Wayne Wallace is a legend of the Cascades, and out of all his exploits, none may be more epic than his solo first ascent of the mile-long Mongo Ridge—the south ridge of Mt. Fury’s west peak—deep in the Northern Pickets. Lani Chapko and I both had ...
Everything Sam Boyce and I had heard about the unclimbed south buttress of Whatcom Peak (7,574’) in the Northern Pickets made it sound like we’d find nothing but chossy 5.11 if we ventured out there, but we wanted to see for ourselves. Sam had tak...
Jenny Abegg (right) and Kaytlyn Gerbin descending into the White Rock Lakes basin on the Ptarmigan Traverse, during their first complete traverse of the North Cascades High Route. The Dana, Dome, and Chickamin glaciers, along with Dome Peak, lie...
On May 9, Adrian Ballinger (USA) made a ski descent of Makalu (8,463m). Ballinger summited by the normal route (northwest ridge) at 9 a.m., along with Sherpa climbers Dorji Sonam and Pasang Sona, using supplemental oxygen. From the top, he downcli...
The initial objective for Silvia Loreggian and me was unclimbed Sharphu III (6,220m). However, a few days before departure, our agency in Nepal informed us it had just noticed that the height of the mountain was listed erroneously in the permit ...
Baihaizishan from the west showing the 2022 traverse Pilgrimage (left to right, with descent from col between the main and south summits). Photo by Tamotsu Nakamura Baihaizishan (a.k.a. Tshungpingling, 5,924m on the official PLA map, 29°57’24...
Pik Ostryi from the southeast, showing (1) the 2022 route and (2) the 2021 first ascent route. The summit is near the triangle. Photo: Nadya Oleneva Collection. In the summer of 2022, Russian climbers Anar Demirov, Oksana Kochubey, and Ilia Z...
Clearly, Providence was in force in July 1967 at the south face of Denali as four climbers in their early 20s stood at the base scrutinizing a sequence of ascending buttresses, black and menacing, that finished 5,000 feet higher on the summit pl...
On June 26, during an expedition to the Diamir Face of Nanga Parbat, François Cazzanelli and Pietro Picco created a difficult variation start to the standard Kinshofer Route. The new line climbs the 150m serac between the Kinshofer and the lower...
Under starry skies at what will be the first bivy of many in northwestern Canada, it becomes apparent that the vampire lore surrounding our destination is not entirely fictitious, as swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, freshly hatched out of the sp...
Starting the first pitch of Maïkan (150m, WI6+). Québec is a wild place—it’s always the first thing I tell my friends who visit from abroad. The province has countless lakes and streams, and all that water freezes during our long winters and...
Shep Howatt and Dan Rohn made the first ascent of the north ridge of Mt. Grady in the Gold Range in August 2021. Their route, Grady Train (850m, TD- 5.8), is just to the west of the Gold Card Couloir, which splits the north faces of Grady and Mt. ...
Previously unreported in the AAJ was a new free route up the north face of Mt. Dag, east of well-known Gimli Peak. In August 2020, Aaron Harris and Stephen Senecal followed the standard 4th- and low 5th-class approach to a bivouac on the big Smorg...
Ice climbing in western Newfoundland, while not well-documented, has been chronicled in the AAJ, Rock and Ice, and Gripped over the past several years. Tales of huge backcountry ice routes and Newfoundland hospitality are true. Nightmare stories a...
Sam: The Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park is a true gem of the Rockies. Simply called “The Valley” by Jasper locals, the Tonquin’s towering quartzite peaks and hanging glaciers rise above blue and green lakes, making up the Continental Divid...
Sometimes, very rarely, even with all of the mysteries intact, things go according to plan. The story of the Saddlehorn is one of good old-fashioned fun and friendship. There is no epic tale to tell here. We had no brushes with death, no dicey bea...
The cliff above the 2022 expedition’s Camp 6 on Nutarmiuk island, showing Black is the New Orange (left) and Super Slab. Photo by Olly Sanders Catrin Thomas and I planned a four-week trip, flying to Upernavik then traveling around various is...
The morning sun catches the upper east faces of Tininnertuups IV (right) and V. Photo by Thomas März From June 29–July 27, four members of the German Alpine Club (DAV) Expedition Group—Korbinian Grünauer, Thomas März, and me, supervised by C...
Sasha Doyle engaged in the corner offwidth on the northeast face of Tininnertuup IV. On the left, across the broken depression, are the slabby walls of Tininnertuup III. Photo by Ed Luke The Irish coastline at Ballycastle drifted away to ste...
Looking northeast in 2015 from a base camp near the head of the Skillebugt Inlet. (1) Start of the 2015 Batoux-Oddo route. (2) Skillebugt Wall (2022). It is likely the rest of the rock visible in this picture is unclimbed. Photo by Philippe Bato...