The Needles, Southwest Face of Witch, The Witch Doctor. In June Mike Grabor, Rick Ridgeway and I climbed this improbable-looking route. The southwest face is distinguished by a prominent bomb-bay chimney on the upper-half. Our route, however, stay...
STRANDED, CLIMBING ALONE, FREE SOLO CLIMBING, OFF ROUTE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENTColorado, First FlatironLate in the afternoon on December 10 Xavier Rojas (20) became stranded while free soloing the Direct (Standard) East Face (5.6), a six- pitch rout...
Nanga Parbat Attempts. Few of the expeditions to Nanga Parbat this year were successful. Among those which did not get to the summit were parties made up of British and Swedes led by Michael Scott, Germans under the leadership of Fritz Schreinmose...
Cho Oyu ski descent and discussion of 8,000-meter ski descents. Fewer than 40 people have skied from an elevation of 8,000m or greater. In 1978 Nicolas Jaeger and Jean Afanassieff quietly made tracks into history when they strapped their skis to t...
Little Johannesburg, Plumline Buttress. Unnamed on maps, this 7945-foot monolith sits directly across the valley from Easy Pass, just inside the boundary of North Cascade National Park. On August 21 Steve Costie, Chris Martenson, Ken Small and I m...
Nanga Parbat Climbed by Bulgarians. An expedition of five Bulgarians led by Minko Zankovski climbed the normal route on the Diamir Face of Nanga Parbat. Camps were established at 4800, 6000, 6700 and 7400 meters. After setting up Camp IV on August...
Silicon Tower, Verita Ridge. On a long one-day trek in September, 1961 into Goat Lakes, Louis Stur, Jim Ball and I climbed the west face of Silicon Tower, the very prominent tower in the lowest point of Verita Ridge, north of Warbonnet Peak. Later...
Pinnacles in Little Slide Canyon. In July, Joe Kiskis and I trudged to the head of Little Slide Canyon from Twin Lakes. Originally interested in something of greater magnitude, we were diverted by the lure of the beautiful pinnacles sprouting from...
Fitz Roy. On February 28 Alan and Adrian Burgess and I climbed Fitz Roy via the American route; this was the third time on that route and the ninth ascent. We had difficulty in digging a snow cave in the usual place near Terray's route but found a...
Altar Group, Ecuadorian Ascents. On December 3, 1978, six Ecuadorian climbers of the Agrupación de Montaña P. Leiva made the third ascent of Monja Grande (c. 5300 meters, 17,400 feet), which had been ascended twice in 1968 by Californians. The Ecu...
The Ice Cream Cone, Southwest Face. Known by local Matanuska Valley residents as The Ice Cream Cone (8,675') and by Anchorage locals as the Sky Buster, this peak was climbed in April by Carl Oswald, Chris Flowers and Matt Porter. Some tenacious sc...
Trinity Dome and Gauntlet Peak. In August Tim Donnelly, Stan Grossman, Ken Hunter, Larry Lempert and I traveled to the area east of the Pangnirtung Pass on Baffin’s Cumberland Peninsula. During six days of continuous clear weather, we approached t...
Chacraraju Este. French climbers Nicole Mazuir and Philippe Modéré climbed Chacraraju Este in August. They followed the route first climbed by Brewer and Richey in 1978 and probably made the second complete ascent of the route. (Japanese in 1979 r...
Bell Mountain, Hell's Bells. Brian Wood and I took advantage of a cold spell in early June, 2002, to establish Hell’s Bells (1,100 feet) on the northwest face of Bell Mountain in the Lemhi Range. The northwest face is cut by two large gully system...
FALLING ROCKCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn September 29, 1981, Les Ellison (30) was free climbing the New Dawn Route on El Capitan when he pulled a rock loose. There had been no indication that it might be insecure. The rock hit his thigh and cause...
Bharte Khunte and Kedarnath Dome. A 31-man Indian Air Force team was led by Squadron Leader V.P. Singh. On April 26 Base Camp was set up at Tapoban at 14,300 feet and Advanced Base at 15,000 feet on the Kirti Glacier. There they parted into variou...
The Brown Cliffs, Wind River Range. A new approach to this relatively unknown climbing area was proved feasible the first week of July when Bill Eubank, Chris, his 12 year old son, Jim Petroske, Carl Plassmann and I pushed through knee-deep snow f...
Api, South Face Attempt. Our 12-man (British) Army Mountaineering Association expedition was driven from Kathmandu to Dandeldhura. The new mountain road from Dangadhi to Dandeldhura is easily passable by jeep; a jeep track from Dandeldhura to Bait...
Langille Peak, East Buttress. Langille Peak, far up the middle fork of the Kings River, is known more to hikers of the John Muir Trail than to climbers. Its eastern face is hollowed by several deep gullies and highlighted by many long spur ridges....
Fitz Roy. Scott Backes and I climbed Fitz Roy by the American Route. We arrived in Base Camp on January 2. After 42 days and four unsuccessful attempts we climbed the route in 2½ days from Base Camp. We reached the summit at three P.M. on February...