Chang Himal, north face. In the autumn Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman made the first ascent of the 1,800m north face of Chang Himal (6,802m). The pair climbed the central spur in four days, finding the main difficulties on a series of rock bands, ...
LIGHTNING—Wyoming, Grand Teton. Jane Constantino (28) and Ralph Hill were climbing the Petzoldt Ridge on the Grand when a large thunderstorm, including hail and snow, hit them from the west. The party reached the notch at the top of the lower ridg...
FALL ON ICE, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONMaine, Acadia National Park, Dorr MountainAbout 1245 on January 8, Sam Woodward (50), an experienced climber from Surry, was almost at the top of a 70 foot ice route called “The Bulge” when he fell. He does not re...
Mount Waddington Area. In July, 1980, Chris LaRocca and I failed in an attempt to climb Mount Waddington. We did enjoy success on nearby Mounts Argiewicz, Dragonback (“Shand”), and Claw Peak. In July, 1981, we returned with Gus Benner and Joe Davi...
hWyoming, Grand Teton National Park (7),Teepe’s Pillar—On September 6, Joseph E. Murphy (29) and Charles Crush were rappelling off Teepe’s Pillar. A piton pulled out and Murphy fell about 15 to 20 feet landing in a sitting position. Crush had gone...
El Capitan, Lurking Fear, First Free Ascent. We’d come to free the Muir. My partner wigged at the possibility of being bombed by the crowds on The Shield, even after we had onsighted 11 pitches up to Mammoth Terraces. So he went home. Orphaned and...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, NO HARD HATCalifornia, Yosemite ValleyOn May 28, 1978, at 8 a.m., Phillip Bard (29) and Gary Gissendaner (21) began climbing Quarter Dome’s north face. The climb went well, with an average of a pitch an hour be...
Cholatse, northeast face, third ascent, with variation finish. After our ascent of Kyajo Ri described above, we trekked to the foot of Cholatse (6,440m), arriving below the northeast face on November 2. This was Seth’s second visit to the mountain...
California, Yosemite National Park, El Capitan. On April 12, Paul Delany (22) and Charles Raymond (20) attempted “the slack” route on the southwest side of El Capitan. The accident occurred on the second pitch. Raymond had just finished the most d...
FALL ON SNOW, SKIING, INEXPERIENCE British Columbia, Coast Mountains, Wedge MountainA party of four had been helicoptered to the summit of Wedge Mountain on July 7, 1980, and was descending the northwest couloir on skis. Gerhard Slinger (27) had s...
Aleta del Tiburon, West Face. In March, 1997, a Chilean expedition called Amerindia II climbed two variations to the normal route in two teams. Team A, Claudio Retamal and Danielo Benavente, climbed Ilusión Para Dos (5.8) in 15 pitches from 7 a.m....
CANADAINADEQUATE BELAY-CLIMBER LOWERED TOO QUICKLYAlberta, Jasper National Park, Malign CanyonOn February 10, at 1600, a Jasper Warden was contacted via cell phone by B.C., who reported his partner had stabbed his right knee with his left crampon ...
Broken Tooth South Face. Mugs Stump and Steve Quinlan completed a new route, the second, on the Broken Tooth in mid-May, when they spent four days on the south face. They found two good bivouac sites a third and two-thirds of the way up the 22 pit...
Chulu West. A four-man Taiwanese team was under my leadership. On April 12 Chang Ming-lung and Jangbu Sherpa reached the summit of Chulu West (6583 meters, 21,598 feet) at 6:10 P.M. They had spent ten hours from Camp II at 20,000 feet because of t...
On June 8 Žarko Trušnovec, Slavko Sveticic, Milan Cernilogar and I set up Base Camp at 14,750 feet in the Aguas Calientes valley. After some bad weather we moved up to bivouac on the glacier below the northwest face of Illampu, but without Cernilo...
Caucasus Ski Traverse. I made two attempts on the ski traverse of the Caucasus. The first attempt was in 1994, in which the party managed the first part of the traverse. On the second attempt the party failed on the first part, but completed the s...
Peaks in the Cordilleras de Potosí and Quimsa Cruz. Few ascents in the Cordillera de Potosí have been reported since 1903. This is a range of unglaciated rock peaks, located east of that famous colonial city. The first mountaineer to visit it was ...
PROBABLE CORNICE COLLAPSE, CLIMBING ALONEWashington, Mount IndexOn March 23, 1982, Alan Van Lue (29) left his vehicle at a KOA campground near Mount Index. On March 27, when he had not returned for it, the campground management notified the sherif...
At 0030 on August 9, 1984, Todd Mazzola (22) and Michael Dougherty (22) reported that they, their climbing partner, Craig Thomas (26) and a separate climbing party, Paul Augustine (40) and Eric Hutchinson (20), were sleeping on Dinner Ledge on the...
Caliban, Xanadu, The Maidens and Shot Tower, Arrigetch Peaks, Brooks Range. In Late June and early July, Bob McGregor, Yan Marrand, Gary Brill and I flew to Circle Lake from Betties and then hiked to an airdrop site near the head of Arrigetch Cree...