Squamish Squaw, Right Wing Route. On June 24 and 25 Scott Davis, Al Givler and I made the first ascent of the Squaw via the crack system running through the main dihedral of the west face. Our first problem was locating the beginning of the dihedr...
Pico Bolívar, West-Northwest Rib, Sierra Nevada de Mérida, 1985. In a 13-day round trip from Britain, Jan Solvov and I were able to make the first complete ascent of the west-northwest rib of Pico Bolívar (5007 meters, 16,427 feet), the country’s ...
Nez Perce, First Winter Ascent. David George and George Lowe made the first winter ascent of this peak in February. Our original objective was the traverse from Nez Perce to the Middle Teton, but a foot of new snow during the day of the climb prov...
Colorado Mountain Club. All groups of the club report an active year. Unfortunately, some of the scheduled trips were curtailed and even cancelled by the unusually wet year in Colorado. This was particularly true on the Labor Day week-end when the...
From February 23-27, 1997, Alexander Ruchkin and Andrey Puchinin established the North Face Direct route (6A A3 +, 900m) on the north face of Free Korea Peak (4740m). The route takes a direct line up a weakness in the wall between the Bezzubkin an...
TAM Sur, Cordillera Huayhuash. On August 8 Hidalgo Arbaiza, Rómulo Carascal, Julián Velásquez, Federico Livia, and Victorino Basilio of the Club de Andinismo Cordillera Huayhuash of Chiquián climbed TAM Sur (18,192 feet) by its northeast ridge.Joh...
Salcantay, North Face, Cordillera Vilcabamba. From June 19 to 21, Peruvian Alberto Callupe and I made a new route on the north face of Salcantay. We approached in three days from Mollepata to the north side of Paso Palcay. The southeast and the ea...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE BELAYCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn October 20, 1985, about 1000, Ken Byers (41) was leading Catchy (5. lOd) on the Cookie Cliff. J. Farmer was at base on bottom belay using a Sticht plate. At 1130, Byers reached the “crux”...
Nanga Parbat, Rupal Buttress Attempt. Our expedition was composed of Yannick Seigneur, leader, Jean Afanassieff, Bernard Prud’homme, French, Bernd Neubaur, Michael Hoffmann, Rainier Pickl, Siegfried Wirth, Thomas Nuber, Germans and me, Swiss. We t...
Utah: Salt Lake City. (Although not a mountaineering accidebt, this is reported because of its tragic lesson.) On a graduation picnic, in the late spring of 1949, Glen Daw (17) fell to his death from a cliff on Storm Mountain, in Big Cottonwood Ca...
La Huasteca still has many walls to explore, and this 500m south-facing wall of limestone, just 15 minutes from Monterrey, had two routes and an unfinished project. David Tirado (Mexico), my wife Marisol Monterrubio (Mexico), and I started with...
HAPE, CE, ASCENDING TOO FASTAlaska, Mount McKinleyDuring May and early June, members of three separate foreign climbing teams were diagnosed as having High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE).Victor Grosley and Thomas Jannik (46), Yugoslavian climbers...
Pumori Attempt. Six climbers of Korean ancestry, although two are American citizens and one a Canadian, were led by Kim Ki-Hwan. They attempted the first-ascent route on the northeast ridge. After a three-week struggle on the east face, they gave ...
P 9070. On April 20, David Barlow and I made the first ascent of P 9070, southwest of Mount Hunter. We made a glacial approach to the west of a small icefall on the north side and then an ascent to the col separating this peak from Thunder Mountai...
FALL ON ROCK, UNSAFE POSITION, FATIGUEAlaska, Skagway, Black LakeOn June 14, Karl (28) was climbing an unnamed, single-pitch sport route rated at 5.9 near Skagway. Just below the top of the route, he had clipped into the final bolt and was prepari...
Wisconsin Hoofer Mountaineers. During the past year the WHM were again active in midwestern climbing. Our Sunday trips to Devils Lake and other nearby climbing areas were well attended during the spring and fall. A smaller group was also active in...
Annapurna II Attempt. An expedition of six Spanish Basques led by Jesús Bereciartua tried to climb Annapurna II up the north face and along the west ridge from Annapurna IV. They set up Camps I, II and III at 4800, 5500 and 6300 meters on March 28...
Noshaq. The Bulgarian Hindu Kush Expedition, led by Petr Kavrkov and composed of D. Petkov, K. Aleksiev, I. Vasilev, K. Dimcev, A. ZahaHriev, H. Džambazov, P. Georgiev, R. Savov, J. Stojanov, K. Petrov and D. Jirov, had a tragic fate. They were in...
Cerro Marmolejo, Senda Real and The Nook. Austrians Harald Berger and Albert Leichtfried established a wild ice route on the south face of Cerro Marmolejo (6,100m, about 20 km from Baños Morales) in the Cajón del Maipo in January 2006. Their line,...
Dhaulagiri, South Ridge. It was the goal for Jean-Noël Roche and me to climb the south ridge or spur of Dhaulagiri with no support whatsoever. The route had been climbed by a heavy Japanese expedition in 1978. A film crew of Philippe Lallet and An...