hampshire, he would describe to us the fine weather of the Cordille...
Kara-su valley, Asan, northwest face, The Hammer and Sickle and a free ascent of an existing aid line. During July and August, a team of four Australian climbers, Steve Anderton, Julian Bell, David Gliddon and Kent Jensen, spent 40 days living and...
Colorado, San Juan Mountains. Personnel: participants in the summer outing of the Denver Junior group of the Colorado Mountain Club. August 23rd was the last full day of the outing. Mark Stanton and three friends approached me (Truman P. Young, II...
The First Ascent of Mount RussellHELLMUT RAITHEL, Deutscher AlpenvereinMount Russell lies on the southwestern corner of Mount McKinley National Park. From one of our two American companions, Bob Goodwin, who in 1961 had made an unsuccessful attemp...
SNOWBRIDGE COLLAPSE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, PROBE POLE Alaska, Mount McKinleyOn May 17, about 1600, a snowbridge over a crevasse collapsed while three members of the Je Ju University expedition were preparing a campsite around 15,000 feet on the We...
Qong Muztag, First Ascent. The Waseda University Alpine Club of Tokyo sent an expedition to the Kun Lun Range of Sinkiang, China, in the summer of 2000. They made the first ascent of Qong Muztag (6962m) on August 15. The 12-member expedition, whic...
On July 3, Cindy Lu (32) and I, Leo Wu (35), climbed Royal Arches. Despite it being our first really long climb, it had gone well. After starting at 5:30 a.m. we reached the first rappel at 4:30 p.m. Sunset was at 8:30 p.m., and we expected to b...
Great Trango Tower, Norwegian Pillar. The groundbreaking ascent of the Norwegian Pillar in 1984 is still the most outrageous line ever attempted by Norwegian climbers, and their story is the most profound in our climbing history. It was therefore ...
Elphinston Buttress. Overlooking Hungry Packer Lake (Mount Goddard quadrangle) is a beautiful peak with a very steep, prominent face. In August, Paul Landrum, Chuck Fitch and I established a route directly up this face. The climb begins at the toe...
FALL ON ROCK, HANDHOLD FAILURE, PROTECTION PULLED OUT Alberta, Rocky Mountains, Grand Sentinel PinnacleA party of three were climbing a four-pitch 5.9 route on this quartzite pinnacle next to Pinnacle Mountain and Sentinel Pass, on July 21, 1994. ...
Death in High PlacesCharles S. Houston, M.D.THE INCREDIBLE and the tragic were commonplace in the Himalayas during 1986. A world-class climber completed climbing all fourteen 8000 meter summits, two Swiss climbed Everest north face direct from bas...
Everest, summary of the spring season, questions on the use of bottled oxygen and sedan chairs. Altogether 46 teams sent 155 people to Everest’s summit this spring. Seventy-seven of them reached the summit on May 16—61 from the southern side in Ne...
Delightful ExecrationAn alpine-style new route up Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face.Vince AndersonWake up!We were at 7,500 meters on the Rupal Face, and the urge to sleep was overwhelming. It would have been so easy to rest my head on my ice axe and drift...
Satling Sui (5,060m), first ascent, Jatra; Point Walker (5,260m), new route. After a three-day approach following the Bhilangna Valley on the south side of Thalay Sagar, Chris Semmel, Matthias Huber, and I reached our base camp (3,720m) beside the...
Iowa Mountaineers. Once again, the year was an unusually active one. Our membership increased to 560 in the Active-Expedition category and to 530 in the Film-Lecture category. Rock-climbing courses for credit at the University of Iowa were increas...
Sani Pakkush Tragedy. This 6952-meter (22,808-foot) peak, which lies 15 kilometers northwest of Batura, had been previously climbed by Germans in 1991. Five Japanese led by Tetsu Ogasa hoped to make the second ascent. On July 11, Ogasa and Satoshi...