On January 28, 2017, Tim Bemrich, Jacob Oram, and I made the first ascent of a feature long known as the Pencil, a steep, very narrow ice line on the north face of Mt. Hood, between the North Face Gully routes and the Eliot Headwall.We approached ...
Up to now there was not a single established alpine route on Uløya Island, only three icefalls that friends had climbed a year before. The faces rise to a maximum of 550m, and we decided to go for the biggest prize, the central pillar of the east ...
In early May, Timmy ONeill and I climbed a new route on the South Face of Pontok 3 in the Spitzkoppe Range. This huge, clean granite slab is wonderfully featured, but with essentially no cracks for gear, bolts are the only option. Placing bolts on...
During the first week of August, Julian Kuettner and I completed a new line up the Atlantis Wall, on the south face of Broad Dome in the Sonora Pass area. The Atlantis Wall sits above the middle of Donnell Reservoir, approximately 15 miles from th...
Several accidents, including one fatality, occurred in the Red Gully on the standard route up 14,294-foot Crestone Peak. Although it faces south, this rocky gully often holds snow well into July, presenting mountaineering challenges on what is oth...
After running into Bruce Morris, who did two new routes on the east face of Mt. Watkins, in a local climbing gym and hearing all his praise for this infrequently visited corner of Yosemite Valley, I decided to check the east face for myself. Chris...
In 2015, Felipe Cazmargo (Brazil) told me about a climb in the “Yosemite of Brazil,” near the town of São José do Divino. A decade earlier, a team of climbers, mostly from Chile, had equipped a route called Planeta dos Macacos up the north-facing ...
In December, Nicolas Dávalos (Ecuador) and I climbed a new line up the southwest side of Monja Grande (5,316m), one of the major peaks comprising the Altar Massif. (Editor’s note: Monja Grande’s elevation is frequently stated as 5,160m, but the au...
Known for its iconic pyramid shape, Mt. Aspiring is often called the “Matterhorn of the South,” as it is the only peak above 3,000m outside of the Aoraki/Mt. Cook region and it towers above its surroundings, mesmerizing all who see it. In the days...
From June 5–7, Max Didier, Cristobal Señoret (both Chile), and I made the first ascent of the unnamed rock peak immediately south-southeast of Kishtwar Shivling. We climbed alpine style via the southeast ridge from an advanced base camp on the gla...
In early August, Mikey Schaefer completed a difficult new route on the Liberty Bell formation. A Slave to Liberty (450m, 11 pitches, 5.13-) climbs the first three pitches of Freedom or Death (5.10, 5.11, 5.11), then steps right to join Thin Red Li...
Kilimanjaro is a superb mountaineering destination, but for rock climbers there are only few interesting crags in the vicinity. Maybe the best is Mt. Longido, easily accessible from Arusha via the well-paved "Nairobi Road." Its sharp western summi...
In early May, at the start of Patagonian winter, Nico Gutierrez, Cristobal Señoret, and Diego Señoret (all Chile) made the fourth ascent of Cerro Paine Grande. They climbed the 300m summit pyramid via a variation that involved three new pitches, l...
During 2016–’17, Patagonia witnessed one of the driest winters on record. By late November, the conditions were not unlike late February, with little snow in the mountains, ablated glaciers, and dry forests. It was so extreme that there were fears...
In July, Horacio Gratton (Argentina) teamed up with Lucas “Jah” Marques and Gustavo Fontes (Brazil) to climb a new route up Tabuleiro, a 400m wall in the state of Minas Gerais. Tabuleiro can be reached from the town of Conceicao do Mato Dentro; fr...
In August, Argentinean climber Horacio Gratton and Brazilian climbers Wagner Borges, William Lacerda, Valdesir Machado, and Ed Padilha opened a long and difficult new route on Pedra Baiana. (Gabriel Tarso and Edson Vandeira were also present to do...
A large Argentinean expedition was active on the Antofalla massif, a mountainous high desert north of Catamarca, from January 9–20, 2017. The group consisted of Julieta Balza, Gerardo Casaldi, Sergio Cerutti, Javier Echenique, Adrián Gandino, Mart...
Cordón los Clonquis is the official name for a chain of sedimentary mountains outside Mendoza. It contains five principal summits that separate Quebrada de Chorrillos to the south from Quebrada del Potrero Escondido to the north. One of the peaks,...
In late April, Argentine climbers Matías Cruz and Facundo Juárez Zapiola visited Morro Von Rosen (5,450m), a peak of compact granite in the Chañi Group, located in far northern Argentina. They made their base camp at a hut on the slopes of Nevado ...
In the summer of 2014 I had the privilege of joining Blake Herrington and Max Tepfer to establish a new line on the mysterious M&M Wall (a.k.a. Supercave Wall). This impressive, 1,000’ south-facing wall is two miles north of the famous Liberty...