My main goal for the 2014-’15 winter was to complete the Great Wall of China Project, a link-up of the three most iconic peaks of the Shuangqiao Valley. This would involve making the first ascent of Queen’s Peak (Nuwang Shan, 5,404m), the second a...
On November 10, after four days of climbing, Marcin Rutkowski, Wojciech Ryczer, and I completed the first ascent of San Lian Southeast (ca 6,250m), one of the three Chu Shan summits to the south of Minya Konka.We arrived in Chengdu in mid-October ...
Garrett Bradley, Marcos Costa, Kyle Dempster, and I headed to the Minya Konka Range for our final mountaineering quest of the winter season: one of the unclimbed peaks to the south of 7,556m Minya Konka. In 2014, Marcos, Garrett, and I had found t...
On October 28, Koreans Kang Jong-jin, Kim Dong-jin, and Kim Young-yong made the first ascent of Nyambo Konka (6,114m). The nine-member expedition, led by Gang Sung-khu, approached via the Bawang Valley to the south of the mountain. They climbed th...
Inspired by the published work of Japanese mountaineer Tamotsu Nakamura, an Austrian- Spanish expedition visited the eastern Gangga Massif in the autumn. The expedition comprised mountaineers Gerald Boess, Judith Fall, and Paul Neil, filmmakers Lo...
In late October, Paul Manson (Scotland), Norihide Yamagishi (Japan), and I (Australia) made the first ascent of the summit at the junction of the western and central massifs of the Gangga Range. It lies at the head of the Niyada Qu river valley, a...
Marcos Costa (Brazil), Kyle Dempster (USA), and I traveled to Sichuan and Yunnan in February in search of more first ascents and new routes above 6,000m in the alpine country of the eastern Himalayan uplift. After an abortive effort to access the ...
Bada Ri (6,516m) is the last unclimbed mountain over 6,500m in the western Nyanchen Tanglha (Nyainqentanglha). It lies in the middle of the range, northwest of Yangbajain, and is hidden by other peaks. Our expedition to attempt this peak, celebrat...
In April 2015, I finally convinced Flagstaff climbers Jeff Snyder and Blake McCord to visit Zoroaster Temple and try to free the southeast face with me. This had been a “serious” project of mine ever since Mathieu Brown and I established the route...
Two teams shared a permit during the autumn for attempts on the south face of Nuptse. Colin Haley (USA) and Ueli Steck (Switzerland) hoped to make an alpine-style ascent of the 2003 Babanov-Koshelenko Route on the southeast pillar of Nuptse East I...
One of the new peaks brought onto the permitted list in 2014 by the Nepalese government is Chhopa Bamare (a.k.a. Chobba Bamare or Chomo Pamari, 6,109m). It lies northwest of Lamabagar on the border with Tibet and most likely refers to the highest ...
The north face of El Diente is an incredible wall that interrupts the desert ridge of the Sierra Madre Oriental with its distinct tooth-like shape. I first learned of this giant wall in 2014, and not long afterward I decided to visit Parque Nacion...
A couple of years ago, my wife, Marisol Monterrubio, and I opened a new route on the south face of Pico Tatwari. We climbed the route ground-up, in seven days total, with fixed ropes until the top of pitch 10 and then a portaledge camp for the upp...
Miguel “Mike” Noriega, of Hermosillo, Sonora, and I had not previously met in person when I picked him up in Tucson. With only a few messages online, we hatched a plan to head into the mountains of northeastern Sonora and hopefully establish a new...
In October 2014 I attempted the 900m west face of Seerdengpu (5,592m) with American Pat Goodman (AAJ 2015), but due to warm temperatures we found the gully line on the face to be a waterfall and the rock extremely loose (one of our ropes was cut i...
Teams arriving in the Western Kokshaal-Too from August onward were treated to a widespread rumor that, one month earlier, two Russians who had approached the mountains from the north had been caught on the Chinese side of the border, spent a month...
Jason, an experienced local guide, and his technically competent client decided to climb in the Near Trapps on August 7. After two multi-pitch warmup climbs, the next objective was the two-pitch Layback. At the top of the first pitch (5.5), Jason ...
At 3.17 p.m. on February 26, Simone Moro (Italy), Muhammad Ali Sadpara (Pakistan), and Alex Txikon (Spain) stepped onto the summit of Nanga Parbat (8,125m) to make the long-awaited first winter ascent. Before the 2015-’16 winter season, which in t...
Between August 18 and October 2, our expedition of four members of the Polish National Alpine Team, Maciej Bedrejczuk, Maciej Janczar, Marcin Wernik, and I, visited a previously unexplored region of the southern Tagas Mountains. We all knew each o...
Our expedition from the Scuola Guido della Torre took place in August and comprised Matteo Filippini, Tommaso Lamantia, Luca Monfrini, Emanuele Nugara, and me as leader. Our goal was not only to climb virgin summits but also to thoroughly explore ...