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Darwin’s Disappointment
In September 1833, Charles Darwin set out for the four peaks of the Sierra de la Ventana alone, lured by local murmurs of caves and forests and veins of silver and gold. The small range was barely visible from the port of Bahia Blanca, a notch in the north-central Argentine coast. There, the H.M.S. Beagle…
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Mammut 8.7mm Serenity Dry: Light, Stiff and Specialized
Although rope technology has greatly improved in the twenty-some years since I started climbing, I was still skeptical when a lime-green Mammut 8.7mm Serenity rope showed up on my doorstep. The manufacturer states this rope is designed for single, double and twin configurations. Mammut also says the rope is designed to stretch 31 percent when…
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Solo Faces: The Camaraderie of Divine or Reckless Brotherhood
Before I left for Chamonix to go hiking in the French Alps, I borrowed Solo Faces by James Salter from the lending library at work. My list of must-reads was long and only growing longer, but the ghostly mountain landscape of its cover caught my eye–a silhouetted man ascending a jagged peak.
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Down to the Wire
This story is about Jack Tackle recovering from a debilitating sickness and then traveling to Mt. Augusta (14,072), Saint Elias Mountains, Yukon Territories. High on the peak’s north face, he was clocked by a rock, and rescued from the wall a few days later by Pararescue Specialists (known as parajumpers, or PJs), highly trained members…
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Poetry Feature: “Belay”
As an ecologist and a writer, I spend a lot of time contemplating how those two vocations speak to each other. Fundamentally, my research explores what it is to translate a landscape and how language shapes our perception of the ecosystems on which we depend.
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A History of Imaginary Mountains–Thoreau’s Dream: Beyond the Maps
Behind the histories of exploration lie less-visible tales of rumored summits that prove to be nonexistent, and of physical mountains whose shapes and heights transform according to different legends.
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Friends and Family Honor Dave Bridges (1970-1999)
On October 5, 1999, while Dave Bridges and Alex Lowe were investigating a potential ski descent on the southwest face of Shishapangma, an avalanche buried them. This spring, their remains were found on the mountain.
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A Quartet for Silent Lands: A Photo Essay
We asked Lise Billon and Jerome Sullivan, two of the four authors of “A Quartet for Silent Lands” in Alpinist 53 (the other two authors are Diego Simari and Antoine Moineville) to share additional photos from their story for us to post online.
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Local Hero: Fay Pullen
At seventy-three, Cascades climber Fay Pullen bushwhacks through dense thickets and climbs isolated peaks–generally alone. Cindy Beavon pays a visit to one of Washington’s most prolific soloists.
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Off Belay: Darwin’s Disappointment
Before his theory of evolution made him famous, Charles Darwin was an enthusiastic, if somewhat picky, mountaineer. Paula Wright considers the significance of his most disappointing ascents.
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Andrew McLean Remembers Alex Lowe, David Bridges and the 1999 Shishapangma Avalanche
Andrew McLean shares his reflections on the 1999 expedition, the avalanche that killed Alex Lowe and David Bridges and the void left by their passing.
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Ternua’s Loughor Puff Jacket: Recycled Warmth
Instead of collecting new feathers, Neokdun recycles down that has been sterilized from old duvets in its special processing plant. The Spanish company Ternua works with Neokdun to process the down in their 800-fill power Loughor jacket.
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Memorial Services to be Held for Eric Klimt
Eric Klimt, a climber, teacher and videographer from Baltimore, Maryland, passed away in a climbing accident in Zion National Park on March 9. His family remembers him as an adventurer who projected routes around the globe. To remember Eric and his adventures, the Klimt family will hold two services.
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DMM Couloir ropes: great durability and water repellency
The rope is the single most important piece in your pack. During alpine climbs, the rope is subject to needle-sharp crampons, errant ice tools, rock and ice fall, and abrasive terrain while climbing and descending. For me, the most important qualities to look for in a rope are: durability, minimal weight, ease in handling and…
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Mountain Profile: Zion National Park, A Photo Essay
In 1904 the artist Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh wrote of the landscape that became Zion National Park: “Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered into our minds!… There is almost nothing to compare to it. Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon, of immensity; the Yellowstone, of singularity; the Yosemite, of…
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