EMILIO COMICI: ANGEL OF THE DOLOMITES. David Smart. Rocky Mountain Books, 2020. Hardcover, 248 pages, $32. David Smart’s new biography of Emilio Comici (1901–1940) draws on a variety of sources to paint a nuanced picture of Comici, a man of geni...
EDGE OF THE MAP: THE MOUNTAIN LIFE OF CHRISTINE BOSKOFF. Johanna Garton. Mountaineers Books, 2020. Paperback, 240 pages, $19.95. Johanna Garton’s Edge of the Map follows the life and high-altitude climbs of Christine Boskoff, a widely admired and...
TO LIVE: FIGHTING FOR LIFE ON THE KILLER MOUNTAIN. Élisabeth Revol. Vertebrate Press (U.K.), 2020. Paperback, 160 pages, £24. In the winter of 2013, French alpinist Élisabeth Revol made her first attempt on Nanga Parbat, marking the beginning o...
Laura Tiefenthaler (left) and Jana Moehrer take a short break: The fine rock pillar to the south above Tiefenthaler is the Obelisk. The aiguilles visible lie south of the Pass of the Obelisks and some were climbed by British teams in the 1960s a...
Looking west from the summit of Atal I. Nehru Institute of Mountaineering In October 2018, the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (established in 1965) and the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board jointly organized an expedition to attempt u...
The top half of Good-bye Happiness on the northwest face of Daddomain West. The west ridge, on the right, was partially followed by New Zealanders in 2004 to make the first ascent of Daddomain (hidden beyond the top of Daddomain West). Photo by ...
On the approach to the southeast face of Jiehkkevárri, with the line of the ski descent. Photo by Hamish Frost In the early morning of April 28, Eivind Jacobsen and I made the first ski descent of the 1,100m southeast face of Jiehkkevárri (1,...
The southwest slope and southeast ridge of Kyungka Ri II from the upper Shalbachum Glacier. Photo by Sophie Lavaud On December 8, Dawa Sangay Sherpa, Mingma Sherpa, Tenjing Sherpa, four local porters, Kukur (a lovely crazy dog that followed u...
On October 29, 2019, Adam Butterfield and I completed a likely new route on the northeast buttress of Axis Peak (7,550’), above Eightmile Lake in the Stuart Range, near our homes in Leavenworth. Arctic air had spread south into the region, and t...
The idea of a free ascent of Mystery Dome had been lodged in the back of my mind since happening across the trip report of the first and only known technical ascent (see AAJ 2014). The details of the first ascent, a bold and committing 13-pitch ...
Big Rock Candy Mountain is the largest formation in Colorado’s South Platte, rising over 1,000’ above the South Platte River. Early climbers were drawn to the lower-angle slabs of its west face, and in 1979 Pete Gallagher and Pete Williams made ...
Spring Lake Wall is a beautiful formation located about a four-hour hike out of Mineral King. The best approach is over the old Glacier Pass trail. All of the previously reported activity (see AAJ 1976, 2016, 2020) has focused on the main wall, ho...
Iridescent Wall is a distant south-facing point on a southwest spur of Mt. Le Conte (ca 13,960’). The wall, which rises above an idyllic lake nestled in the Miter Basin area, can be reached by a strenuous cross-country route up the South Fork of...
In early November 2020, Nick Sullens of Yosemite Valley SAR and Eric Lynch, a Yosemite climbing ranger, completed the long-awaited free ascent of a new route on the Fifi Buttress in Yosemite Valley—the culmination of vision and determination by ...
COVID canceled our foreign expedition plans in 2020, so Justin Bowen lassoed me into one of his dream projects: a new route on the north face of the Grand Teton. A Jackson Hole local, Bowen had been researching the Grand for a number of years an...
Even in the 21st century, in the Central Andes of Mendoza Province there are believed to be approximately 50 unclimbed summits above 5,000m with at least 200m of prominence. One of those unnamed peaks (5,194m, 33°43'30.7"S, 69°32'47.9"W), is situa...
In October, the Torres del Paine National Park was still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We began to look at climbing objectives in the surrounding ranges. After a tip-off from local climbers who had just climbed the route Painakan (see repor...
On May 28, Aldo Coral (Ecuador), Nicolas Secul (Chile), and I ventured into the valley between Cerro Azucena and Cerro Esmeralda in the Prat Range, which is about 50km south of Torres Del Paine and 35km northwest of Puerto Natales. After battling ...
In mid-September, Damir Mandakovic, José Vial, and I, members of Club Andino Universitario, opened what may be the first route up the southern side of the southernmost 5,000m peak in Chile, the Picos del Barroso (34°17'17.2"S, 70°1'52.4"W). This ...
In late November, Raimundo De Andraca, Antonio Eguiguren, Sebastían Rojas, Nicolás Valderrama, and Galo Viguera climbed Monte San Valentín (4,058m) and then made a ski descent of the steep south face. Their 1,300m descent followed the general line...