Kim Chang-ho, who died in 2018 at the base of Gurja Himal in Nepal, was perhaps the most accomplished mountaineer from Korea, noted for high altitude ascents such as a south-north traverse of Nanga Parbat, Everest sea-to-summit without oxygen...
The hat trick of new grade Xs climbed ground-up and onsight by Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson during the 2016 season was a landmark for Scottish winter climbing (see AAJ 2016). These two continued to set the pace the following four seasons with ch...
Cerro Cabaray (5,869m, 19°8'45"S, 68°41'53”W) is a remote extinct volcano in the department of Oruro. Rising very close to the Chilean border, it is the highest of a chain of volcanoes in western Bolivia and northeastern Chile; it belongs to the s...
In July 2019, Ben White and I (Australia) made a ground-up first ascent of a route in the middle of the northwest face of Gran Muralla (ca 5,100m). Dirt-clogged cracks made progress painfully slow, and we used aid on 75 percent of the route. We sp...
On August 10, Colorado-based climber Madaleine Sorkin became the first woman, and fifth person overall, to free climb the massive 5.14b crux of the Dunn-Westbay Direct (Caldwell-Mills, 2013), the hardest route up the Diamond, the storied wall high...
In January 1978, an expedition led by Jack Heffernan from New York climbed the Polish Glacier route on the northeast face of Aconcagua (6,960m), completing the first known ascent of this route by an American team. Five members reached the summit: ...
Rising well over 2,000’, the Painted Wall is a chaotic vortex of psychedelic granite that has embedded itself in the dreams and nightmares of Black Canyon climbers for nearly six decades. The history of climbing on Colorado’s largest cliff is perm...
The black line shows the first two pitches of Airiana Grande (13 pitches, 5.13 R) Photo by Matt Reeser This climb is more Matt Reeser’s story than mine, but I have the pleasure of sharing it with you. In 2021, after several years of Black Ca...
When Mark Jenkins, Dougald MacDonald, and I first ventured into the Sawtooth Lakes basin, which flows northeast from a small glacier at the foot of Mt. Woolsey (12,978’) and Innominate (12,641’), in 2015, we wandered up three glorious routes on vi...
After a day of adventures on Pingora and Wolfs Head in the Cirque of the Towers in mid-July, none of us—Ian Davis, Ryan Petronella, Ethan Sandoval, and myself—was particularly stoked on getting an early start the next morning. In fact, we debated ...
Jesse Huey and Matt Segal finished a three-year project on the north face of Mt. Hooker in August, freeing all of the pitches of All Hooked Up. They stitched together the beginning of a line in 2020, making two trips into the mountain at the heigh...
In August 2020, Jared Leader, Bryan Miller, and Heath Rowland freed The Illness on the east face of Point 12,612’, also known as the Shield. Fred Beckey, Franziska Garrett, and James Garrett started work on this route in 1988. After another trip i...
In October, Matt Ward and I climbed a difficult mixed route up a steep wall near the head of Sunlight Creek in northern Wyoming. We approached on the closed Sunlight Creek Road with mountain bikes, carrying them across one river crossing, then hik...
In October 2021, Dane Steadman and I ventured to the head of Sunlight Creek in search of ice. We found a large and relatively steep face—the west face of an unnamed summit—rising out of the creekbed. We started up the main drainage in the middle o...
On January 9, 2023, my dad, Rusty Willis, and I completed a potential first ascent of the north ridge (1,500’, M6+ 80° snow) of Abiathar Peak (10,928’) in northeastern Yellowstone National Park. We parked at the cross-country skiing area near Warm...
In May, Dane Steadman and I made a ground-up first ascent of a difficult rock route in far northern Wyoming, in the Beartooth Mountains. Reportedly, the wall had seen previous climbing, though we found no gear or signs of human passage above the f...
In October, my dad, Rusty Willis, and I climbed the Northwest Couloir of Wolf Mountain (11,808’). We used a Jeep to crawl up the horrible road toward the Grasshopper Glacier trailhead, an incredibly slow drive. We then hiked from Star Lake up and ...
For years, I have gazed at the steep 4,500’ south face of Going-to-the-Sun Mountain (9,642’) and imagined what it would be like to quest up this intricate terrain. Topo maps and aerial images revealed numerous possibilities, showing massive freest...
Winter access in the Cabinets is notoriously onerous. Climbers cannot drive to most summer trailheads, and many areas are in designated wilderness, preventing snowmobile access. As a result, some big objectives wait for spring, when there’s a deli...
On June 21, Arthur Herlitzka and I climbed a probable new route up the north face of Borah Peak (12,667’). The Waning Crescent Couloir (2,250’, IV M4 55° snow) angles left across the face between Borah, Borah, Borah (Ball-Colwell-Schilling, 2004) ...