Almirante Nieto, East Face. Chad Peele and Jeff Brandner attempted a route on the east face of Almirante Nieto. The pair reported poor rock with no protection; the snow crossing was fine. From Las Torres Camp (820'), it took them 17 hours to reach...
North Peak, North Face. Although a route existed up a gully on the north side of the 12,242-foot peak, Barry Hagen and I were quite surprised to find that the steep 800-foot north face proper was untouched. In July we began our route from the nort...
Annapurna III, South Face and West Ridge. Our expedition was composed of Peter Melling, Robin Whittam, Alan Deakin, Eric Penman, John Whittock, my wife Linda and me as leader. We had hoped to make a new route on Annapurna III. We left Kathmandu on...
Dhaulagiri I. The first Belgian expedition to the Himalaya, led by Eduard Apts, climbed Dhaulagiri by the standard northeast ridge. They set up Camps I, II, III and IV at 16,900, 18,700, 21,325 and 23,625 feet on April 9, 12, 17 and 23 respectivel...
Desert Rock: Rock Climbs in the National Parks. Eric Bjornstad, graphics by Chris Becker. Chockstone Press, Evergreen, Colorado, 1996. 242 pages. $20.00.Comment: One of four titles in Bjornstad’s Desert Rock series, this one includes a subjective ...
Harvard Mountaineering Club. The year 1965 was an outstanding one for the H.M.C., with members taking part in significant ascents on at least three continents. It was also a tragic year, with Ed Bernd, vice- president elect, and Craig Merrihue, a ...
Pamirs and Tian Shan, 1970. Soviet climbers continued making excellent difficult climbs, as reported in Alpinismus of January, 1971. Two extremely hard new routes were made on the highest peak in the Soviet Union, Pik Kommunisma (24,547 feet) in t...
La Fortaleza, Paine Group, Patagonia. A very strong British expedition made the first ascent on January 5, 1968 of La Fortaleza (9040 feet) in the Paine group. We are grateful to the leader, Ian Clough, for details of the climb. Clough was accompa...
Huantsán, Southwestern Summit. On my suggestion, the Gallarate section of the Club Alpino Italiano chose to attempt the ascent of Huantsán (20,981 feet) by its south ridge. Members were Dr. Sandro Liati, leader and doctor; Carmelo di Pietro, Anton...
FALL ON SNOW, WEATHER, EXPOSURE, MOVING TOO SLOWLYWashington, Mount Ranier, Liberty RidgeOn May 29, Mount Rainier National Park communications received a 911 cell phone call from a climbing team at St. Elmo’s Pass. They were requesting a rescue fo...
Shipton Spire, Ship of Fools. Anders Lundquist, Mattias Jakobsson, Karl Ljung and I reached Base Camp on June 21. After organizing the equipment and admiring what is probably the most beautiful Base Camp in the Karakoram, we started ferrying equip...
Shartse Attempt and Tragedy. Erick Bourdais, Jean-Marc Perrot and I had hoped to climb Shartse by its south col and ridge. We established Base Camp at the foot of Island Peak at 5300 meters on October 14 and Camp I at 5600 meters after crossing th...
Assiniboine and Robson Variants. Slovenes Tomo Virk, Dr. Martina Zupan-cic, Tatjana Cerar and I did many ascents in the Canadian Rockies, Bugaboos and Squamish in September. On September 4, Virk and I climbed a new variant on the steep right side ...
Graham Zimmerman and I left camp at 10:45 a.m. on January 25,2010, just after it stopped raining and snowing. At 2:30 p.m. we stood at the base of the previously unclimbed east face of Cerro Los Gemelos, or the Twins. The first pitch was a 5.9R ...
FALL ON SNOW, FALL INTO CREVASSE, WEATHER Oregon, Mount HoodOn July 11, 1987, at 0400, Arthur Anderson (59), Elmer Parrott (40) and Robert Cooke (30) left Timberline Lodge to start their ascent to the summit of Mount Hood. Being the most experienc...
STRANDED, LATE START, WEATHER, EXPOSURE, PROBABLE FALL ON SNOW/ ICE (TWO), AND HYPOTHERMIA (ONE)Oregon, Mount Hood, Cooper SpurThis high profile accident used such technological search tools as airborne thermal imaging, unmanned drones, and cellph...
Churen Himal West Attempt. Korean Kim Byoung-Hoon and a companion wanted to climb Churen Himal West by the west ridge. Kim and a Sherpa reached Camp II at 19,500 feet on April 5 but the next day he gave up because of frequent avalanches and the ve...
Cerro El Cóndor, possible first ascent and other ascents. In February and March some friends and I climbed Antofalla, a 6,409m (GPS 6,470m) volcano approximately 80km southeast of Llullaillaco. On the summit we found a 8m x 6m platform made by Inc...
Colorado: (1) Needle Mountains. On 2 September 1951 Dale Johnson, a 20-year-old Colorado University student from Colorado Springs, fell 55 feet while climbing with one companion, Harry Nance of Denver. Neither the cause of the accident nor the par...
Proboscis, Logan Mountains. In August, Spaniards José María Codina and Joaquím Olmo climbed the southeast face of Proboscis. They fixed rope on the lower half of the 700-meter-high wall. Their route probably mostly followed the 1963 first-ascent r...