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Book Review: Simon McCartney’s ‘The Bond’
Rick Accomazzo reviews Simon McCartney’s book, The Bond. Published earlier this year, The Bond received the 2016 Banff Mountain and Wilderness Literature Non-Fiction Award, as well as the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.
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The Vision of Andrew Boyd
Drew Copeland considers how Andrew Boyd has quietly influenced the Squamish climbing scene in the last twenty years with his bold first free ascents and visionary lines.
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Public Lands and the Future of Advocacy: An Interview with Brady Robinson (Part I in an Interview Series)
On November 16, 2016, the Access Fund released a statement in response to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, “What Will the Trump Administration Mean for Climbing?” We’ve since followed up with Brady Robinson, executive director of the Access Fund and chair of the Outdoor Alliance, to learn more about his thoughts on the…
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Tenaya Ra: A true ‘all-around performance shoe’
Mike Lewis finds that the Tenaya Ra has everything he looks for in a climbing shoe, including a great out-of-the-box fit that doesn’t require a break-in period. Five Stars!
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Buffalo Soldiers in the Cavalryman’s Paradise
Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson explores “the pitch of the wild” for the Buffalo Soldiers on patrol in Yosemite at the turn of the twentieth century.
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The Shining Mountains
Popular books recount the early days of Canadian mountaineering as a story of epic discoveries. In this story from Alpinist 50, historians Zac Robinson and Stephen Slemon examine what often gets left out: the extent to which the “explorers” relied on the prior geographic knowledge of Indigenous guides.
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Updated DMM Dragon cams: Stable, easy to place and clean
Chris Van Leuven compares the new DMM Dragon cams to other brands and finds he likes to mix and match for optimal weight and size-runs, awarding them four stars out of five.
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Ines Papert and Luka Lindic establish new route on Kyzyl Asker
Ines Papert and Luka Lindic discover the best ice either of them have ever encountered so high on a mountain during the two-day ascent of their new route on Kyzyl Asker (5842m), Lost in China (ED WI5+ M6, 1200m).
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Jim Detterline touched many lives as a climbing ranger in Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park
Jim Detterline participated in more than 1,200 rescues in his long career as a climbing ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park. He was well loved and famous for climbing Longs Peak (14,259’) a record 428 times. He died in a rope-soloing accident near his home in late October. More than 1,000 people attended the memorial…
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Zangerl and Larcher make the third free ascent of Zodiac on El Capitan
Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher recently made the third free ascent of Zodiac (VI 5.13d) on El Capitan after a 13-year period in which no one succeeded since the first and second free ascents were made in 2003.
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Adam Ondra Frees the Dawn Wall
Adam Ondra sets a new precedent on the second free ascent of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d) by blazing up the route in fewer than eight days and leading every pitch.
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Lauret Savoy’s Trace: Exploring Landscapes of Exclusion and Inclusion in American History
Alpinist Editor-in-chief Katie Ives describes some of the reasons Lauret Savoy’s 2015 book, Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape has become deeply relevant today: “Much of prior mountain literature, all too often, has been solipsistic and exclusionary. More than ever, we need writers like Lauret Savoy, who can help us see our shared…
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Pete Whittaker rope solos El Cap’s Freerider all free in a day
Pete Whittaker rope solos El Capitan’s Freerider (VI 5.12d) all free in 20 hours, 6 minutes, becoming the first person to do it in a day.
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A Backyard Big Wall Expedition
A group of Idaho climbers venture into the Canadian wilderness to complete the first ascent of a route on Wall Tower (9,560′) that was abandoned by Fred Beckey Carl Dietrich and Bill Ruch. They called their line The White Tiger (VI 5.11 A3, 1,600′).
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The Glaciers Are Retreating: Southern Alps, New Zealand
In a story from Alpinist 38 (Spring 2012), Paul Hersey explores a landscape at the edge of loss on the fleeting ice fields of New Zealand’s Westland Tai Poutini National Park.
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#alpinistcommunityproject: Jenny Abegg and Forest Woodward
From November 6 to 12 Jenny Abegg and Forest Woodward shared work with the #alpinistcommunityproject. Abegg cut her teeth on granite splitters in the Pacific Northwest, and made her first trip to Indian Creek in the spring of 2012. Woodward, her partner-in-crime and man behind the lens for each photo in this series, has an…
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Junko Tabei, first woman to summit Everest, dies at 77
Junko Tabei was more than the first woman to summit the highest peak on Earth, she was a trailblazer for women in the mountains, a leader for the environment and a person who actively invested in her community all the way up until her death from cancer on October 20.
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La Sportiva Nepal Cube GTX Boots: Lighter and more versatile than ever
Andrew Councell awards the La Sportiva Nepal Cube GTX boots four out of five stars for their lightness, warmth and versatility on rock and snow.
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Local Hero: Stephen Shobe
James Edward Mills writes about one of his climbing heroes, Stephen Shobe, a mountain guide and member of Expedition Denali, a group that continues to promote diversity in outdoor education.
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Seeking Space – The Climbing Life
An unexpected encounter on a hillside in New Mexico leads Jane Jackson to reconsider the environmental impacts of climbers and the conservation of public lands.
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2017 Mugs Stump Award Opens for Applications November 10
The 25th Annual Mugs Stump Award applications are due November 30 for the 2017 grant cycle.
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Local Hero: Hanniah Tariq
Vanessa Beucher writes about Pakistani activist Hanniah Tariq, founder of High Altitude Sustainability Pakistan, an organization dedicated to the well-being of expedition workers, their families and the mountain environment.
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Montane Hi Q Luxe Pro Pull On: Breathable enough to approach, warm enough to belay
Corey Buhay finds the Montane Hi Q Lux Pro Pull On jacket to be a versatile piece of equipment for staying warm and dry in the mountains. She awards it four stars out of five.
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