Black and White is a great new route on solid rock typical of the remarkable Hand of Fatima. The first time we studied the line from the desert below, it was around mid-day and the temperature felt like 60°C. Our eyes followed the shadow of Kaga T...
LOST-WEATHER, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENTWashington, Mount Rainier, Muir snowfieldOn Sunday, September 16th at 6:00 p.m., Chris Stanko and Alex Mondau contacted a Park Ranger at Paradise and reported that their partner Phil Michael was overdue. The pair ...
Chinchey, Chaco. Our expedition, composed of Giacomo Casartelli, Luciano Gilardoni, Riccardo Soresini, Enrico Tettamanti, Marco Zappa and me as leader, climbed in the Quebrada Honda. Base Camp was on a lake at 14,600 feet. We placed Camp I up the ...
Nithi Gorge, Opium of the People. Alex Fiksman and I climbed a new route in the Nithi Gorge over two days in December. The initial goal was to climb the “prow” at the mouth of the gorge (which was climbed a few weeks later by a team from the UK—se...
RAPPEL ANCHOR INADEQUATE, NO RELAY, NO HARD HATWest Virginia, Cooper’s Rock State ForestOn Saturday, July 21, 1990, Dan Audley (31), Marty Donahue and six Boy Scouts stopped on their way home from Camp Mountaineer to do some rappelling. They were ...
High-Altitude Archeology and Andean Mountain GodsJohan ReinhardANTHROPOLOGISTS who climb normally must wait for free time to get into the mountains. Even when we study mountain peoples, such as the Sherpas of Nepal, the research rarely involves cl...
Hardeol and Tirsuli. A 43-member team from the Indian Border Security Force was led by S.C. Negi. On September 24, T.R. Angdoo, Jumma Khan, Jamuna Prasad, Naresh Singh and S.D. Thomas climbed over a 22,500-foot foresummit and reached the summit (7...
On Belay! The Life of Legendary Mountaineer Paul Petzoldt. Raye C. Ringholz. Mountaineers Books: Seattle, 1998. 272 pages. $24.95.Paul Petzoldt is a mountaineering icon who, at 91 years of age, represents a lifetime of achievement in exploration, ...
INADEQUATE BELAY, CLIMBER LOWERED OFF END OF ROPE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT — ROPE TOO SHORTColorado, Clear Creek Canyon, Highlander CragOn December 20, 2009, a 35-year-old man climbing with his girlfriend fell 20 to 25 feet. They were climbing in Cle...
A Century of Mountaineering. 1857-1957, by Arnold Lunn. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1957. 263 pages; 8 plates in color; 16 plates from photographs. Price 25 s.This handsome volume, uniform in size and style with “The Mountain World” ser...
Mount Foraker, Ski Descent of the Sultana Ridge. On May 28, Julie Faure, Jim Hopkins, and I assembled at Kahiltna Base Camp to attempt to climb Mounts Foraker and Crosson and descend both on freeheel skis. Montecucco and Hopkins warmed up with an ...
FALL ON ROCK, PLACED NO PROTECTION California, Yosemite Valley, El CapitanOn May 16, 1992, while climbing the second pitch of “The Nose” route on El Capitan, Bruce Burns (37) fell about 60 feet while leading. He was injured, and was unconscious fo...
In one of the more remote valleys of that sub-arctic rain forest called the Canadian Rockies, there is a mountain wall which acts like a strong drug on the mind of the observer. So dark, sheer, and gloomy is the North Face of North Twin, like a ...
FALL ON SNOW, EXPOSURE, HYPOTHERMIA, HACE, FROSTBITE,INEXPERIENCEAlaska, Mount McKinleyOn April 27,1994, Pauline Brandon (33) and Richard Tyler (28) began their climb of the West Buttress of Mount McKinley. On May 5, solo climber Trigger Twig enco...
Minya Konka, eighth ascent and new route on nearby Eva Shan. If you love sunny places, Sichuan isn’t the area of your dreams. The climbers of French High Mountain Military Group went there last autumn to climb Minya Konka (or Gongga Shan 7,556m). ...
Seven Days on Huascarán’s East FaceFranz Six, Österreichischer AlpenvereinUNDER THE MOST difficult conditions we two Austrian mountain guides, Alois Indrich and I, succeeded in 1979 in making a new direct route in the central part of the east face...
Kaxkar Attempt. A 9-member Japanese expedition tried unsuccessfully to climb Kaxkar (6347 meters, 20,824 feet), which lies 15 kilometers south of what the Chinese call Tomur and the Soviets Pik Pobedy. They got to 5200 meters on the southeast side.
Purian Sar. Shinichi Hotta led the Kyoto Karakoram Club expedition to Purian Sar, after waiting for 20 days for a flight from Rawalpindi to Gilgit. They traveled through Imit and Bilhanz, to Base Camp at Bad Swat at 12,175 feet, which they reached...
BACK STRAINAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn May 11, Robert Gray of the “CFS” party twisted his back at the 14,200 foot camp on the West Buttress of Mt. McKinley. Gray’s condition deteriorated over the next several days, and by the 13th he c...
My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus, By A.F. Mummery. 5 South Union Street, Lawrence, Massachusetts, 01843: Quarterman Publications, 1974. 360 pages, 31 illustrations. Price: $15.00.This reprint of Mummery’s famous book is an unabridged republicati...