EXPOSURE, WEATHER, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT Alaska, Mount McKinleyLate on July 3, 1991, Polish climber Krzysztof Wiecha (28) began climbing alone to the summit of Mount McKinley from the 17,200 foot camp on the West Buttress route. As Wiecha approache...
Shisha Pangma—First American AscentGlenn PorzakFOR YEARS SHISHA PANGMA (Xixabangma)* was possibly the most remote of the world’s fourteen 8000-meter peaks. As the only 8000er located entirely within Tibet, it was the last of this select group of m...
Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine. Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson, Eric R. Simonson, as told to William E. Nothdurft. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 1999. 80 color photos. 208 pages. $29.95.It was on George Leigh-Mallory’s thi...
NangaParbat, RupalFace, Attempt on the 1970 Messner Route. Our climbers were Canadians Kevin Doyle, Ward Robinson and Barry Blanchard and I from the USA. My first impression of the face from Base Camp was of its similarity to the Eigerwand. Throug...
Falklatids War commemoration; South Georgia traverse with numerous ascents; Mt. Stanley, first ascent; quasi-crossings. In addition to the French expedition described below, the most notable climbing news was ascents of all four peaks that had bee...
Flight Over the Colorado RockiesCarl BlaurockTHE morning of October 11, 1940, broke bright and clear, the mountains clear cut and sharp with their white mantle of snow contrasting against the deep blue of the sky. This was the morning for which we...
Mount Baker, Variation to Roman Nose Route. On June 9, Mike Morrison, Tim Weyand and I climbed what may be little more than a variation to the Roman Nose route on Mount Baker. This route (a.k.a. the Roman Bridge) gains the Roman Nose above the mid...
Kongur Tiubie Attempt. Our twelve-person team followed the southwest route on our attempt on Kongur Tiubie, second highest mountain in the Pamirs. We set up Base Camp, Advance Base and Camps I, II and III at 4600, 5100, 5460, 5850 and 6320 meters ...
The Shishapangma Expedition. Doug Scott and Alex MacIntyre. The Mountaineers, Seattle, 1984. 332 pages, black and white photographs, maps, appendices, bibliography. $18.95.The late Alex MacIntyre and Doug Scott’s account of their expedition to cli...
Unnamed peak on the Spaghetti Glacier, Miyar Valley, The Last Minute Journey. Making an alpine ascent in the Himalaya is often a dream for young climbers. It’s the same as packing only two bags and heading to the big mountains for the most beautif...
Treading Softly on TiedemannMeeting the challenge in Canada’s untrammeled playgroundSimon Richardson, ScotlandThe Combatant-Tiedemann-Asperity Wall is one of the greatest mountain features in Canada. Deep in the heart of British Columbia’s Coast M...
La Montagne. (Published under the direction of Maurice Herzog, with the collaboration of Courthion, Couzy, Escarra, Franco, Grandpierre, Kempf, Languepin, Neltner, Samivel, de Ségogne, Stoupy, Veyret.) Paris: Larousse, 1956. 476 pages; ills.; maps...
Trango Nameless Tower Spanish Attempts. Spaniards very nearly made ascents of the Nameless Tower but could not quite reach the summit. They fixed 750 meters of rope on the lower part of the Kurtyka-Loretan route for seven days. On July 7, José Cha...
CLIMBER UNTIES FROM TEAM - DISAPPEARS DURING SEVERE WEATHER, INEXPERIENCED CLIMBING PARTNERSWashington, Mount Rainier, Gibraltar LedgesOn the morning of July 1, Eric Lewis (57) went missing when his climbing companions discovered that he had uncli...
HILDA ERLANGERHilda Erlanger died on January 3, 1988. She was a member of the American Alpine Club for fifty years, having joined the club in 1938. She climbed extensively in the Alps and listed among her ascents the Jungfrau, Mönch, Finsteraarhom...
K2, west face. Applying the tactics they used successfully on the north face of Jannu in 2004 and the direct north face of Mt. Everest the same year, a Russian team made the first ascent of the west face of K2 (8,611m). After a siege of two and a ...
Pumori Pre-Monsoon Ascent and Attempt. An 11-member Italian expedition was led by Ruggero Zanaini. On April 14, Armando Antola, Franco Brunello and Antonello Martines reached the summit via the southeast face to the east ridge. Less successful wer...
Below Another Sky: A Mountain Adventure in Search of a Lost Father. Rick Ridgeway. New York: Owl Books, 2000. 306 pages, paperback. $15.00.The book begins in 1980, with the young Rick Ridgeway writing about his surviving an avalanche that killed a...
ANDREW MORRISON TAYLOR17 October 1875 — 13 May 1945“Well-known Alaskan ‘sourdough,’ big game hunter, guide and mountaineer.”His parents were born in Scotland (1839), and came to Canada about the time of the War between the States. He was the seven...
The Cordillera Blanca is the world’s highest tropical mountain range, with the greatest concentration of 6,000-meter peaks outside the Himalaya. It has attracted climbers and explorers from around the world since the early twentieth century. In 19...