Mt. Fay, Sans Blitz. Barry Blanchard, Rolando Garibotti, and I skied 17 kilometers into Consolation Lakes on April 13, hauling our packs on sleds and fretting over the two sets of ski tracks in front of us. There had been much talk about climbing ...
P. Jim Ratz 1952-2005Jim Ratz reached an extraordinary number of people with his wisdom and deep friendship. In the weeks after his death in a climbing accident in Sinks Canyon, Wyoming, it became clear that the depth and frequency of communicatio...
Makalu, Southeast Ridge Attempt. Our light-weight expedition attempted the southeast ridge of Makalu without resorting to artificial oxygen or high- altitude porters. We were Renny Jackson, Scott Thorburn, Chas Macquarie, Peter Hollis, Peter Athan...
Juneau Icefield, ski traverse. As a mechanical engineering undergraduate, I studied glacial mechanics on the southern portion the Juneau Icefield of southeast Alaska and northwest British Columbia with Dr. Maynard M. Miller’s Glaciological Institu...
Mike Strassman 1960–2007Mike Strassman, prolific first ascentionist, writer, and video maker was found dead at home in Lone Pine on July 1. He was 47 years old. Mike was best known for directing the 1988 video Moving Over Stone. But as his friends...
In the College Glacier region, numerous 8,000' peaks (the highest peaks in the Delta Mountains south of the Denali Fault) make for good late-April/early-May weekend outings with a small rack of pins and pickets for glacier travel. With various Fai...
Madame Butterfly, Attempt. On August 16, five of us arrived in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, and hired a car to take us to the Chinese border. After changing vehicles at the Kunjerab Pass, we arrived in Kashgar, Xinjang Province, China, on Augus...
Yalung Kang from the North and Tragedy. Our Slovene expedition had as its objective the first ascent of Yalung Kang from the north. There were several possibilities. The most attractive but the least sure and most dangerous was to follow the north...
FALL ON ROCK, FAILURE TO FOLLOW ROUTE, PROTECTION PULLED OUT, INEXPERIENCEWisconsin, Devil's Lake State Park, ResurrectionA climber set out to do a classic route—Resurrection (5.9). Tom was a competent gym climber at 5.10+, but he had no experienc...
Mount Jarvis Ascent and Tragedy, Wrangell Mountains. Japanese climbers Hiroshi Oda and Ichiro Mitoda were flown to the Nebesna Glacier by bush pilot Ken Bunch on April 4. They started alpine-style up the southeast ridge of Mount Jarvis (4091 meter...
Ama Dablam. The first Greek ascent of any Himalayan or Karakoram peak was achieved on April 17 when Mike Tsoukias, Christos Lambris, Konstani- nos Manalis and Sherpa Tenzing went to the top of Ama Dablam with the successful Americans. The Greeks a...
Learning to Rock Climb. Michael Loughman. Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1981. 141 pages, black-and-white photographs, line drawings, glossary. $9.95 paper. $17.95 cloth.Like many climbers in the late fifties and early sixties, I learned to climb fro...
Holtanna, First Ascent, and Various Other Climbs. Holtanna (2650m), situated at the southernmost point of the Fenriskjeften massif in the Dronning Maud Mountains, is a huge granite spur that towers 800 meters above the ice. The first people to tra...
FALL ON ROCK, FAILURE TO FOLLOW ROUTE, INADEQUATE PROTECTION,NO HARD HATCalifornia, Tuolumne MeadowsAllan Chaneles (31) and John Gonzales (30) arrived in Tuolumne Meadows on August 30,1986, at 0200. They had come to the area in the company of Nanc...
Nudo de ApolobambaGeoffrey C. Bratt, Imperial College Mountaineering ClubThe Nudo de Apolobamba is a group of peaks varying in altitude from about 18,000 feet to nearly 20,000 feet, which stretch from Cololo to Yagua Yagua between 14°30´ and 15° S...
CLIMBING ANNAPURNA sounds reasonable, but why all women?” people ask. “Few American women ever get a chance to climb that high, to lead, or even to participate in a major expedition,” Arlene Blum would say. “No American woman has ever climbed to 8...
A Touch Too Much?The first ascent of Changabang ’s north faceby Mick FowlerI squatted uncomfortably over the public toilet hole in the airport customs building. It was the first full day of the trip and already diarrhea was dripping simultaneously...
Nevado Ulta, northwest bowl, attempt. After aborting our plan to climb the southeast face of Jirishanca (6,126m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash, due to storm and illness, Jeremy Frimer (Canada) and I returned to the Cordillera Blanca in July and atte...
Chimbote sits about 100km east of Santiago, near Mt. Polleras and the Tupungato Volcano. Despite many attempts since 1944, it remained unclimbed. It is guarded by a difficult approach, flanked by big mountains and deep valleys. Access is via the...
Mount Fairweather, The First Ten AscentsBradford WashburnMOUNT FAIRWEATHER is one ofAlaska’s most beautiful peaks. Rising to an altitude of 15,300 feet, yet only 16 miles from the beaches of the Gulf of Alaska, it is one of the world’s highest coa...