STRANDED, INEXPERIENCE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT, FEARColorado, Eldorado Canyon State Park, Wind TowerOn September 10, two young men (20, 21) and a young woman (22) climbed up about 250 feet on the East Face of Wind Tower and became stranded when they...
Khan Tengri, Tien Shan, First Winter Ascent. The most notable event of the 1991-2 winter season in the high Asian mountains was the first winter ascent of the marble pyramid Khan Tengri (6995 or 7010 meters, 22,950 or 22,999 feet). One of the worl...
Wisteria Tower, Autumn Sonata, Palisades. In August, Chip Salaun and I climbed Autumn Sonata (III, 5.10). The route ascends the central crack system of the Wisteria Tower, the next prominent buttress 100 feet downhill from the Great Chimney Buttre...
CEREBRAL EDEMA, EXHAUSTION, BAD WEATHERAlaska, Mt. McKinleyOn the morning of June 22, while at 14,000 feet on the West Buttress, Charles Prentice (33) complained of headache. His group carried a load to 16,500 and Prentice did as well as the other...
Shigri Parbat. A British expedition led by Adrian Lagnado climbed Shigri Parbat (6526 meters, 21,410 feet) on the Lahul-Spiti divide. They approached via the Bara Shigri Glacier. On September 13, Lagnado, Paul Hart and Bob Newbry reached the summi...
South Tower, Various Ascents. Jorge Casanova K., Dario Arancibia and Andres Babarca made a one-punch ascent of the Aste route (1250 meters, 5.10+ A1) in 32 hours from the Japanese camp to the summit, alpine-style, on December 30, 1996. We climbed ...
Princeton Outing Club. The recently established Princeton Outing Club, though interested primarily in skiing, includes a small group of members who have taken to rock climbing under thesupervision of Weir Stewart, William Douglas and Bruce Hall, w...
Glacier National Park, New Ice and Alpine Routes. New routes in Glacier National Park often come in flurries, largely because they depend on rare combinations of fair weather and minimal avalanche hazard. Such was the case in 1998, when climbers e...
Ausangate, Northwest Face. Louis Deuber, Harald Navé and I climbed the hanging glacier on the northwest face of Ausangate alpine-style from July 27 to August 1 and descended the normal route on the south. It was an impressive ice climb with severa...
Sune Tamm-Buckle (“The Young Swede”) and I departed late for a bivy in the moraine, where we proceeded to “get dizzy.” Sune, bringing only a bivy sack, shivered the night away while I slept, warm and cozy in my down bag.We woke at 3 a.m. on Septem...
Other First Ascents, Canadian Rockies. The first ascent of the northeast ridge and face of Mount Colin, in Jasper Park, was made on July 20 by Don Linke, Pat Payne, and Eric Hopkins. A minor peak of Mount Termier, west of the main summit, about 90...
Tocllaraju and Ranrapalca. Carlos Buhler, Sharon Wood and I set up camp in the Quebrada Ishinca in early June. We made several acclimatization climbs, including Urus Oeste and Ishinca. We stayed away from the normal ridge climbs on other peaks in ...
Various ascents and ski descents. The name, bestowed in 1778 by the range’s discoverer, Captain James Cook, is itself a curiosity. The Fairweather Range experiences some of the world’s worst weather, including over 100 annual inches of precipitati...
FALLING ROCKUtah, Arches National ParkOn March 7, a large rockfall occurred during a technical rock rescue training session being conducted in the Park. Seventeen people were attending the training. The rock, estimated to be between 30 and 40 feet...
Tres Marias group and Chachacomani, Various Ascents. Britons Phil Amos and Adam Thomas spent three weeks in this area of the central Cordillera Real. The Tres Marias is a triple-peaked ridge east of the distinctive Chachacomani (6074m), a.k.a. “Ch...
Cerro Torre, First Female Ascent. Italians Maurizio Giordani and Rosanna Manfrini arrived in the early southern spring below Cerro Torre. Only ten days after their arrival the two completed the Maestri route on the peak, reaching the summit on Oct...
Everest Attempt. The French Military Expedition to Qomolangma (Mount Everest) was composed of 28 Frenchmen: General of Division Pierre Astorg, leader; two adjutants in charge of logistics, two physicians, cook, interpreter, journalist, radio-opera...
Poincenot, North Face, New Route. Dean Potter and I went to Patagonia in early January, 2001. Last season we’d had a summit frenzy in a brief weather spell, climbing fast routes to reach the summits of Saint Exupery and Innominata, both from the w...
Mount Brooks, South Summit, East Ridge. Scott Gill and I climbed the east ridge of Mount Brooks to the south summit on June 29. This is a new route. The climb consisted of endless hours of post-holing in soft, unconsolidated snow. The final 75 met...
California, Tahquitz Rock. On 17 August, D. H. Gilbert (33) and his wife were ascending a relatively easy 5-pitch climb that he had led at least six times before. He was about three moves into a moderate lieback, having placed a one-inch nylon sli...