ARTHUR BRADFORD JOHNSON1906-1984Arthur B. Johnson died October 27, 1984, following a short hospitalization with pneumonia. His passing ended a career of over 50 years of volunteer service to climbing and conservation in Southern California.Art cam...
Kamet (7,756m), new route via the northwest ridge. An eight-member Indian Navy expedition, employing Sherpas and High Altitude Porters, climbed both Kamet and neighboring Abi Gamin in the pre-monsoon period. We reached the road head at Ghamsali on...
Central Tower of PaineAlan KearneyTHE WIND is steadily increasing as my watery eyes behold an incredible scene. To the southeast enormous ice-age lakes glitter in the morning sun as the somber browns and greens of the Pampa stretch far to the Atla...
Tirich Mir. A small French expedition led by Pierre Berlandi is said to have reached 7000 meters on Tirich Mir. Details are lacking.
Further Firsts in Cashmere Crags. Data supplied by Fred Beckey complement the article by Ralph Widrig in this issue: Dragon Tooth (nr. The Mole), 22 May 1948: Ralph Widrig, Fred Beckey. Five pitons for aid to climb overhanging wall; then up high-a...
PHILIP P. UPTON 1919-1984In 1964, as a fledgling glaciology student from Ohio State University, I spent my first North American summer in the St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon. The OSU contingent was part of a larger group participating in the Arct...
Muztagh Tower, southeast ridge (French Route), attempt; possible first ascents of surrounding peaks. Our expedition began when I developed an obsession with the unclimbed and rarely seen northeast side of 7,284m Muztagh Tower. The team comprised I...
Latok III Attempt. After losing ten days to lost luggage, Phil Powers and I attempted the unclimbed west face of Latok III (6950 meters, 22,802 feet). On July 30 and again on July 31, we climbed the 500-meter-high snow gully on the left side of th...
AVALANCHEWyoming, Grand Teton National Park, South TetonOn February 22 at 1120, Wray Landon (31) was caught in an avalanche and carried to his death while skiing near the summit of the South Teton. Landon was skiing with partners Nathan Brown (32)...
Haji Brakk, attempt on west face. From June 28 to July 17 the small Polish expedition of Jerzy Stefanski and I climbed in the Charakusa Valley. We acclimatized with a night at 5,000m and an ascent of Sulo Peak (ca 5,950m) by its southwest couloir,...
Kullu Eiger, second ascent, new route, west face to south face. In the autumn Oscar Pérez and I went to the Kullu Eiger, because our agent in India showed us a picture of the north face and an article written by the Scottish expedition that reache...
American Rock: Region, Rock and Culture in American Climbing. Don Mellor. Woodstock, Vermont: The Countryman Press, 2001.303 pages. $28.Don Mellor lays it out straight in his introduction to American Rock: “This is a book about American rock climb...
Kangze’gyai (ca 5,800m), west face. Kangze’gyai (a.k.a.Tuanjiefeng), the highest peak in the Qilian Mountains, is located in Tianjun County within the Haixi Autonomous Prefecture of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. From the town of Xining it t...
JOHN DENISON BALDWIN 1902-1946“Dan” Baldwin, who died in Sydney, Australia, on 26 September 1946, was the first president of the Harvard Mountaineering Club, in the winter of 1924-1925. Until recently he had been a member of the American Alpine Cl...
Caraz II, South Face. It was reported that, during the summer of 1997, Britons A1 Coull, Mark Kendrick and Muir Morton established the Superduper Couloir (TD, ice/mixed 80-90°, 500m), a fairly direct central line on the south face of Caraz II (602...
La Cresta, Central Andes. Luis Fernando Toro, from Manizales, and I did on December 29, 1980 the second ascent of La Cresta, 5100 meters (16,733 feet) by my altimeter. This peak in the Huila group, was first climbed by Sergio Gaviria and two Spani...
The Narrows, Freak Show, and Sheer Lunacy, First Free Ascent. In the spring, I climbed a new seven-pitch route called the Freak Show, located in the mouth of the Narrows, about a ten-minute walk up the paved path from the Temple of Sinawava. The r...
Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Symmetry Spire. On July 7, Bill Byrd of the Exum Mountaineering concession was guiding Joe Roundtree (23) and Jerry Kelly (21) on the Southwest Ridge. They had completed about two thirds of the Ridge and Byrd wa...
Chandra Parbat and Indradhanush, Attempts. An 11-member Indian team from Dimdoot, Calcutta, led by Debasish Kanji, attempted these peaks in the Gangotri area during the months of May and June. They established their last camp at 6100 meters on the...
The Blob, Plan 9. In August, Erik Wolfe and I battled our way into the remote Crescent Creek Basin of the Southern Pickets to climb the south face (IV 5.10) of The Blob (a.k.a. The Rake). Our route, the only one on the face, took a prominent, clea...