Lamchir and Nanda Kini. Both of these peaks have been climbed by National Outdoor Leadership School courses. Lamchir was first climbed in 1991 and subsequently in the fall of 1993 and on May 25, 1994. The true summit is 5662 meters (18,576 feet) b...
Cerro Torre, Compressor Route, and Clarification. On January 29 and 30, 1996, Charlie Fowler and I climbed the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, attaining the base of the summit mushroom at 9:30 p.m. in dead calm but in cloud. Charlie and I elected...
A Blessing for Climbers and Their Equipment. A translation of the Benedictio Instrumentorum ad Montes Conscendendos which the late Pope Pius XI approved and had inserted in the Rituale Romanum has been received from our member Anderson Bakewell, S...
Hot Wheels Tower, Funny Car. In the Windows area of Arches National Park, Brad Bond rope-soloed the first ascent of Funny Car (5.8 A2+) on the Hot Wheels Tower. Bond: “Linus Platt acted as technical advisor during the ascent.” The climb is 100 fee...
A.A.C., New York Section. Why do people join organizations like the American Alpine Club? Certainly one of the main motives is to expand one’s circle of climbing friends and partners and to share the fellowship of like-minded people. Facilitating ...
Foster Peak. Flight-Lieut. J. S. T. Gibson contributes the following information on this and other climbs of 1942 (see A.J. 54, 399; where “Easter Pk.” should be Foster Pk.). From Floe Lake crossed meadows and moraines, then the lower part of a sm...
Mount Dentiform, East Buttress, Coast Range. In late August Jim Nelson, Bill Pilling, and I climbed the short but pronounced pillar to the right of the ice funnel on Dentiform’s Tellot Glacier face. We cramponed to the base of the buttress, then f...
El Capitan, The Nose, speed record. Events leading up to the record speed ascent of the Nose in 2 hours and 48 minutes: September 2001, Hans Florine and Tommy Caldwell climb the Nose in 4:31. They miss the nine-year-old record of 4:22 by only nine...
FALL ON ROCK, CLIMBING UNROPED, NO HARD HAT, INEXPERIENCE, BAD WEATHERWisconsin, Devil’s Lake State ParkFred Kolberg (18) arrived at Devil’s Lake about 9 a.m. April 9, 1980, on a school outing with the Wilderness Club, Arrowhead High School, Hartl...
Ultar Sar, First Ascent. The most significant achievement of the last Karakoram season was the first ascent of the difficult and dangerous Ultar Sar (7388 m), by the Pakistanis called Ultar II, and known also as Bojohagur or Bojohagur II. It is th...
Climbing Around Durango, 1983-1984. The years 1983 and 1984 were very active ones for Durango climbers. Near the Watch Crystal, John Duran and Tim Kuss did Sweeney’s Special (5.12b) and Free Base (5.12a), two extreme crack climbs. Craig Lombard an...
East Kahiltna Peak, D.S. and F.J. Carl Tobin and I flew into the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. We skied to the East Fork, where we spent from May 3 to 12 exploring climbs. May 5 was clear and, despite our being tired from the ski to the ...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn July 22, 1982, Thomas Kirkley (22) fell while climbing above the Devil’s Bathtub behind the Ahwanee Hotel. He was two meters above a fixed piton which he had not tested adequately. T...
Caraz III, South Face. On June 28, Haroon Khesghi and I climbed the south face of Caraz III (5720 meters, 18,767 feet). We started in a couloir that runs up just to the right of the summit. The climb was similar in length and difficulty to the sou...
FALL ON SNOW, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT AND CLOTHING, CLIMBING UNROPED, WEATHER British Columbia, Purcell Mountains, South Howser-Pigeon ColOn August 2, 1984, two climbers were caught in a thunderstorm on South Howser Tower, and were forced to retreat....
STRAINED BACKAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn the afternoon of June 2, an RMI guided group was ascending below the fixed lines around 15,000 feet when assistant guide Ryan Sorsdahl (24) twisted awkwardly and felt something “pop” in his lowe...
Masherbrum attempt. Our expedition was conceived as a fairly light-weight, semi-alpine-style attempt to climb the north face and west ridge of Masherbrum (7821 meters, 25,660 feet) with a small group of friends. We were Chas Macquarie, Eric Reynol...
Illimani Group, Traverse. British La Paz residents Yossi Brain and Peter Grosset teamed up with visiting Italians Alessandro Bianchi (Club Alpino Italiano-ULE Genova) and Marcello Sanguineti (CAI Chiavari) to attempt the full five-peak traverse of...
EXPOSURE, WEATHERYukon, Kluane National Park, Mount Logan, King TrenchAn eight-member team from North Shore Rescue set out on May 7 to climb Mount Logan in the Yukon, Canada’s highest peak at 5,959 meters (19,541 feet), to celebrate the 40th anniv...
Annapurna III, Southeast Pillar Attempt and Tragedy. Our team of Jon Tinker, Rob Uttley, Trevor Pilling and me reached Base Camp on September 5. The walk-in to the upper Seti Khola was awkward and in places dangerous. We were only the second exped...