Nearing the end of the crux of pitch three, “The Intergalactic Hitman” pitch, which went free at 5.13a R. IN DECEMBER 2004, American climber Mike Anderson did the first free ascent of the Lowe Route on the striking north face of Angels Landin...
From November 1 to 3, Ky Hart and I climbed a new route on the west face of Bridge Mountain, which we dubbed For the Doggs. The route starts 300’ left of the popular ACL Arête (10 pitches, 5.10), established by Tyler Philips and Robbie Colbert in ...
In 2010 the late alpinist Yan Dongdong explored the southwestern end of the Nyachen Tanglha, where he made the first ascent of a peak named Dongxung (ca 6,100m), a few kilometers to the south of the town of Yangbajain (AAJ 2011). He wrote that he ...
In 2019 a group of trekkers visited the Kyzyl Asker area and posted pictures of unclimbed peaks that attracted the attention of Evgeny Murin, who had climbed the south pillar of Kyzyl Asker in 2018. In the summer of 2021, Murin, Anton Kulpin, Mikh...
In November 2020, Lu Haichuan, Song Yuancheng, Wan Cong, and Zhang Baolong climbed what they believed to be called Bijiashan, a rocky peak toward the north end of the Tatsienlu Massif [marked as 5,880m in Tamotsu Nakamura’s East of the Himalaya bo...
On August 4–5, Kirill Belotserkovskiy (Kazakhstan), Ivan Temerev, and Alexey Tyulyupo (both Russia) climbed Pik Alpinist (5,482m, 41°03’04”N, 77°43’59”E) by a new route up the northwest face to the north ridge. This limestone peak rises in the cen...
Russian climbers Alexander Gukov and Victor Koval made what is almost certainly the first ascent of Pik Kosmos (a.k.a. Pik Schmidta, 5,942m, 41°00’16”N, 77°37’01”E), by a difficult route on the impressive north face. The peak rises at the head of ...
A group that I led visited the Komansu Valley in August and climbed a minor peak of 5,265m (39°23’59”N, 72°49’15”E) between 60 Years of October Pass and 30 Years of Uzbek SSR Peak. Its icy summit is clearly visible from the last pastures in the va...
In August I led a team to the Kumtor area, where we climbed two summits in 2018 (see AAJ 2019). This time, we climbed the western top of the range’s highest mountain, Pik Skobelev (5,051m, 39°47’33”N, 72°37’01”E), by what might be a new route. We ...
Emily Harrington and husband Adrian Ballinger (USA) repeated The American Way on Pik Slesova (a.k.a. Russian Tower, 4,240m), a free line established by David Allfrey, Brent Barghahn, Nik Berry, and Eric Bissell in 2019. Climbing alongside a three-...
In the summer of 2021, Maria Dupina, Marina Popova, and I (all from Russia) made the first ascent of Pik Ostryi (“Sharp Peak,” 4,818m), located in the Orto-Chashma Gorge. Our expedition was supported by a Grit & Rock grant. The Orto-Chashma G...
The Ashat Gorge is interesting not only for its natural beauty but also for its wall routes. The logistics are quite simple: Fly to Osh, get to Uzgu- rush by ground transport, say hello to Nurudin, load 265kg on five horses, pay the carriage for t...
In November 2020, Earl Lunceford and I climbed a 1,300’ new route on an unnamed wall in the Oak Creek drainage of Zion National Park. The wall is visible from the Zion Human History Museum, near the park’s south entrance. This wall is deeper into ...
In February 2020, on a rest-day hike into the Oak Creek drainage, I observed a striking splitter 1,000’ off the ground leading to the top of a west-facing wall south of Meridian Tower. I returned a week later with George Perkins. We arrived at the...
Between November 30 and December 5, Ky Hart and I completed the first ascent of the east face of the Altar of Sacrifice in Zion National Park. The pale monolith’s 2,230’ face is the centerpiece of the Towers of the Virgin, an impressive Navajo san...
The Towers of the Virgin are a series of jagged summits that loom above Oak Creek to create a gigantic sandstone amphitheater. Dan Stih and Ron Raimonde envisioned and executed the first traverse of these towers in 1998, climbing south to north ov...
When I went to Zion National Park for the first time, I intended to climb the Thunderbird Wall, on the north face of Timber Top Mesa (8,055’), in Kolob Canyons. I thought better of it after one glance at that monster face, and retreated to the mai...
"Our plane is approaching Kathmandu airport. Please fasten your seatbelts.” Rubbing my eyes and looking out the window of the plane, I saw the familiar but still exciting view of the Himalaya in morning light. A beautiful mountain with a clearly d...
My first thought, upon being violently shaken awake at 4:30 in the morning, is that I’m getting buried in an avalanche. My second thought is that I’m going to die. I press my hands against the nylon wall in front of me to brace myself as the tent ...
Our Swiss-Italian-French team headed to East Greenland in late July, planning to kayak to remote walls. Due to pandemic-related difficulties, we were a week late in reaching our starting point of Tasiilaq. Matteo Della Bordella, Symon Welfringer, ...