The aim of our small Belgian expedition was to make the first winter ascent of Lukpe Lawo Brakk, the highest of the Snow Lake peaks. [Lukpe Lawo Brakk (6,593m) was climbed, possibly for the first time, in 1989 by a British expedition via the west ...
In 2000, the Corean Alpine Club sponsored six climbers to make the first ascent of Shingu Charpa (a.k.a. Great Tower, ca 5,900m; various heights have been reported, from 5,600m to over 6,000m). The team established base camp on July 7 in the Nangm...
In 2016, Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier visited the Lachit Valley, and during the trek out he saw several relatively accessible big walls in the Tagas Valley. (This is the next valley west of the Lachit, running north-northeast from the village of Ta...
In spring 2019, inspired by a photo taken two years earlier by our friend Marcello Sanguineti (AAJ 2018), Maurizio Giordani asked me to join him, Massimo Faletti, and David Hall on an expedition to the Kondus Valley. Our goal was to climb some of ...
Ten years ago, I ventured out on my first winter climbing trip to the Darran Mountains. Following an abortive attempt at a then unclimbed route on the west peak of Mt. Crosscut, Al Uren and I stopped off in the upper Eglinton Valley. From an innoc...
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the holy grail of ice climbing in the Northeast was rumored to have been found in western Newfoundland, where the Vikings first landed in America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. But the Southern Kni...
Climbers with disabilities have accomplished extraordinary feats in recent decades. Hugh Herr, Mark Wellman, and other adaptive climbers made international news with their ascents in the 1980s and ’90s, and in the 21st century, climbers with disab...
In the early 1970s, Roger Breedlove was a full-time climber in Yosemite: teaching climbing, doing big walls, and putting up classic routes like the Central Pillar of Frenzy and Freewheelin’ on Middle Cathedral Rock, and the first free ascent of Be...
I first laid eyes on the Emperor Face in October 2018. Winter had already arrived, and lines of snow and ice shimmered in the afternoon light. The wind whipped snow over the ridgeline and clouds spun around the summit. A prominent gully system l...
We had hoped to go to Nepal in the fall, but the pandemic decided otherwise. Pierrick Fine and I were forced to modify our plans just two weeks before our departure. The choices were limited—the only country that opened its doors to us was Pakista...
The sun was setting behind distant Nanga Parbat as Jeff and I ascended the seemingly endless ice face on the western flank of K6, searching for a bivouac spot in the fading alpenglow. It was October 5, very late in the season to be climbing a 7,00...
Ryan Stefiuk during the first ascent of Between Wind and Water, Barrens Wall, Newfoundland. Photo by Christopher Beauchamp When people talk about world-class ice climbing, Newfoundland rarely comes up in the conversation. As a New Englander, ...
The northwest face of Mt. Brown showing: (1) Your Other Left (IV WI4 4th class and steep snow, Bourret-Clark, 2020); (2) Left Gully (III, WI3/4, steep snow); (2a) Left Gully with finish to summit (IV WI3 M2 and steep snow, Clark, 2020); (3) Righ...
Right from the beginning, I have been saying this expedition was for the pride of the nation, for the Nepalese climbing community, and for future generations of Nepalese climbers. The Nepalese Sherpa are regarded as the backbone of climbing on 8...
At the start of 2020, many of the world’s top rock climbers were training for the Olympic Games, scheduled to begin in Tokyo in July. By March, COVID-19 had postponed the Olympics and forced most climbers into lockdown. With eased restrictions in ...
At around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, a New Hampshire Fish and Game officer contacted the Mount Washington Avalanche Center to ask for assistance in locating the vehicle of an individual who had been reported missing the previous night....
On January 22, 2021, at 3:20 p.m., a skier was caught by an avalanche triggered by his party and carried from near the top of Left Gully almost to the floor of Tuckerman Ravine. An approximately six-inch slab of new and wind-deposited snow release...
Just after 8 a.m. on February 14, 2021, Rider 1 parked at the trailhead for Mt. Trelease and noticed one car already in the parking area. As Rider 1 ascended the skin track, he deduced there was one backcountry tourer ahead of him (Rider 2), based...
On February 4 at around 11:10 a.m., two skiers were caught by an avalanche in an area east of the Vail resort known locally as Marvin’s West or Big Marvin. This is a steep, east-facing slope below treeline that is dissected by two cliff bands in t...
At midday on December 15, Rider 1 and Skier 2, a married couple and Crested Butte residents, left for a short tour. Rider 1 traveled on a splitboard, while Skier 2 was on lightweight touring skis. Since their plan was to ski up and descend the sno...