In January 2023, Sam Hennessey, Alex Honnold, Esteban “Topo” Mena, and Nate Opp ascended the last obvious unclimbed couloir on the west face of Branscomb Peak (4,520m), a subpeak of the Vinson Massif around 2km northwest of the main summit. The four started up at 10 a.m. and topped out on Branscomb eight hours later before continuing in two pairs to the summit of Vinson (4,892m).

The route was mostly steep snow and never more than 50° except for a short mixed section, and the group climbed unroped throughout. This was the first new route on Vinson in a dozen years.

Honnold and Mena had reached the summit of Vinson the week before via the normal route, and then repeated one of the variations on the south face of Mt. Shinn (4,660m), finishing via the upper southeast ridge.

After climbing in the Vinson Massif, Honnold and Mena made the first ascent of the east ridge of Mt. Dolence (1,950m, 79.8500°S, 83.21667°W) in the Heritage Range. This rocky pyramid is about 6km south of the ALE Union Glacier camp. The upper east ridge, accessed by a couloir on the north side, had been attempted in December 2012 by Americans Tom Nonis, Jeff Previte, and Seth Timpano. These three stopped at a minor top some distance east of the summit, having found the convoluted ridge too slow to climb in big boots and poor weather.

Honnold and Mena started much farther east, at the beginning of the ridge. They passed the rappel anchor left in 2012, continued to the summit, and then traversed the entire mountain by descending the west ridge and going over a rocky peak to the northwest, inscribing a giant horseshoe. The pair took 12 hours from start to finish, covering a distance of around 10km. There was lots of scrambling and sections up to 5.6, which they climbed unroped; they made two short rappels.

Mt. Dolence was first climbed in January 2011 via the north face, by Klaus Tscherrig and client Markus Ineichen from Switzerland. This took place after the relocation of the ALE base camp from Patriot Hills to Union Glacier, which gave much better access to the peaks of the Heritage Range.

— Damien Gildea, AAJ