Dhaulagiri Attempt and Tragedy. After our success on Indrasan in April, the Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne hoped to climb Dhaulagiri in September and October, one group by the east face and the other by the normal route. In the second week of ...
Rajuntay, South Ridge, Cordillera Central. An experienced Italian group traveled to the Italian Alpine Club hut in the Santa Eulalia valley. On August 2 they moved to a 14,775-foot base in the valley opposite the one where the hut was. Camp I was ...
Kalanag. Despite the fact that Kalanag was first climbed in 1957 and that there have been numerous ascents since, our group of Dartmouth students, with limited mountaineering experience, undertook its challenge. Inspired by Freshman Rupin Dang, so...
Mount Vancouver, North Buttress, 1975. (We now have details which were lacking last year.—Editor) The Hachi Expedition was composed of Norishige Seki, Miss Shizuko Inazawa, Yasuo Tagen, Kohichi Sano, Kenji Okada, Hiroshi Nunobiki and me as leader....
FALL ON ROCK – RAPPEL ERROROregon, Beacon Rock State ParkOn July 24, Nathan Turner (30) was on the second rappel of Jill’s Thrill at Beacon Rock. But he had threaded the single rope through a fixed anchor with both ends of the rope over the ledge....
Chicago Mountaineering Club. The club’s increasing membership continues to tax the organization’s leadership resources. Despite overly large climbing parties the climbing leaders provide a high grade of training to beginners and try to promote the...
Thor Peak, South Face, Lucifer’s Hammer. In September, Bruce Bindner, Em Holland and I climbed Lucifer’s Hammer (III, 5.10a) which starts from Odin’s Wrath, a route we climbed the previous year (AAJ 1997, p. 142). From the flake ledge on top of th...
On July 11, at 1145, Shanna M. Ryan (26) was climbing Backflip (II 5.9), the first pitch on the Bookmark, when she took a 20 foot lead fall. She had been placing protection at the time of the fall, but suddenly slipped and yelled, “Falling.” Whe...
LOSS OF CONTROL—VOLUNTARY GLISSADE, NO HARD HAT British Columbia, Rocky Mountains, Mt. AssiniboineMike Pelletier (20), an experienced mountaineer, and Brian Vezina were descending the north ridge of Mt. Assiniboine unroped on 9 July 1979 at 1100 h...
Dorje Lhakpa, Winter Attempt and Tragedy. Americans Andy Selters, Kurt Schmierer and Greg Collum and one German attempted the unclimbed northwest face/northwest ridge of Dorje Lhakpa (6966 meters) with no climbing Sherpas, no fixed camps and no fi...
Nez Perce, South-southwest Ridge. This ridge lies immediately west of the direct south ridge and leads to the subsummit about a hundred feet west of the true summit of Nez Perce. It was first climbed on August 13 by Leigh and Irene Ortenburger and...
Kamet. In May and June an all-Indian Ladies expedition to Kamet (25,447 feet) was sponsored by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The team consisted of six members from different parts of India: Thrity Birdy, Chandraprabha Aitwal, Bharati Baner...
Churen Himal. The Academic Alpine Club of Shizuoka had as overall leader Takashi Serizawa and as climbing leader Ryozo Yamamoto. They placed Camp VI at 22,300 feet above the Ghustang Khola. The central peak (24,184 feet) was reached on October 24 ...
Sierra Nevada, California: (2) Half Dome (Yosemite National Park). On 15 September 1948 Paul H. Garinger (30-35) was seen descending the cable on Half Dome. He stopped and appeared to be ill. Seconds later, he disappeared. It is thought that he fa...
FALL ON ICE, CLIMBING UNROPEDWyoming, TetonsOn January 18, 1981, Harry Frishman (38) and Mark Whitten signed out at the Moose Visitor Center for a climb of the Black Ice Gully on the Middle Teton. They hiked to the Lower Saddle and spent the night...
Snowpatch Spire, Direct West Face. Early in August, Fred Beckey and I turned our attention to the very wide west face of Snowpatch. Four routes already had been made on the face, three of which end at the north summit, a long way from the true, so...
FALL ON ICE, CLIMBING ALONEUtah, Little Cottonwood CanyonOn December 27, 1983, Roger Amory (21) was climbing on a popular ice route at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon when his ice tools came out near the top of the climb, resulting in a fall...
FALL ON ROCK AND SLIP ON ICE, CLIMBING UNROPED, FAILURE TO TEST HOLDSCalifornia, Sierra NevadaOn May 19, 1985, Sean Collinsworth (29) was climbing a 5.4 rock and was about 65 meters from the summit of University Peak when he pulled a hold loose an...
FALL ON ROCK, UNROPED, WEATHER, NO HARD HATOntario, Rattlesnake PointAt 1850 on April 14,1987, an experienced climber (34) was attempting to untie a top rope where it was anchored at the top of the escarpment on Rattlesnake Point (Climb #9). Appar...
Foraker Tragedy, Pink Panther Route. Our original plan was for Tom Walter, Ritt Kellogg and me to join forces on June 13 at the Kahiltna Base Camp to try an unclimbed route on Hunter, the ridge just south of its west ridge, which Walter had attemp...