Mount Owen, Crescent Arête. On September 9 Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard made a new variation on the north ridge of Mount Owen by climbing the crescent-shaped arête which arises near the beginning of the north ridge, curves upward between the nor...
Blue Dome, El Greco. In May, Winfred Blevins, Leeds Davis and I climbed the first technical route up the south buttress of Little Blue Dome, located along the High Sierra trail in Sequoia National Park, about nine miles from the trail head. Our ro...
Ultar (Bojohagur Duanasir II) Attempt and Hunza Peak Ascent. Our expedition composed of Britons Victor Saunders, Crag Jones, Julian Freeman- Attwood and me and American Steve Sustad attempted to climb Ultar I (7388 meters, 24,240 feet) in July. Sa...
Red Sentinel, Northwest Corner (Kraus Route). After 25 years Red Sentinel was climbed by the line by which it was first attempted. Greg Joiner and I made the ascent on August 7. After squeezing through a cleft at the top of a capped chimney, the c...
Our party consisted of Mike Morrison, Mike O’Brien, Stephen Sustad and me as leader. After arriving in Delhi on August 23, we had difficulty in getting permission to visit this troubled area. We were eventually only allowed to approach via Manali,...
Plateau Peak, attempt. A 15-member Indo-Italian expedition attempted unclimbed Plateau Peak (7,310m), which lies southwest of Saser Kangri I (7,672m) in the Saser group. Jointly led by M.S. Gomese and Marco Meazzini, the team established base camp...
Pico Tas Cupís, First Ascent. Pico Tas Cupís, an unclimbed rock tower (440 meters) situated in the central district of the Sierra de la Culata, was discovered by our group of young climbers. It belongs to the Mina de Hierro massif, located near th...
Malubiting West Attempt. Ten Spaniards led by Jaume Campolier failed in their bid to climb Malubiting West.Josep Paytubi, Servei General d’Informació de Muntanya
Amphu Middle (6,238m), first known ascent. On April 20 Alexander Graeber and Olaf Rieck made the first known ascent of Amphu Middle. The next day three other members of their team, Erik Jahn, Karen Mehlhase, and Christian Pech followed their foots...
Fin Arête, Little Cottonwood Canyon. In November my brother Jonathan and I climbed a new route just left of the “Dorsal Fin.” The four pitches, all bolt protected, basically follow the ridge. The crux is the first pitch, but the third is also hard...
Arrigetch Peaks, Various Ascents. On June 15,I flew to Fairbanks, Alaska, where I met up with Fred Beckey, Dave Medara and Canadians Rick Clements and Kai Hirvonnen. Fred was the trip organizer; Dave had invited me to join him. From Fairbanks, we ...
FALLS ON ROCK AND SNOW, UNABLE TO SELF-ARREST, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, AVALANCHE, ETC.Washington—Various LocationsThere were 18 accidents reported from Washington this year, none of which resulted in fatalities. Fourteen involved falls—nine on snow...
Buck Mountain, Stewart Draw Buttress. A new area for convenient rock climbing was found by Yvon Chouinard and Kathrene Collins in July, 1980 on the buttress rising on the south side of Stewart Draw, the traditional approach for the regular route o...
Peaks above Dorah and Ramgul Passes, 1965. An expedition composed of Heinrich Dauer, Dieter Fischer and Andreas Geis climbed first in the region north of the Dorah Pass in the upper Chapdarra valley. There they climbed Bini Zard (16,601 feet), Bam...
Qow Xab (Palung Ri) (7,022m). I made a quick ascent of unclimbed [see editor’s note below] Qow Xab via the northwest ridge in 9 days from BC (4,915m) on the Balung Glacier. This was accomplished by crawling up through innumerous hidden crevasses a...
Castleton Tower and Monster Tower, Wingate Spires. In October and early November Chester Dreiman and I climbed new routes on two Wingate Spires. On Castleton Tower, between the Kor-Ingalls and the North Chimney routes, we did Star Dust Cowboy (III...
STRANDED, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, EXCEEDING ABILITY, BAD WEATHER, EXPOSURE California, Five Open BooksThomas Kornesczuk (15) and Terry Orman (14) were climbing in T-shirts and jeans on Five Open Books late in the afternoon on November 23. The weathe...
K2, Abruzzi Ridge. It was reported that Ronald Naar (Netherlands) led the first Dutch expedition to K2. Their attempt was successful, and involved around 3000 meters of fixed rope. Summitters were Ronald Naar, Hans Van Gerd Mulen, Rajab Shah (Paki...
Mount Everest. An Indian expedition under the leadership of Major John D. Dias nearly climbed Mount Everest at the end of May. They were driven back only 400 feet from the summit by frightful weather. In a letter to the editor, Hari Dang thus desc...
Manless Climbing. An otherwise ordinary season in the Tetons was enlivened by the success of two new manless climbs of the Grand Teton. On August 3 Sue Swedlund and Irene Ortenburger climbed the Underhill Ridge, Buckingham variation, for the third...