Overlord, Thor and Asgard, Baffin Island. Russ Bunker, Jerry Cinnamon, P.T. Davis, Scott Kimball, Jon Leonard and I were in the Pangnirtung Pass area from June 17 to August 20. Long stretches of stormy weather limited the number of climbing days. ...
Oregon, Mt. St. Helens—On June 6, 28 persons began a climb of Mt. St. Helens. This was the Tacoma Climbing Course’s experience climb. Equipment was adequate but climbing experience was limited. Three out of four persons would be rated as basic cli...
SLIP ON SNOW, EQUIPMENT DIFFICULTYCalifornia, SierraIn June 1978, after completing a summit ski descent of Carson Peaks’ northeast bowl (10,000 feet) and traversing the rock band to the top of Devil’s Slide (9,200 feet), I regained my bivouac gear...
Tawoche, east-southeast face; Cholatse, direct finish to French Route; Ama Dablam, northwest face, attempt. While hundreds of climbers were in the early stages of their wanderings up and down Everest, one Swiss, Ueli Steck, was totally alone on th...
British Columbia, Garibaldi Mountain. On July 17, Frank deBruyn (16), James Hebden (18), and James Fowler (18) were climbing Garibaldi. Because of a known avalanche danger they had started the evening before. At about 4 a.m. they were in a couloir...
FROSTBITE, INEXPERIENCE Yukon Territory, Mt. Logan, King Trench RouteDuring an ascent of the King Trench route on Mt. Logan in June 1980, Gideon Frydman, a member of a four-man party from the Royal Military College Club of Canada, noticed that his...
Mount Scott, Southwest Face. It was reported that in 1996, Americans Alex Lowe and Skip Novak, in Antarctica as part of a film project, managed on their time off to complete an ice route up the 830-meter Mount Scott in the Penola Straights just so...
Silverthrone, Winter Ascent. On March 5, my father Jim Okonek of K2 Aviation flew my wife Diane, Ricardo Ernst and me to Kantishna. We skied to the Muldrow Glacier via McGonagall Pass and ascended the Brooks Glacier to the Silverthrone Col at 10,6...
Cat’s Eye Wall, Out of the Pan and Into the Fire, New Route. After ten tedious days of airports, northern homeless shelters, and the coldest skidoo ride of my life, Jason Robinson and I found ourselves in Scott Inlet. Our guide, Ilko, pointed out ...
Pomarata*, Cordillera Occidental. In June we traveled to the Sajama region over the new La Paz-Arica road completed in 1979. On June 15 Gerhard Pösch, Sieglinde Rost and I moved east up a beautiful valley to the north ridge of Pomarata (or Pomarap...
Item Peak, North Face. In February, Jed Brown (18 years old) and I (33) ascended a direct line on the north face of Item Peak, to the left of the route I did in 2000. Jed and I found snow up to 65° and avoided all rock bands by stepping left aroun...
Cerro Torre. The Revista Mensile also notes that the two Detassis, Maestri, Stenico, and Eccher (Italians), and Fava and Lucchini (Argentines), also failed on the Cerro Torre in early 1958. They did make the first ascent of Cerro Grande in an 18-h...
Aconcagua and Tupungato as Mountain Parks. Both Aconcagua and Tupungato have been declared by the legislature of the state of Mendoza as parts of two recently created provincial (state) parks. Aconcagua became part of the Parque Provincial Aconcag...
LOSS OF CONTROL-VOLUNTARY GLISSADEWashington, Mount SnoqualmieOn May 16, 1982, Kenneth Herrell (27) was in a party of six glissading down the southwest side of Mount Snoqualmie when he lost control and tumbled over a 100- meter rocky area. He sust...
STRANDED, INADEQUATE BELAYUtah, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Bumblebee WallOn July 21, “Pat” (31), successfully led Perseverance Bulge, a two-pitch 5.9 route on Bumblebee Wall, near the Storm Mountain Picnic Area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. He sat on the ...
Condoriri Group, Overview. The dry conditions meant that Cabeza de Condor (5648m) was devoid of snow and the few teams that attempted it reported extremely dangerous conditions (the peak is made of rotten loose rock). The popular Pequeño Alpamayo ...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING UNROPED, FAILURE TO FOLLOW ROUTE, FAILURE TO TEST HOLDS, NO HARD HAT, INEXPERIENCECalifornia, Mount SillOn September 21, 1984, after climbing third class rock to the beginning of the Swiss Arete route on Mount Sill, Richard ...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE ANCHOR, INADEQUATE COMMUNICATIONCalifornia, Yosemite Valley, Ranger RockOn the morning of September 11, E (25), N (27), and L (26) set out to climb the popular Nutcracker route in Yosemite Valley (5.8, five pitches). All t...
Kongur Tiubie. The Japanese National Defense Academy Expedition was composed of Majors Kiyonori Kimura, climbing leader, and Chitosi Andoh, deputy climbing leader, Captains Yohichiro Yamaguchi and Kunio Horoshima, Lieutenants Shigeyuki Koga, Hiros...
North Early Winter Spire, West Face, “Labor Pains." On Labor Day, Donna McBain and I did this fun six-pitch route on slabs and crack systems beginning just right of the large cave on the bottom of the west face. The middle pitches ascend through r...