Saraghrar. The Oxford Chitral Expedition was composed of P. S. Nelson, E. W. Norrish, F. S. Plumpton, W. G. Roberts, and N. A. J. Rogers. Liaison Officer, Major Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, joined the expedition at Dir. Cook, Ali Morad Khan, served also...
Konkaling Peaks, Southeast Tibet. In October and November I visited southeast Tibet with Sari Nicoll. We were accompanied by a film crew that included John Catto and Patrick Morrow. From the city of Chengdu we had three hard days of driving to the...
Kankar Pünzum Attempt. Although the Bhutanese government had granted a permit for the southeast or east ridge of Kankar Pünzum, it insisted that we approach the peak by going up the Chamkar Chu, a river system draining a cirque 10 to 15 kilometers...
Kangchungtse (Makalu II) Attempt. Swiss climbers Wilma Simonetta and Claudio Righeschi intended to climb the normal route on Kangchungtse. They established two camps and reached Makalu La at 7400 meters on April 29 before retreating to Base Camp f...
FALL ON ROCK/SNOW OR AVALANCHE, WEATHER, POOR POSI- TIONWashington, Mount IndexOn February 4, 1984, Philip G. White (27) and Eve Dearborne (34), both employees of the Marmot Mountain Works in Bellevue and Seattle residents, planned to make a winte...
AVALANCHENew Hampshire, Canon Mountain, Black DikeTwo climbers were up to attempt the Black Dike in the beginning of April. They weren’t really thinking about the possibility of an avalanche. It’s not clear how often anyone thinks of that small gu...
Mounts Wood and Queen Mary, Icefield Ranges, 1988. During the spring of 1988, the wardens of Kluane National Park made two training exercises. From April 22 to May 6, Rick Staley, Bruce Sundbo, Andrew Lawrence, Evan Manners, John Nidrie and I clim...
Ibitirati, Pico do Paranâ, Toca-toca o Pau na Mula. When Val (Valdesir Machado) and I first saw pictures of Ibitirati, a mountain along the Pico do Paraná ridge, we noticed that right in the middle was a stripe of clean vertical rock. Our first th...
FALLING OBJECT-DEAD TREE (DISLODGED BY OTHER CLIMBERS)New Hampshire, Whitehorse LedgeOn an early Sunday morning in August, I went out with two teenage clients with a plan to climb Standard Route to the Lunch Ledge via the Toilet Bowl and Crystal P...
Chacraraju Oeste, Jaeger Route, solo. The 24 year-old French alpinist Didier Jourdain completed a solo ascent of the 700m Jaeger Route (TD+/ED1) on the south face of Chacraraju Oeste (6,001m). This line, first climbed solo on July 5, 1978 by the l...
Utah: Arches National Monument. A 19-year-old New Yorker fell to his death on 29 May 1950 as he neared the top of Landscape Arch. Visitors are not allowed to cross the arch since it is only six feet thick at one point.Source of information: newspa...
GeographicalDistrictsNumber of Accidents1951-68DeathsTotalPersonsInvolvedNumber of Accidents1969DeathsTotalPersonsInvolvedCanadaAlberta251131000British Columbia36135711117Yukon Territory448111Ontario111000Quebec111000United States Atlantic — North...
Gasherbrum II. On July 31 members of the French expedition led by Louis LePivain reached the summit of Gasherbrum II by the normal route. They were LePivain, Michel Metzger, Rémy Pilliègre, Nicolas Campredon and Guy Flecher. On August 1 Metzger ac...
Uruguayan rugby team plane crash of 1972, new discovery. On February 12, 2005 Mario Perez (an Argentinean horse guide) and I made a historical discovery related to the famous crash in the Andes of a Uruguayan plane chartered by a rugby team in 197...
Notchtop Mountain, East Face. The first ascent of the exposed, seven- pitch “White Room” route was made in June by Roger Briggs and me. It meanders up the very steep and featureless wall to the right of “Optimus,” finishing in a prominent dihedral...
“Frankenstein” and Echo Pinnacle, Moab, 1992. In May, 1992, Mike Baker soloed a big new tower ¼ mile before the Bride, which he called “Frankenstein” (IV, 5.9, A3). Baker did it in five pitches, but he expects subsequent parties will climb it in f...
Thor Peak, Northwest Face. After studying aerial photographs all winter, Leigh Ortenburger was convinced that Thor Peak had a 1200-foot northwest face which should at least be investigated during the summer. An additional attraction to this route ...
FAILURE TO TEST PROTECTION, ANCHOR SLING FAILURE, FALL ON ROCKAlberta, Rocky Mountains, Spray SlabsSpray Slabs is a practice area near Banff. In July, 1990, a leader (46) climbed a short distance above his belayer, clipped into a very old 9 mm web...
Batura Attempt. Our expedition set out from Hasanabad for Batura on July 2. We walked for three days through an inhospitable land to 3800 meters, where the porters refused to go on, frightened by the glacier crossing. We had to ferry our loads fro...
Manaslu Attempt. A six-man Italian expedition led by Oscar Piazza got up to 7300 meters on the east ridge of Manaslu on May 1 but had to give up there.Elizabeth Hawley