In the spring, Mike Dunn and Matt Ward climbed two new routes in the Canaan Mountain Wilderness, south of Zion National Park. Resurrection of General John Wayne (10 pitches, V 5.9 A3) is located on the southern end of the sprawling west flank of...
Mt. Owen (12,928’) is the second-highest peak in the Teton Range, but it sees minimal ski mountaineering action due to its relatively remote location in the winter and extremely technical nature. The north aspect, most specifically the Northeast...
The Cirque of the Sun is a small hanging valley just south of the Monolith cirque and just north of the Cirque of the Moon. In recent years, several new routes have been done on a large west-and north-facing formation, dubbed Resolute Buttress by ...
The North Norwegian Buttress, part of the northeast face of Mt. Index, showing (1) Jötnar (2,000’, 16 pitches, VI 5.9 A3+), (2) Doorish Route (Pete Doorish, 1980s), and (3) Voodoo Proj (VI 5.10 R A4, Williams-Karner-Strong-Thorpe, 2002). Photo ...
In February 2020, Jacob Dickhausen, Andrew Park, Pasquale Verrastro, and I headed up Spring Canyon, a seldom-visited portion of Zion National Park, east of the Altar of Sacrifice and behind the old Zion History Museum. After hours of bushwhacking ...
An adventure is inherently subjective. Weather, season, linking multiple objectives, and your team's fitness all combine to change the way an adventure plays out and how big you need to go to scratch the itch. This summer, with travel not being an...
In September, Alex Marine and I climbed a line up the pillar that forms the lower northeast ridge of the east subsummit of A Peak (8,634’) in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness of northwest Montana. We’d been intrigued by the recent impressive ice...
On December 11, I left my home in Red Lodge at noon and took my snow machine to just before the Glacier Lake Trailhead in the Main Fork of Rock Creek. I was intent on scoping an ice line previously climbed by Aaron Mulkey (Splitsville (1,000’, M6)...
On October 3, Ben Hoiness, Dustin Kisner, and I climbed a long new route on the west face of Silver Run Peak (12,542’), about four miles up the West Fork Trail on Rock Creek. Ben and I had attempted the line four years prior and bailed after findi...
In May, Ky Hart and I climbed a probable new route on the north face of Horstmann Peak (10,475’). This huge, striking face, which can be seen from Stanley, is what initially drew us to the area. After hiking in, 750’ of gradually steepening snow...
In August, Brandon Thau invited me out to the southeast face of Locke Rock, northeast of Courtright Reservoir, to climb a line he had his eye on. We started climbing to the right of the rarely-done runout classic Best of the West (1,000’, 5.11c ...
In June, Chaz Langelier and I made one of the longest approaches possible in the High Sierra in order to climb a few remote gems on the Great Western Divide. We approached via the Shepherd Pass Trail, over the ca 12,000’ pass and descended to an u...
“Watch me!” I yelled to Connor Chilcott and Derek Field below me as I climbed above a sharp flake that would mangle me badly should I fall. I did not have the right gear to protect the 5.10 offwidth I was climbing, and could not allow a slip. W...
In July, Daniel Jeffcoach and I hiked over to the Gorge of Despair from Kings Canyon to check out a wall we had seen a few years prior while descending from the Watsi Wall near Tehipite Dome (see AAJ 2017). We approached from the Lewis Creek trai...
Ula-gol (2,911m, 51°47'34.71"N, 101°26'29.42"E) rises above the Ulan-gol Valley in the Eastern Sayan Mountains, about 200km west-southwest of the large Siberian city of Irkutsk. From just after the village of Hoito-gol, which can be reached by veh...
I first met Marc-André Leclerc around a campfire in the Yosemite high country. Sitting across from him in the thin, crisp evening air I could feel his energy. He’d just come from a solo winter-climbing trip to Patagonia and his eyes burned with th...
In 2018, Will Stanhope and I took a trip into the Eldred Valley in search of unclimbed stone and solace after the loss of a friend. We balked at several options but finally quested up to the difficult-to-access Amon Rûdh. After a multi-hour hike t...
From April 29 to June 10, 2019, a team of French climbers and skiers traveled more than 650km by foot, skis, and boat through the wilderness of Wrangell–St. Elias and Kluane national parks, scribing a great semicircle around Mt. Logan (5,959m), Ca...
In September 2016, Libor Forst, Jeff Sandifort (the head guide from Climbing South America), and I spent a week in and around Sajama National Park. We intended to climb Cerro Acotango (6,052m, 18°22'58.35"S, 69°2'51.73"W), a dormant volcano likely...
Foreshortened view of the Tronchey Wall of the Grandes Jorasses, seen from the upper Pra Sec Glacier. (1) Original Route (1,400m, probably ED2 VI and A2, Gogna-Machetto, 1972). (2) Phantom Direct (ED2/3 VI/5 or 6, Grassi-Luzi-Rossi, 1985). (3) P...