Dhaulagiri. Under the leadership of Fritz Moravec, an Austrian expedition did not succeed in climbing Dhaulagiri (26,795 feet), the highest yet unascended mountain in the world. The expedition reconnoitered for the first time the northeast ridge a...

California, Mt. Shasta—On December 28, 1956 Emily Hatfield (21), Don Monks (26), Steve Brenner (22) and Gordon Brenner (19) climbed Mt. Shasta. The weather was clear. All climbing was on snow and ice. The party was fully equipped for the climb (cr...

Mountain MedicineA review of the eye at altitudeby Geoffrey C. Tabin, M.D.In 1988, on the southwest face of Mt. Everest, two climbers died above 8000 meters; their last radio message was that they were both totally blind. In 1996, near Everest’s s...

Mount Deborah, Hayes Group, Alaska Range. The 6000-foot east face of Mount Deborah (2/3 of it is at an average angle of 64°) is the most impressive of all its magnificent sides. It has but one weakness: the east ridge, which climbs steeply from th...

Gulmatonga Valley, rock climbing. The branch valleys that rise south of the Zanskar road to Padam over the Pensi La hold many possible rock-climbing objectives. These small valleys offer potentially good climbing without the need for much bureaucr...

Author’s note: Passing judgments about the worthiness of other’s accomplishments goes against the grain of the anarchistic pursuit we call “climbing.” That being said, we all make judgments as part of the process of assimilating information to our...

Mount Russell, Beowulf’s Revenge. In October Fred Beckey, Mark Fielding and I climbed the farthest line to the north on Russell’s west face. The route starts among ledges in a semi-rotten chimney approximately 100 feet left of an obvious large rig...

Emerging trends among Chinese climbers. China not only has the tallest mountains in the world, it also has some of the most technically challenging, least explored, and most varied. What does this all mean for a burgeoning Chinese middle class tha...

Antarctica: Mountains, Glaciers, Ice, Ice and More IceRobert A. Wharton, Jr., George M. Simmons, Jr. and Bruce C. Parker*oNE OF THE MORE remote and desolate regions left on this planet is Antarctica. The Antarctic continent, twice the size of Aust...

The Alps 90 Years Ago. In the President’s Address (A. A. J. iv, 474, line 12), one should read “Zermatt” for “the Alps.” Needless to say, before this time, other major peaks such as Mont Blanc (1786), Gross Glockner (1800), Order (1804), Jungfrau ...

Flatiron Butte, Sawtooth Ridge Area. This summit is an isolated rock crag on the east flank of the Sierra Nevada, quite hidden by ramparts of other ridges. Located north of Sawtooth Ridge, the formation offers steep rock-climbing potential, but th...

K2—1938William P. HouseAT the N.W. end of the main chain of the Himalaya Mountains is the little-known range of the Karakoram. It lies between the Indus River and Chinese Turkestan and occupies most of northern Baltistan, the northernmost province...

Mt. Dade, North Pillar, Previously Unreported. Paul Linaweaver, Ron McTarque and I climbed the North Pillar (IV 5.10, 1,200') of Mt. Dade in September, 1995. The route ascends directly up the north pillar. It is unclear if ours was the first ascen...

Tawoche, east ridge, winter ascent. For the first time in 62 years it snowed in Kathmandu. This same storm also dumped more than a meter of snow in the Khumbu, making for an interesting few days. It was February 2007 and Kristoffer Erickson, Seth ...

Climbs in Soviet Asia, 1965. According to Der Berkamerad, on August 12, 1965 twenty-nine members of a Lithuanian-Esthonian expedition to the Pamir-Alai Range climbed Pik Lenin (23,406 feet) from the Krilenko Pass via the first-ascent route. Pik Ko...

Memphis Mountaineers, Inc. 1989 proved to be a very productive year for the Memphis Mountaineers. The total membership of 66 included 42 regular members in the Memphis, Tennessee, area, eight honorary members, and 16 associate members scattered th...

First Ascent: Pioneering Mountain Climbs. Stephen Venables. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2008. Numerous color and black and white photographs. 192 pages. $45.In this lavish coffee-table book we read about the first ascent of Mont Blanc, the tragedy...

Ski Mountaineering in Southern CaliforniaWalter MosauerTHIS title may evoke an incredulous smile from distant readers who think of Southern California as the land of all-year bathing beaches, oranges, motion-pictures and occasional earthquakes. Ev...

Korean Mount Everest Expedition. Under the leadership of Young-do Kim, the 16-man expedition left Kathmandu in four or five parties between July 19 and 26. Base Camp was reached on August 9 at 17,725 feet, 22 days after the first party had left Ka...

Jankho Laya. Our expedition was made up of Pierre Faussurier, Daniel Barrera, Dr. Patrick Mure, my wife Francine and me as leader. We climbed northeast of Laguna Khara Kkota from May 18 to 31. We left La Paz on May 16 on the road to the Mina Fabul...