Looking southeast across the head of the Ratkaban Glacier toward Chaturangi and Satopanth. Photo from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering In October 2018, the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (established in 1965) and the Uttarakhand Tourism ...
Rory Harrison on the upper traverse of End of the Line, southeast face of Skarðatindur. Below and to the left is the vast Skaftafellsjökull. Photo by Bjartur Týr Ólafsson Bjartur Týr Ólafsson writes: The southeast face of Skarðatindar (Skard...
Matteo Mucci hiking below the rime-ice towers of the east face of Hvannadalshnjúkur after descending from a new route on the west face, headed toward the saddle between the summit and the square-shaped Dyrhamar (the Gate). The approach to Hvanna...
Sam Hunt on the first ascent of the northeast ridge of Mt. Gwendolyn. Photo by Rob Taylor Sam Hunt and I work as field guides at Rothera research station on Adelaide Island. On November 27, we left the base at 6 a.m., and with two sledges of ...
Tucked away to the south of the Terskey Alatau Range and west of the Inylchek Valley is the compact range known as Kuilu (Kuylyu). The first recorded expedition to the Kuilu Range took place in 1937, when a team led by I. Cherepov made the first a...
From September 20 to October 7, 2002, two legendary alpinists, Pavel Shabalin (Russia) and Ilyas Tukhvatullin (Uzbekistan), climbed the Nose Direct on the north face of Ak-su North (a.k.a. Rocky Ak-su, 5,217m). They made 11 portaledge camps and gr...
Taking advantage of a partial loosening in COVID-19 restrictions by Polish and Pakistani authorities, Jakub Bogdański and Michał Ilczuk returned to the northern Karakoram in September for a second attempt on unclimbed Dih Sar (reported as either...
Granite Peak from the south. (A) Location of climber after fall from the Snowbridge, the saddle in the east ridge directly above. (B) Site of rappel anchor failure. (C) Position of fallen climber. Two falls occurred on September 5 on the east...
On July 2, Emma Ely (25), Randy Smersh (36), and I (Zach Eiten, 28), all experienced mountaineers, set out to climb the Notch Couloir route on the north face of Granite Peak (12,799 feet), Montana’s high point. The Notch Couloir is described as “s...
Levan Lashkarashvili (left) and Archil Badriashvili at the first bivouac site during their ascent of the southwest face of Ailama in early September 2020. Their route continued up the headwall above and a little to the right of the two climbers....
Tetnuldi (4,858m, 43°01′52″N, 42°59′35″E), in the Svaneti region, is considered one of the most beautiful, pyramid-shaped mountains of the Caucasus. Situated south of the main frontier ridge, it offers a spectacular panorama, especially of the hig...
Climbing a new line up the most iconic peak of the Caucasus—Ushba (south peak, 4,710m; north, 4,690m)—is a dream for many alpinists. The mountain is famous for being harsh, complex, and dangerous. I remember moments as a teenager cautiously search...
In recent years I have been living between France and the USA, not really spending much time in my native New Zealand. My wife, Julie, is French, and our loose plan was to settle in France when our young son, Sam, started school. At the end of...
Relative to other areas in the Winds, the Cirque of the Moon has seen few climbing parties since the first recorded routes were established in 1978. We were drawn to the promise of seclusion and opportunity to attempt the first free ascent of on...
I first became interested in Little Tahoma Peak (11,130’), a satellite peak on the east side of Mt. Rainier, while talking with Matt Christensen, my stepfather, about his first ascent of the west ridge with Paul Cook in 1980. We found it interesti...
On August 3, Jamey Sellew, Ben Spannuth, and I set off from the Big Sandy trailhead to take a look at the unclimbed southwest face of a formation named Little El Capitan (12,825’). This was my fourth trip into the range, and the previous year I ...
The plan to do a new route on the northeast face of Mt. Hooker first formed in August 2019. That month, my closest friend, Nolan Smythe, and I hiked out from Hooker having done the second free ascent of Original Sin (Birdwell-Huey, 2017; see AAJ...
On the west end of Nagunt Mesa in Kolob Canyons is a prominent subpeak known as Nugget Mesa. The origins of this name stem from a 2000 AAJ report by the late Scott Cosgrove, and it may or may not have been a simple misspelling. Regardless, the n...
In November of 2019 Lane Mathis, Collin Turbert, and I set out to attempt a first ascent of a new route on Nagunt Mesa in Kolob Canyon. After hiking three fully loaded bags almost three miles over rough terrain, including some fifth class, we foun...
On September 29, in early winter conditions, Matias Francis and I climbed what we believe to be a new route on the north face of Peak 10,259' (45.981151, -113.441929) in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. After seeing some recent pictures of the ...