Magician Needle, Sidewalk Surprise, The Needles. In September Dick Leversee and I climbed this route on the east face of Magician Needle. From the broad saddle between Magician and its neighbor to the east, notice a prominent ramp, “The Sidewalk,”...
Peaks on Middle Kahiltna and Attempt on Moose’s Tooth. On May 26 Don Sheldon flew Margaret Young and me singly in his ski-wheeled super-cub from Talkeetna to a tributary of the middle part of the Kahiltna Glacier and to the east of it. We cruised ...
On February 14, David Shoemaker (21) and Paul Flanagan (21) were climbing in Huntington Ravine. Leaving Pinkham Notch in the late morning, they hitched a ride with Brad Ray of the United States Forest Service up to Huntington Ravine. Ray left them...
Mount Temple, First Winter Ascent. On January 3, 1969, Dave Haley and I climbed Mount Temple. From camp in Paradise valley below Sentinel Pass, two hours of wallowing in waist-deep snow took us to the pass. From there we followed the wind-blown so...
RAPPEL /LOWERING FAILURE–ROPE END PASSED THROUGH BELAY DEVICEColorado, Eldorado State ParkThe route Washington Irving (5.6) is on the West Ridge and starts from a ledge 30 feet from the base of the rock that requires a fourth class scramble for ac...
Gasherbrum II Attempts. Five Austrians led by Helmut Gaubmann failed at 7400 meters when Norbert Fischbacher contracted cerebral edema. He was evacuated in a delicate operation with the help of the Swiss expedition that had been cooperating with t...
Leo Pargiyal, Punjab. The leader of an Indian Armed Forces expedition to Leo Pargiyal (22,210 feet), Captain P. S. Bakshi, the veteran sirdar Gyalzen Mikchung, who had recently made the first ascent of Jannu with the French, and the young Sherpa K...
Wyoming, Tetons, Middle Teton. On July 10 Allan Summers (47) and Buford Brauninger were making an ascent of the Middle Teton via the Middle Teton Glacier. They had completed the climb up the Glacier and were just going from the snow to the rock, w...
Gurreholm party: I.H.M. Smart, J. Cannon, P.F. Brown. We left Mestersvig by helicopter on July 11 and landed in the Schuchert valley after leaving a food dump at the Roslin Snout and Bjornbos glaciers for the mountaineering parties. We spent four ...
Mt. Snoqualmie, North Face, first free ascent and speed ascent of New York Gully. Thanks to a weak snow year and cold temperatures in January and February, N.Y.G. received more ascents over a few weeks than the handful it’s seen since its first as...
ILLNESS-ABDOMINAL PAIN, MISCOMMUNICATION-FAILURE TO DISCLOSE MEDICAL CONDITIONAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressOn June 9 at the 16,700-foot level of the West Buttress of Mt. McKinley, Lai Yuk Man (3 8) collapsed from abdominal distress and was...
Pumori, South Ridge. After a strenuous 18-day approach with 160 porters under torrential rains, we established Base Camp on October 3 on the moraine of the Khumbu Glacier at 17,500 feet. The peak appeared wintery and morale sank as it snowed for t...
Castle Rock, North Ridge. This new direct class 5.5 route in the Tumwater Canyon practice area was done in September by Roger Oborn and me, and lies to the left of the Northwind Route. Starting with a strenuous free move to above a small overhang,...
Everest, Basque Expedition. Our expedition was composed of Juan Ignacio Lorente, leader, Juan Ramón Arrue, Xabier Erro, Xavier Garayoa, Luis María Saenz de Olazagoitia, Angel Rosen, Emilio Hernando, Enrique de Pablos, Felipe Uriarte, José Urbieta,...
Juneau Icefield. The Juneau Icefield Research Program carried out its 24th year of field research in alpine and arctic geology in the Northern Boundary Range. In late July Dr. Wayne M. Smith, Harte Bressler, Louis Miller and John Schutt made the s...
El Capitan, Dawn Direct. In September I embarked on another solo mission to climb new terrain on El Capitan. I had scoped this line on the southeast face since I climbed Mescalito in 2004, enabling me a good up-close look at the features. The rout...
Kangde Hiunchuli, Patrasi Himal. A three-man expedition of the Tokai University Alpine Club, led by Kazutoshi Nagasawa, established Base Camp at the foot of Kangde Hiunchuli (about 23,000 feet) on September 7. With only two advance camps, Norio Ho...
Peak 29 Attempt. A badly equipped and badly funded British Army expedition led by James Green failed on Peak 29. They reached 19,400 feet on October 23 on the southeast ridge.Michael J. Cheney, Himalayan Club, and Elizabeth Hawley
South Troll, Pure Retro. In June Brian Teale, Kirsten Kremer, and I completed a new route (Pure Retro, V 5.10+) on the obvious west pillar of the South Troll. It is immediately right of a twin crack I soloed in 1988. The approach is easy and obvio...
Thunder Mountain, Tangled Up in Blue; and other new routes. Alaska veterans Jay Smith and Jack Tackle climbed four new routes in May, culminating in the prized first ascent of the 4,000' north face of Thunder Mountain, climbed in lightweight alpin...