The 25km-long ridge partially traversed by the 2022 team, seen from the northeast side of Ikasagtivaq Fjord. The traverse attempt began at the far left end. Photo by Noel Williams Our expedition comprised four members, Mike Bauermeister, Simo...
As we began our trek from Koto at 2,600m on the Annapurna Circuit, I was excited. With all the restrictions caused by COVID-19, how long had it been since I was last climbing in Nepal?” I asked myself. Ours was an eight-person team, including trek...
In June, Ryan Evans and Damien Nicodemi invited me to help them complete a full-length version of One for the Ladies, a 12-pitch route they had established on the upper southeast side of Tehipite Dome in July 2021. They accessed this portion of th...
During July and August, a six-member expedition—Chris Gneisser, Mike Jaques (skipper), Alastair Miller, Graham Tourell, Olly Young, and I—visited various locations on the east coast of Greenland aboard Mike’s yacht, Umiak. The team consisted of mo...
The climbs featured in the American Alpine Journal don’t occur in a vacuum—they reflect the broader evolution of climbing styles and performance around the world. The following achievements in 2021 provide additional context for the longer rock an...
In January 2022, my husband, Jeff Wright, and I completed a successful Patagonian “smash ‘n’ grab,” when an excellent forecast prompted us to make an 11-day round-trip (Seattle to Seattle) to El Chaltén, during which we enchained three of the fou...
In August 2018, Tomás Algañaraz (18) and I (23) arrived in the little town of Chochís, east of Santa Cruz de la Sierra on the eastern side of Bolivia. This place has plenty of potential for new routing. There are not a lot of cracks, but there is ...
Last summer Tommy Caldwell invited me to his home in Estes Park to attempt an enormous linkup along the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park. We’d each been locked down in our respective homes all season by COVID—I was exploring new ...
The gambler’s fallacy is the mistaken belief that a certain outcome is more or less likely to occur, given a previous series of outcomes. For example, if you flip a coin and get four tails in a row, the gambler’s fallacy would suggest a greater ch...
In July I traveled to Pakistan with Eivind Hugaas (Norway) and Nelson Neirinck (Belgium) to attempt the first ascent of Dansam (a.k.a. K13, 6,666m). The day before jumping onto a plane, we learned that a French team had climbed our planned line o...
The Arrigetch Peaks at sunset, taken from the top of the Aquarius Wall. From left to right: the Citadel, East Maiden, West Maiden, the Camel, and Parabola. Photo by Cameron Jardell In July, Mathias Gruber, Maya Humeau, Luke Shacter, and I ven...
In the spring of 2021, my wife, Ines Papert, and I stayed in Alaska for three months, as the beginning of a larger journey down the entire length of the Pan-American Highway. At the beginning of April we headed into the Revelations, where we got...
Avalanche Spire from the northwest, showing the line climbed and skied by Aaron Diamond, Ty Guarino and Zack Little in April 2021. Photo by Aaron Diamond On April 10, Paul Roderick dropped Ty Guarino, Zack Little, and me on an unnamed glacier...
One of my favorite parts of "going to school" in the Alaska Range are the annual lessons in adaptation. Both of my expeditions in June shared several elements: week-long weather delays, landing on backup glaciers, and healthy (or some may argue ...
Zach Lovell on the summit ridge of Ptarmigan Spire, with the Citadel in the background. Photo by Mark Westman On June 6, Zach Lovell, Tad McCrea, and I flew to the Cul-de-Sac Glacier in the Kichatna Mountains. Six days later, we established a...
On May 3, Adam Fabrikant, Beau Fredlund, Clark Henarie, and I made a ski descent of the southwest face of Mt. Hayes (13,832’). We began our trip on May 1, flying out of Talkeetna with Paul Roderick. While initially skeptical of our plans, Paul ...
Petros Tolias, Ioannis Soultoukis, and I (Greece) arrived in Leh on June 28, hoping to ascend unclimbed Nya Kangri (6,480m, 34°37’38.48”N, 77°45’23.08”E) via its northwestern slopes and south-southwest ridge. Tolias and I had previously attempted ...
The Hungarian National Alpine Team hoped to make first ascents from the Nangma and Hushe valleys. Viktor Agoston, Bence Kerekes, Marton Nagy, and Laszlo Szasz, on their first trip to the Karakoram, arrived in Pakistan on June 25 and reached K6 bas...
On December 5, 2021, winds were light in Tuckerman Ravine and temperatures seasonably cold, with poor visibility near the top of the ravine. During the five days prior, one to three inches of new snow was recorded on Mt. Washington’s summit each d...
On March 19, 2022, two backcountry skiers planned a trip to an area locally known as the Dome in the North Fork of Fish Creek, about eight miles east of the town of Steamboat Springs. Skier 1 arrived at the Dry Lake trailhead around 8:30 a.m. Whil...