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...
Robert C. Hind 1911–2000Michelle Potkin 1956–2000Adam Kloff 1972–2000Brian Reagan 1972–2000John Jackson 1976–2000
FALL ON ROCK – OVERCONFIDENCE ON FOURTH-CLASS TERRAINWashington, North Cascades, Washington PassThe plan of the day (August 13) was to do a bunch of routes on the Early Winter Spires from 5.6 to 5.9. We were on the ascent/descent gully trail to th...
DEAN PEABODY, JR.1888-1951The sudden passing of Dean Peabody at the premature age of 63 leaves a very real void in the lives of all who were in any way associated with him. Although he had been a member of this club since 1929, and had served in t...
Front Range Bouldering. Bob Horan. Chockstone Press, Denver, 1989. 196 pages, numerous maps, diagrams and black and white photos. $11.95.Most good climbers are good boulderers, but there are a few exceptions. Tobin Sorenson, the best climber of th...
EQUIPMENTIce Screws. The first successful use of the newly developed ice screw was made by Gary Rose and Dick McGowan on the second ascent of the Nisqually Icefall this summer. The party reported that their use was highly advantageous on a 200-foo...
Spear Spire, Northeast Face, and East Peak, East Ridge, Vowell Group, Purcells. On July 7 James Hebert, Robert Kruszyna and I made the first ascent of the northeast face of Spear Spire, climbing a couloir which runs diagonally from the summit down...
Desert ClimbingEric BjørnstadIN 1986 THERE was a surge of climbing on the southwest desert that exceeded any year since the initiation of technical desert ascents with the climbing of Shiprock in 1939. Several dozen first ascents and new routes we...
The Fall. Simon Mawer. Boston: Little Brown, 2003. 370 pages. $24.95The Fall is the first novel with a climbing background by a respected talent since James Salter’s Solo Faces 20 years ago: long enough to suggest that the climbing novel is an end...
Spice FactoryAn Alaskan debut ends with a major new route on Mt. Bradley.Maxime TurgeonEveryone spices differently. Some carefully measure quantities, make sure aromas will match, and never make a mistake, while others just pour it on and see what...
Nevado del Güican (or Cocuy), Cordillera Oriental. Greg Beliveau and I made two ascents from the Concavito valley. On February 25 we made the first ascent of Gorro Blanco (16,558 feet) and on the 27th, Nevado del Chiflón (16,568 feet) by a new rou...
Hwang Gi-yong, Shin Dong-seok, and I started climbing a new line on the left side of the north face at 1 a.m. on December 13 [the prominent spur immediately left of the 2008 Polish route, Independence Day. See AAJ 2009]. We had hoped to find the w...