Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
South America, Peru, Cordillera Vilcabamba, Pumasillo Group, Multiple Ascents

Pumasillo Group, multiple ascents. Sean Easton and I spent 20 days in the Pumasillo group of the Cordillera Vilcabamba, in south-central Peru. It is quite hard to describe the mountains we climbed because the new government 1:100,000 topos have ma...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
North America, United States, California, Sierra Nevada, Peak 11,998, The Crooked Walnut

Peak 11,998, The Cooked Walnut. The LeConte Divide in general holds little of interest for the technical climber. Rising above Arctic Lake, however, is a beautiful north face that has escaped even the notice of Fred Beckey. On August 31, Rick Boyc...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
North America, United States, Wyoming — Wind River Range, New Fork Lakes Buttress, 1990

New Fork Lakes Buttress, 1990. About six miles up from the New Fork Lakes Trailhead lies a large south-facing granite wall to the left above the trail, visible from the road driving into New Fork Lakes. I have heard it referred to as the China Wal...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, India-Eastern Karakoram, Rimo I Attempt, Eastern Karakoram

Rimo I Attempt, Eastern Karakoram. The Indo-Intemational Rimo-Shyok Expedition had three goals. Our plan was to approach Rimo I via the Depsang Plain, an 18,000-foot plateau which rolls off into Tibet and which no foreigner had traversed since Eri...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, Pakistan, Uli Biaho Tower, South Face, and Solo on the Great Trango Tower

Uli Biaho Tower, South Face, and Solo on the Great Trango Tower. Our group consisted of Rosanna Manfrini, Maurizio Venzo, Kurt Walde and me as leader. On June 4, we placed Base Camp at 4300 meters on the side of the Trango Glacier. For two weeks i...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, Nepal, Manaslu Tragedy

Manaslu Tragedy. Our climbing members were Nancy Jackson, John Petroske, Dr. Charles Schertz, Steve Stockmyer, Howard Weaver, Canadian Dr. John Haigh and I as leader. Dave Gordon was Base Camp manager. We left Gorkha on March 3 with 120 porters an...


Book Reviews AAJ
Vertigo Games

Vertigo Games is a collection of chatty, informal tales of Colorado climbing from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s. All major areas are represented, as are many minor ones, with rock climbing justifiably being the major focus. The text is liberall...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, India—Himachal Pradesh, Ali Tarni Tibba, West Face, Kulu

Ali Ratni Tibba, West Face, Kulu. Our seven-man expedition went to Kulu to climb alpine-style. On June 4 to 6 Alan Burgess, Bob Toogood, Bob Dearman and I climbed the 4500-foot-high granite west face of Ali Ratni Tibba. Spending 2½ days on the fac...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, Nepal, Everest

Everest. Our members were Patxi Fernández, Mikel Reparaz, Juan Tomás, José Ramón Zubizarreta, Félix Iñurrategui, Juan María Eguillor, Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Josu Bereciartua, Alberto Iñurrategui and I as leader. We climbed the standard South Col rou...


Club Activities AAJ
Spokane Mountaineers

Spokane Mountaineers. A seasoned organization founded in Spokane in 1915 makes its AAJ debut in this report. It was easily predictable that a climbing club should have an early start in such surroundings as those accessible from Spokane. Here with...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
South America, Argentina, Mercedario, First Winter Ascent

Mercedario, First Winter Ascent. Many parties had attempted the winter ascent of Mercedario (6770 meters, 22,212 feet), fourth highest in the Americas, but all had had to retreat under extreme conditions. In June, Mauricio Fernández, Carlos Domíng...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, Pakistan, Karakoram, Batura Muztagh, Peak 5,772m, Attempt

Peak 5,772m, attempt. Our three-man team (Wojciech Chaladaj, Jakub Galka, and Marcin Kruczyk) hoped to attempt unclimbed Purian Sar North (6,247m) in July. However, the bag containing the majority of our climbing gear was lost at Heathrow Airport ...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
North America, United States, Alaska, Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, Mount Bona and P 11,920

Mount Bona and PI1,920. On May 30, Paul Claus of Ultima Thule Outfitters landed Ruedi Homberger and Stefan Wyss of Switzerland and myself at approximately 10,300 feet on the upper Hawkins Glacier under the immense south face of Mount Bona (16,421'...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, India, Trisul

Trisul, 23,360 ft., which for twenty years was the highest summit ever reached has just been climbed a second time, when on June 21st, 1933, P. O. Oliver and Kesar Sing effected its ascent. The first ascent was made on June 12th, 1907, by T. G. Lo...


Accident Reports ANAM
Avalanche and Climbing Alone—Colorado, Mt. Ypsilon

AVALANCHE AND CLIMBING ALONE—Colorado, Mt. Ypsilon. At 8:43 a.m. on July 6, 1976, Christopher Sommer telephoned ROMO Dispatch to report an overdue friend, Jim Boicourt (29). Sommer believed Boicourt to be in the Ypsilon Lake area. A trailhead chec...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, China, Qionglai Range, Siguniang National Park, Tan Shan and Putala Shan, First Ascents via Difficult Rock Routes

Tan Shan and Putala Shan, first ascents via difficult rock routes. My wife Tanja Grmovsek and I planned to visit the Qionglai Mountains in the spring of 2003 but due to the outbreak of the SARS virus just a few days before leaving for China we had...


Accident Reports ANAM
Accidents Occurring in 1958 not Previously Reported, Wyoming, Sherman Mountains

Wyoming, Sherman Mountains—On October 16, Jim Burton (18), Floyd Young (18), Slyvan Brown (18), and Terry Richardson started to climb Piton Perch a rock climb of 200 vertical feet.Three of the climbers ascended Piton Perch and the fourth climber s...


Accident Reports ANAM
Fall on Ice, Placed No Protection, Alberta, Rocky Mountains, Mt. Deltaform

FALL ON ICE, PLACED NO PROTECTIONAlberta, Rocky Mountains, Mt. DeltaformJock Richardson (19), Cam Cairns (19), and Mike Down (20) started at 0330 hours on 17 August 1977 to climb the first steep pitch on the north face glacier route on Mt. Deltafo...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, India—Garhwal, Shivling and Bhagirathi III Attempts

Shivling and Bhagirathi III Attempts. Fabrizio Defrancesco, Stefano Nicolussi and I hoped to climb the Indo-Tibetan Border Police route on the west ridge of Shivling and the southwest buttress of Bhagirathi III. We got to Base Camp at the foot of ...


Climbs And Expeditions AAJ
Asia, Nepal, Mount Everest, West Ridge Attempt in Winter

Mount Everest, West Ridge Attempt in Winter. Over the winter of 1980-81 Adrian and Alan Burgess, Brian Hall, Paul Nunn, Alan Rouse, Joe Tasker, Dr. Peter Thexton and I attempted the west ridge via the Lho La. We were accompanied by a three-man fil...