Nanda Khat Attempt. Nanda Khat (21,690 feet) was attempted by a team sponsored by Giri Vihar, Bombay and led by Professor A. R. Chandekar. As they were trying to reconnoiter to Camp II on May 31, an avalanche in the Pindari Icefall killed D. C. Ar...
Frailes Group, Altar, 1985. The two showy peaks of Fraile Central and Fraile Oriental (both c. 17,000 feet) had been climbed for the first and only time in 1974 and 1978, respectively. On December 6,26 and 30,1985, Fraile Central was ascended by p...
Named from a distance several years ago, this couloir which lies between the north ridge and the Crescent Arête of Mount Owen has a particularly evil appearance, marked by rock scars and running water when it is not filled with ice. It was first c...
Cordillera Vilcabamba. The first Australian expedition to the Andes climbed in the southern section of the Pumasillo group. The party of nine, Jack Higgs, Richard Bennett, Dot Butler, Mike Feller, Keith McNaughton, John Gamblen, John Retchford, Dr...
Mount Brooks, Northwest Ridge. From August 21 to 23, Clarice Dickess, Ian McRae, C. Michele Morseth and I climbed the northwest ridge of Mount Brooks. Starting from the Traleika Glacier, we gained the ridge via a 1700-foot couloir, thereby bypassi...
West Face of the Exum Ridge of Grand Teton, July 23, 1954. Dick Pownall and Bob Merriam began their climb some 300 feet north of the beginning of Wall Street and angled up the middle of this wall, reaching the crest of the ridge only a short dista...
Pholha Khyung, Attempt. We departed Kathmandu on August 31 en route to Tibet’s Transhimalaya. Our team was comprised of Britons Julian Freeman-Attwood, Lindsay Griffin and Phil Bartlett as climbers and Pat and Harry Reeves as trekkers. As the toke...
Lhotse, South Face Direttissima. A 20-member Soviet team led by Aleksander Shevchenko took a different line to the right of Tomo Cesen’s on the rocky central part of the face. Despite poor weather and avalanches, they worked their way up the route...
Nanga Parbat Attempts and Tragedy. Three Japanese expeditions unsuccessfully attempted to climb Nanga Parbat. Tsuneo Hasegawa and three others climbed to 24,600 feet on the 1976 Schell route on the southwest ridge before giving up. Hasegawa return...
Aconcagua, South Face. Argentines made an ascent and descent of the south face of Aconcagua. They were Guillermo Vieiro, Jorge Vitón, Fermín Olaechea, Héctor Cuiñas, Felipe Frasson and Eliseo Busto. They were on the mountain 17 days. This is the f...
Istor-o-nal North I. On July 30, after ten hours of jeep travel, we arrived at Shagram from Chitral. It took three days to reach Base Camp at 4450 meters. On August 4, three reconnaissance teams set out. We chose to traverse the southwest ridge, t...
New Mexico, Organ Mountains—Cuevas Rocks—On the day in October 1956 when the accident occurred the weather and climbing conditions were ideal. A group of South Western Mountaineers were out for a short afternoon of rock climbing, they were finishi...
EXPOSURE, FATIGUE, INEXPERIENCED—Alaska, Mt. McKinley. The National Crampoon party of ten members was flown onto the Kahiltna Glacier on April 22, 1976 to begin a climb of the West buttress route. By Sunday, May 9, seven members of the party were ...
Latok II Attempt. A British expedition led by Edward Howard tried to climb the northwest ridge of Latok II (7145 meters, 23,442 feet). They reached Latok Col but bad weather beat back two attempts on the ridge. This ridge has unsuccessfully been t...
Koa Rong V, rare ascent, southeast ridge. A 10-member expedition from West Bengal led by Biplab Sengupta made a relatively rare ascent of Koa Rong V (6,258m), situated near the Suraj Tal and east of the Baralacha Pass. They placed base camp at 4,7...
Annapurna IV Attempts. There were two unsuccessful attempts on Annapurna IV this autumn, both on the northwest ridge. An expedition of 7 Slovenes and an Italian led by Žare Guzej reached 6800 meters on October 11. Jasna Bratanic (f) and Matevž Len...
FALLING ROCK—DISLODGED, FALL ON SNOW, EXCEEDING ABILITIES, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT/CLOTHINGOregon, Mount Jefferson, Milk CreekDuring the weekend of July 29-30, six teenage boys elected to climb Mount Jefferson via the Milk Creek route. Nearing the su...
Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Dark Side of Extreme Adventure. Maria Coffey. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003. 234 pages. Hardcover. $23.95.You expect a lot from a book that garners awards at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. And Where...
Flammes de Pierre. Anne Sauvy. Diadem Books. London/USA, 1992, distribution by Trafalgar Square, North Pomfret, VT, 05053. $22.95.The name of this book of sixteen short stories—which literally means Flames of Rock—refers to the ridge of pinnacles ...
In mid-January Andy Parkin made a solo winter ascent of this peak above the Dingjung/Chhule Valley, via the previously unclimbed 850m north face. Parkin first spotted the north face, in profile, during his winter ascent of Dawa Peak (AAJ 2009). In...