“There we go,’’ I said flatly as my body slammed forward, ski goggles brushing the handlebars of my 1999 Yamaha Phazer. I had acquired my snow machine for a bargain price, with the caveat that it had an “intermittent electrical issue, but not that...
Our team of Alex Hale, Chris Lewis, Alex Metcalfe, and Sarah Wysling traveled from Dushanbe to Bachor and reached Zaroshkul Lake on August 11, after three days of walking. (Tom Davis-Merry, who organized the expedition, unfortunately was not able ...
This summary article appears in AAJ 2023. Click here for a more complete history of attempts on Ingolfsfjeld and in-depth account of the southwest face by Steve Chadwick, one of the expedition members, along with photos from the 1970s climbs and...
The winter of 2021-2022 was generous, allowing me to rack up a ton of training days in preparation for a top-secret ski alpinism project in remote Alaska. But our air transport fell through on plans A, B, and C, leaving me to ride locally around m...
In late 2022, a team of climbers from Beijing Xiangpan Outdoor Sports volunteered to translate the 2022 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing, in order to make the book available to Chinese climbers. The American Alpine Club (AAC) author...
In this report, I bring you a cautionary tale about an attractive nuisance: the corrugated north face of Holliway Mountain (ca 8,000'). Holliway is less than 10 miles north of Washington Pass and the popular Liberty Bell group; it sees infrequent ...
Climbing is littered with stories of mentorship; it is tradition for the current generation to pass knowledge and inspiration down to the next. I learned to climb without a mentor, but since I moved to Ouray, Colorado, in 2018, no friend has had a...
Yes, that’s right: You are seeing a climb in Missouri in the AAJ for the first time ever—and perhaps the last. The Show Me State has had a long yet quiet history, focused primarily on the loose but enjoyable limestone cliffs that border major ri...
Thirty-eight years after the first ascent of the 2,800-meter Slovak Direct route up Denali’s south face, we climbed the route all free and in a 40-hour push with no bivouac. Originally, we had planned to bivouac on the face, but while climbing the...
Although the Bubbs Creek valley, with Charlotte Dome and Bubbs Creek Wall, is arguably the premier climbing destination in the Kings Canyon area, nearby Woods Creek is certainly a close runner-up, with miles of impressive granite walls and domes, ...
After hiking many oversized haul bags up to the base of the wall and after four separate weekend trips between August 20 and September 18, Cory Rogans and I finished a steep new route in a ground-up effort on the intimidating Suicide Wall on the s...
I first heard whispers about an unclimbed backcountry granite wall near McCall, Idaho, in 2019. The sheer 275m northeast face of Storm Dome (8,758’) is located in a hanging valley perched above Loon Creek, a strenuous eight-mile hike from the Twen...
English historian Bettany Hughes states, “The stories of women have been written out of history, rather than written in.” In the case of Minneapolis-born Dr. Cora Johnstone Best (1884–1930), her displacement from alpine history began soon after he...
Giovanni Battista “Tita” Piaz (1879–1948) is one of the most fascinating climbers of the early 20th century, and it is surprising there is so little literature in English on his extraordinary climbing career. Piaz explored new realms of speed clim...
For three years my dream had been to explore the Momhil Valley, and in mid-May I was finally able to reach it in the company of Austrians Philipp Brugger and Lukas Waldner. Our original objective had been Dut Sar (6,858m), but the weather was gene...
Beautiful view of Ushba from the northwest, with the North Peak on the left and South Peak on the right. Photo by Archil Badriashvili. USHBA RISES near the west end of the South Caucasus Mountains, about 30 kilometers from Mt. Elbrus and enti...
On April 23, Toshiyuki Yamada and I stood together on the summit of Kangchung Nup (6,043m) after the first ascent of the northwest face. The feeling was the same as when I climbed in the Japanese Alps for my first time: The surrounding mountains w...
In 1981, members of the Kindai University Alpine Club made the first ascent of Dansam West (6,450m). Our team was 14 undergraduates plus a doctor and senior observer. In that era, a captain from the Pakistan Army also had to join us. Forty years ...
THE 4TH OF MAY, 6 o’clock in the morning. The halo of my headlamp guides me through the mixed pine and mélèzes forest on the slopes of Le Pouzenc in the south of France. I’m feeling fine, the air is cold, and I’m thinking about my project for ...
Seen during the descent from Pankar Himal in 2018 is the route followed on the first ascent of Saula, which reaches the col between this peak and Saula South to the right. Photo by Tatsuro Sugimoto In 2018, I was a member of the Japanese Hima...