Extraterrestrial BrotherForty-six hours of magical mystery touring on McKinley’s Father and Son Wall.Kenton Cool“So there’s no moraine at all?”“Not a single stone,” replied Ian. “You just fly straight to base camp, no porters, cooks, or even L.O.s...
CHARLES MARSHALL PRATT1939-2000Ah, Chuck, Chuck, so lately here, so soon gone. How can I be writing this? You, gone? Yes, irrevocably. Your death sudden and shockingly unexpected. It seems not real. Somehow... wrong.Only a few weeks ago you had ph...
Dawa Peak (5,920m), northeast face, new route and possible first winter ascent. Fearing too many trekkers and expeditions in the Khumbu in summer, I chose winter and established myself in the comfort of the Gyoko Resort (4,800m). Opposite was the ...
The White Spider, The History of the Eiger’s North Face, by Heinrich Harrer, translated from the German by Hugh Merrick. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959. 240 pages; 41 ills., of which two are in color. Price 30s.Although this fascinating account o...
Lost in America*Greg ChildNIGHT HAD FALLEN. Randy Leavitt and I were high on the overhanging east face of El Capitan, at the end of a new route, setting up our last hanging bivouac. Behind us lay nine days of difficult climbing and 2700 feet of gr...
Escape from Lucania: An Epic Story of Survival. David Roberts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 206 pages. $23.00.This is the full story of Bob Bates and Brad Washburn’s first ascent of the St. Elias Range giant, Mt. Lucania, in 1937, at the ...
The Mountaineers. In 1991, we saw our membership top the 12,000 mark! Our Basic and Intermediate Climbing Courses were as popular as ever. At our headquarters in Seattle, over 200 enrolled in our Basic Climbing course and 70 students graduated; 70...
FALL ON ROCK, PITON AND CHOCK FAILURE—Washington, Peak One of Klootchman Rock. David Steven fell while on the Northeast Comer, Peak One, of Klootchman Rock. He was in the top of a narrow chimney at the lower edge of a sloping bench of rock suspend...
Blind Comers; Adventure on Seven Continents. Geoff Tabin. ICS Books, Merrillville, IN, 1993. 33 color photos, hardcover, 196 pages, $24.99.Geoff Tabin’s Blind Corners, circles around the serious business of alpinism with a whimsical humor. It is w...
Half Dome, South Face. In November, Warren Harding and I made our third attempt on the unclimbed back side of Half Dome. This most alpine of Yosemite’s walls cannot be seen except from points reached by trail. The base of the wall is near 7000 fee...
Haizi Shan, first ascent. When Pat Deavoll from New Zealand suggested a trip to Sichuan or Tibet, I jumped at the opportunity, especially as Pat had experience of the country from her successful 2005 expedition to Xiashe with the late Karen McNeil...
Liberty Bell Mountain, East Face. This 1200-foot face, perhaps the longest in the Silver Star area, was climbed in three days, July 16, 17, and 18, by Steve Marts, Jock McPherson and me. Prior to the final effort, Steve had climbed the first two l...
N. of Mt. Alberta. Until recently, a group of six peaks just N. of Mt. Alberta in Jasper National Park remained unexplored. They form a semicircle at the N. end of the Lynx Creek Valley and range in altitude from 9700 ft. to 10,700 ft. Several of ...
Mount Vigil, Southwest Face. Mount Vigil is one of a group of granite monoliths which form the southern-most extension of the Pikes Peak massive, southwest of Colorado Springs. Located in a heavily climbed area, the southwest face had remained unc...
Mt. Barlow, 10,320 ft. First ascent, July 9. E. Cromwell, j. M. Thorington, P. Kaufmann. From camp on Niverville meadow by way of Freshfield basin to col between Mts. Helmer and Barlow. The lower west peak was skirted on its south slope as the hig...
Condoriri East Peak, Illampu West Face, and Climbs in the Apolobamba. The 1997 University of Edinburgh Apolobamba Expedition comprised Tom Bridgeland, Sam Chinnery, Rob Goodier, Jane McKay, Heather Smith and me. We spent July and August climbing i...
Four Against Everest by Woodrow Wilson Sayre. Englewood Cliff, N. J.;Prentice-Hall, 1964. 259 pages. Illustrations. Price $5.95. Who in his boyhood has not dreamed of attempting some great exploit? And if the exploit also involves a great prank, w...
Joseph Nicholi Puryear, 1973-2010On October 27, 2010, while unroped on a ridgecrest low on unclimbed Labuche Kang in Tibet, Joe Puryear broke through a cornice and fell 700 feet to the glacier below. Joe was one of the authentic talents of the Ame...
Aconcagua, Permission Problems. I have much to say about Aconcagua, not so much about the mountain as on the official authorization to get there. I hope that one day such an approach to mountain climbing will be simplified. A number of Americans w...
Mount Jupiter Cliffs. Daylight was just breaking in the east on July 19 when Gary Tate and I left the car for a 25-minute hike from the end of the Duckabush Road for a third attempt on the Mount Jupiter Cliffs. They are located on the southwest si...