The Zayliyskiy Alatau (also sometimes spelled Zaylyiskiy, Zailiiskii, or Zalisky) is the most northerly part of the Tien Shan, and the Tuyuk-Su subrange—the mountains around the Tuyuk-Su Valley—are easily accessed from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest...
The opportunity to visit Antarctica came through Marek Holeček. Peter Hamor and I were in Kathmandu in the spring of 2017 after reaching the summit of Dhaulagiri. We bumped into Marek and he told me that he planned to visit the Antarctic Peninsula...
On June 7, Argentine Nehuén Conterno and Peruvians Rodrigo Mendoza and Jorge Sirva departed from Pitumarca (80km south of Cusco) and drove 30km to the small village Alkatauri. From there, they hiked one and a half hours to the base of Tacusiri (5,...
In 2017 our expedition made the first ascent of Korlang Pari Tippa South (AAJ 2018). In November 2018, I returned to the Rolwaling to lead a small team attempting to climb Korlang Pari Tippa North (5,738m, according to the Ministry of Tourism, whi...
In June, José María “Chemari” Andres, Christine Baschinger, Samuel Gomez, Jorge Valle, and I (all Spaniards) climbed new routes on the northeast faces of Jurau A (5,640m) and Jurau B (5,727m), which are the two main peaks on the northeast flank of...
In August, my expedition partner Duncan McDaniel (USA) and I attempted four different routes up four different mountains in southern Peru, and succeeded on one. The first two were in the Cordillera Urubamba and the second two in the Cordillera Vil...
From December 5–9, a crew from Fondo Acceso Andino (the Ecuadorian analog to the Access Fund in the U.S.) went to explore a new area: the Towers of Simiatug. For rock climbing in Ecuador, this is a discovery of the decade.The volcanic Towers of Si...
A 27-year-old man died after falling about 60 feet to the ground at the Bank sector of Shelf Road, near Cañon City. The climber had limited outdoor experience, and witnesses reported that he fell from the anchor atop a limestone sport climb after ...
This accident occurred after a climber completed a long route (Sex Face, 5.12a) during which he linked two pitches from the ground. While descending from the top of the second pitch, the climber was lowered off the end of the rope, resulting in a ...
Two male soloists died in separate falls from the popular First Flatiron above Boulder in 2017. In one case, deteriorating weather likely was a factor, as rain and snow moved in during the man’s climb. The accessible, low-angle slabs of the Flatir...
On March 27, Japhy Dhungana (32), Eric Whewell, and Rainbow Weinstock were climbing at the Rincon Wall, projecting single-pitch trad-climbing routes. All three are very experienced climbers; each is an AMGA-certified rock guide. Each person had a ...
In January a climber hit the ground when a key protection piece pulled out of Foxtrot (5.11d) on the West Ridge after a fall. The climber, who was not wearing a helmet, had a head laceration. A similar accident occurred the previous year on the sa...
On May 12, 27-year-old Conor Felletter and his climbing partner, Kelly Kochanski, were climbing Werk Supp, a two-pitch 5.9 route. After completing the first pitch, Felletter decided to head over to the Bastille Crack, a popular five-pitch 5.7 that...
In March, a woman was lowered off the end of her rope on Frothing Green at the Bowling Alley, suffering a head laceration in a tumbling fall. The pitch is obviously long and is best climbed with a 70-meter rope (some route descriptions warn of thi...
On August 5, I and another emergency physician witnessed a horrific fall from the Dome. We were scouting locations for an upcoming practice session, as we both volunteer for Rocky Mountain Rescue Group. I saw the climber bounce several times, then...
On September 13 a belayer began lowering a climber from a sport route with an ATC Guide device. The climber outweighed the belayer by roughly 50 percent. The belayer, standing on unstable rocky ground about six to eight feet away from the wall, wa...
On September 29, DP and JC (both age 23) were climbing Wandering the Halls, a 5.8+ sport climb, at Bolton Quarry climbing area. DP described himself as a novice climber; JC was the more experienced of the two. DP was top-roping, with JC belaying f...
IT WAS A BUSY SEASON in the Coast Mountains outside of the city of Powell River, northwest of Squamish. With good weather in the late spring and early fall, a number of new routes were established in this burgeoning center for Pacific Northwest bi...
Bernard Marnette and I have visited Taghia several times, aiming to climb classic routes or to open new ones. When we first came in November 2011, motivated by the Arnaud Petit’s film Babel and by his book Parois de Légende, Mohamed Amil was a goa...
On March 4, Juneau resident Ryan Johnson and Canadian Marc-André Leclerc started up the unclimbed north face of the Main Tower (6,910’) in the Mendenhall Towers massif. In the early afternoon of the next day, Leclerc posted a photo from the narrow...