Old Snowy, Alaska Range. Eleven members of the Alaska Alpine Club, led by Buck Wilson and me, used their spring vacation from March 23 to 26 to make the first ascent of Old Snowy (9700 feet) in the Castner Glacier area of the eastern Alaska Range....
Pico Bolívar, North Face. To celebrate the 44th anniversary of the first ascent of the highest mountain in Venezuela, I made on April 3 the first solo ascent of the north face of Pico Bolívar (5002 meters, 16,410 feet), reputedly one of the most d...
Little Switzerland, Various Ascents. It was reported in a Climbing magazine article that the team of John Mattson and Josh Zimmerman, with photographer John Burcham, was active in Little Switzerland. Numerous photographs of the area document the t...
Ayr Lake. The Alpine Club of Canada held an Alpine Climbing Camp of 14 people on Ayr Lake, about 40 kilometers west of Clyde River on the northeast coast of Baffin Island, from May 4 to 25. We had seen the area in 1973 and 1977 on our flights to S...
Middle Bell Tower, South Face. On September 1 Rich Ream and I approached the base of the Middle Tower after a two-hour hike up Bell’s Canyon. Two weeks earlier, Rick Reese and Rich had climbed the large dihedral on the right side of the face to a ...
FALLING ROCK Wyoming, TetonsOn August 6, Shad Dusseau, Terry Green, and Leo Larson, Park Rangers, were climbing the Black Ice Couloir on the Grand Teton on a routine mountain patrol. Dusseau had led the first ice pitch and was belaying Larson when...
FALL ON ROCK, EXCEEDING ABILITIES, INADEQUATE PROTECTIONNorth Carolina, Table Rock Mountain, Slipping Into DarknessOn November 1, M. H. (mid 40s) and his two sons (7 and 14) attempted the route slipping into Darkness (5.9), a variation on Helmet B...
Sigunian Shan, Sichuan. In September 1994 I was based out of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. From here I made two exploratory trips into the exceptional mountains of Kham, on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. First I visited the Songpan re...
Yanamarey Sur, Quisuarraju, Millishraju I and II, Artesonraju, and Curicashajana, Cordillera Blanca. Our party was a mixture of first-class with intermediate alpinists; some members took their wives along. We were Bruno and Ruth Boiler, Fréderic a...
McKinley, Foraker, Hunter, Rooster Comb, P 11,300. An expedition of the French Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne was led by Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Claude Marmier. They made an amazing number of climbs. The description of the Hunter climb is give...
Kalanka, Southeast Face. Allen Fyffe and I, ably assisted by our liaison officer, Mandip Singh Soin, established our Base Camp at the junction of the Changabang and Uttar Rishi glaciers on September 20 and Advanced Base on the Changabang Glacier...
Shadow Peak, North Face, Western Section. This route, climbed on July 12 by Ted Wilson and Rick Reese, diagonals across the north face from lower left to upper right starting from the same snow tongue as the old (1950) north face route. After star...
“Gatekeeper Wall ” Locksmith Dihedral. Dave Jones, Chris Rowins, and I established the Locksmith Dihedral (IV 5.11d Cl) on the “Gatekeeper Wall.” This wall, the first formation east of the Watchman, was named by Dave, who spotted the line. In Apri...
FALL INTO CREVASSE, DISTRACTING ILLNESS, UNSEASONABLY WARM WEATHERAlaska, Mount McKinley, West ButtressAn Alpine Ascents International guided party led by Forrest McCarthy descended from the 14,200-foot camp on May 27, after their climb on the Wes...
A.A.C., Cascade Section. The Section began the year with the “First Annual Cascade Section Bash” on January 29. The change from a sit-down dinner to a buffet was well received, and we had almost 300 members and guests. The “Bash” went over so well...
Mount Rainier, South Tahoma Headwall, Left. On June 26, Bruce Anderson and I did this route, following an obvious gully and ramp system on the left side of the face. At about 12,600 feet, we followed a narrower gully back right, directly toward th...
Denali National Park and Preserve, summary. The 2007 climbing season began with the first solo winter ascent of Mt. Foraker, by the renowned Japanese climber Masatoshi Kuriaki. This “Wind Warrior” of the Alaska Range posted the only successful asc...
FALL ON ICE, UNROPEDBritish Columbia, Haffner Creek CanyonFebruary 15, I.T. was solo climbing a mixed route in Haffner Creek Canyon to set up a top rope for friends. He was approximately twenty feet up when he slipped and fell to the ground landin...
Dhaulagiri I Attempt. An 18-man Polish expedition led by Gerard Malaczynski unsuccessfully attempted to climb Dhaulagiri by the north face. They reached 25,600 feet on October 3, 12 and 14, but bad weather, high winds and snowfall made progress be...
Fuller Buttes, Eagle Dihedral. In April Jerry Coe and I climbed a route on the southwest face of the eastern butte. To our knowledge, this is the first route on these surprisingly smooth domes which present 1000-foot cliffs toward the San Joaquin ...