El Gran Trono Blanco, Baja California. On March 25 Brian Cox, Werner Landry and I completed a new route on the south face of El Gran Trono Blanco, possibly one of the finest lines of its length in the Cañón Tajo. Henri Agresti, his wife Isabelle a...
With Dave Moles-worth and Misha Sukhorukov I made my second visit to Kyrgyzstan’s mountains, this time exploring the Torugart-too (Khrebet Torugart), which lies close to the Torugart Pass into China. Discovering that Pat Littlejohn’s ISM expeditio...
The historic first ascent of Yosemite Valley’s El Capitan in 1958 opened a new era in Yosemite climbing. In subsequent years, three additional routes, each over 2500 feet in height, were established on the great monolith. El Capitan’s great heig...
Kara-Su Valley, north face of a ridge east of Piramidalny summit. The Karavshin Valley in southern Kyrgyzstan was eerily deserted in the fall. There were no large groups of climbers on the towering granite faces (as in the Soviet era), and no figh...
In February 1953, the Swiss couple, Dr. and Mme. Fred Marmillod and the Argentinians Francisco Ibáñez and Francisco Grajales made the first ascent of the south ridge of Aconcagua (23,036 ft.). The climbers reported that although the route was not ...
To mountaineers the Himalaya means the high snow-clad chain of peaks which stretches 2400 kilometers from Nanga Parbat to Namche Barwa. To the major governments of South Asia, however, the area of primary importance is the plains below the mountai...
Snow Mountains of Irian JayaGeoffrey C. TabinTHERE ARE FEW mountain ranges less known or more interesting than the Snow Mountains of Irian Jaya. Thrusting above the equatorial jungles in the heart of the island of New Guinea, the Snow Mountains co...
Mukut Parbat Attempt. I led a Paratroopers expedition to Mukut Parbat (7242 meters, 23,760 feet) on the Indo-Tibetan border. The mountain had been climbed only once before, by New Zealanders in 1951. They climbed the northwest ridge from the Dakhn...
FALL ON ROCK-DISLOCATED SHOULDERWyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Symmetry SpireAt 1330 on September 11, the Exum Mountain Guides’ office received a call from Guide Gary Falk, guide, on Jensen ridge of Symmetry Spire. Falk stated that a client h...
Wet snow entered the neck of my Gore-Tex. Looking up, my eyes stung with pain as the weather hammered down. I pulled up my hood. I couldn’t help smiling. Out in the mist, ten meters horizontally to the left of me, Gunnar was swinging on the belay-...
Central Borkoldoy, exploration and various first ascents. The central area of the Borkoldoy range in southeast Kyrgyzstan is a group of superb “alpine” peaks that are well-defended on every side by chains of slightly lower mountains. They are nort...
FALL ON ROCK, INADEQUATE PROTECTION, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENTNew Mexico, Sandia Mountains, Gemstone AreaThree friends went out climbing at the Gemstone Area on the climb Seam- ingly Hard, a run-out 5.10, mixed bolted and natural gear seem that is to t...
Grill, genannt Kederbacher, by Fritz Schmitt. 243 pages, with illustrations. Munich : Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, 1935. Price RM. 3.80.Der Sepp, by Karl Springenschmid. 361 pages. Munich : Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, 1935. Price RM. 6.Junger Mensch im...
Dhaulagiri Direct North Face. Rick Allen describes in a full article earlier in the Journal his experiences with a Russian expedition which made a difficult new route on the north face of Dhaulagiri.
A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya. Stephen Venables. London: Hutchinson, 2000. Hardcover. 208 pages (copy reviewed). And New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2001. Paperback. 256 pages. $14.95.Stephen Venables’ A Slender Thread: Esca...
Preliminary Scientific Report of the 1959 American Himalayan Expedition. The scientific aims of the party included surveying of the inaccurately mapped area of central Nepal that was visited and reconaissance geology and glaciology. Since the expe...
ANCHOR FAILURE—SLING BURNED THROUGH, INEXPERIENCE California, Yosemite Valley, Reed’s PinnacleOn June 12, 1994, four Swiss climbers were top roping an unnamed 60 foot pitch in the corner formed by the left side of Reeds Pinnacle. Fabian Nuescheler...
First Ascents in the Revelation MountainsDavid S. RobertsOn September 23, 1966, Rick Millikan and Art Davidson made the first ascent of Kichatna Spire, the highest of the spectacular Cathedral Spires. At sunset, standing on the tiny summit of this...
Green Cognac: The Education of a Mountain Fighter. William Lowell Putnam. American Alpine Club Press. New York, 1991. 288 pages, 52 black-and- white photographs, 9 maps. $35.00.Most books and articles about the 10th Mountain Division in World War ...
On July 12 Rentaro Nishijima and the Indian guide Kumchuk Thines made the first ascent of Barma Kangri. High-altitude porter Pemba Norbu, Thines, and I (75 years old) repeated the route on the 17th. We were the first non-Indian party to climb in t...