After a year of preparation, we set sail on June 20 from La Rochelle, France, on the 15m yacht Northabout. We were a team of eight women. Four were sailors: captain Marta Guemes (Spain) and crew Caroline Dehais and Alix Jaekkel (both from France) ...
Hazel Findlay on the northeast ridge of Ingmikortilaq with the Nordvestfjord below. Photo by Alex Honnold On a trip to East Greenland that was filmed for a TV show to be released by National Geographic in 2023, Hazel Findlay (U.K.) and I, alo...
In late July and early August, Gilles Denis and I climbed a new route, Imaqa (550m, 7a+ A2), during the Nanok Expedition, our six-month trip that comprised an atypical triathlon: a partial ice cap traverse on skis while collecting scientific dat...
From June 4–29, Bill Copeland and Chris Kussmaul joined me to explore the Ghidims Valley, north of Shimshal. We trekked over Boesum Pass and on the 12th arrived at Laili Camp (4,450m) at the junction of the north and south Ghidims rivers. On the ...
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a route which, in my honest opinion, has the potential to become known as one of the five best 5.11s in the High Sierra. Against the Grain (1,800’, 5.11c) on the southeast face of Charlotte Dome ...
The following article, previously unpublished, provides historical context for attempts on Ingolfsfjeld and a detailed account of the first ascent of the southwest face in 1975. See also the summary article published in AAJ 2023 by senior editor...
“There we go,’’ I said flatly as my body slammed forward, ski goggles brushing the handlebars of my 1999 Yamaha Phazer. I had acquired my snow machine for a bargain price, with the caveat that it had an “intermittent electrical issue, but not that...
Our team of Alex Hale, Chris Lewis, Alex Metcalfe, and Sarah Wysling traveled from Dushanbe to Bachor and reached Zaroshkul Lake on August 11, after three days of walking. (Tom Davis-Merry, who organized the expedition, unfortunately was not able ...
This summary article appears in AAJ 2023. Click here for a more complete history of attempts on Ingolfsfjeld and in-depth account of the southwest face by Steve Chadwick, one of the expedition members, along with photos from the 1970s climbs and...
The winter of 2021-2022 was generous, allowing me to rack up a ton of training days in preparation for a top-secret ski alpinism project in remote Alaska. But our air transport fell through on plans A, B, and C, leaving me to ride locally around m...
In late 2022, a team of climbers from Beijing Xiangpan Outdoor Sports volunteered to translate the 2022 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing, in order to make the book available to Chinese climbers. The American Alpine Club (AAC) author...
In this report, I bring you a cautionary tale about an attractive nuisance: the corrugated north face of Holliway Mountain (ca 8,000'). Holliway is less than 10 miles north of Washington Pass and the popular Liberty Bell group; it sees infrequent ...
Climbing is littered with stories of mentorship; it is tradition for the current generation to pass knowledge and inspiration down to the next. I learned to climb without a mentor, but since I moved to Ouray, Colorado, in 2018, no friend has had a...
Yes, that’s right: You are seeing a climb in Missouri in the AAJ for the first time ever—and perhaps the last. The Show Me State has had a long yet quiet history, focused primarily on the loose but enjoyable limestone cliffs that border major ri...
Thirty-eight years after the first ascent of the 2,800-meter Slovak Direct route up Denali’s south face, we climbed the route all free and in a 40-hour push with no bivouac. Originally, we had planned to bivouac on the face, but while climbing the...
Although the Bubbs Creek valley, with Charlotte Dome and Bubbs Creek Wall, is arguably the premier climbing destination in the Kings Canyon area, nearby Woods Creek is certainly a close runner-up, with miles of impressive granite walls and domes, ...
After hiking many oversized haul bags up to the base of the wall and after four separate weekend trips between August 20 and September 18, Cory Rogans and I finished a steep new route in a ground-up effort on the intimidating Suicide Wall on the s...
I first heard whispers about an unclimbed backcountry granite wall near McCall, Idaho, in 2019. The sheer 275m northeast face of Storm Dome (8,758’) is located in a hanging valley perched above Loon Creek, a strenuous eight-mile hike from the Twen...
English historian Bettany Hughes states, “The stories of women have been written out of history, rather than written in.” In the case of Minneapolis-born Dr. Cora Johnstone Best (1884–1930), her displacement from alpine history began soon after he...
Giovanni Battista “Tita” Piaz (1879–1948) is one of the most fascinating climbers of the early 20th century, and it is surprising there is so little literature in English on his extraordinary climbing career. Piaz explored new realms of speed clim...