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  • Living Maps of Patagonia: Toward a New Future of Exploration

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Natalia Martinez…

  • Climbers of Color Come Full Circle: The Future of Expanded Representation

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by James Edward…

  • Taking Time To Tell: The Future of Trip Reports

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Damien Gildea,…

  • Sharing Misadventures, not just Adventures: The Future of Climbing Accidentology

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Maud Vanpoulle,…

  • Sounds of Ceremony: The Future of Sacred Landscapes

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Len Necefer,…

  • Mountain As Metaphor: A Future of Multiple Worldviews

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Dr. Pasang…

  • Free and High: A Future of Cutting-Edge Alpinism

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Tom Livingstone,…

  • The Cresset and the Light: The Many Futures of Alpinism

    “The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, starting with the introduction by Editor-in-Chief…

  • Young Spanish team establishes Big Fighter, a 740-meter route on Chaupi Huanca, Peru

    Between July 1 and 3, young Spanish climbers Jaume Peiro (20) and Alex Gonzalez (18) made the first ascent of the northwest spur of Chaupi Huanca in the Rurec Valley of the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. They climbed their 740-meter route–Big Fighter–at 6c (5.11b/c) A2, and estimated it would go free at 8a+ (5.13c). Peiro…

  • Christoph Schranz establishes a 300-meter 8c (5.14b), ground up, in the Tyrolean Alps

    On May 8, Christoph Schranz freed Ocha-Schau-Schuich (“Fear of Heights,” in his Tyrolean dialect). It took him 20 days of work spread out over three years to establish the 300-meter, seven-pitch route. He explored the route ground up, as a rope solo, starting in 2018 and then began efforts to free the line starting in…

  • Running Waters

    During the battles of World War I, British alpinist T. Graham Brown had vivid, recurring dreams of an alpine wall he’d first imagined after reading a route description in a climbing novel and trying to locate it on a map. Years later, Brown completed his famous routes on the real Brenva Face of Mont Blanc…

  • Women, girls involved with Ascend program in Afghanistan are threatened by Taliban rule

    The members, graduates and students of the Ascend program in Afghanistan need help. The nonprofit has offered leadership training for young Afghan women through mountaineering courses, and now that Taliban forces have seized control over much of the country, including the nation’s capital city of Kabul, people who do not adhere to the Taliban’s strict…

  • Vitaliy Musiyenko completes 32-mile Goliath Traverse in High Sierra

    From August 2 to 10, Vitaliy Musiyenko made the first traverse of Goliath–a linkup of gargantuan proportions along the Sierra Crest, in California’s Sierra Nevada Range. Over the course of eight days Musiyenko covered approximately 32 miles of mostly technical terrain, 80,000 feet of elevation gain, and 60 summits above 13,000 feet, including eight Fourteeners.…

  • The Climbing Life | Alpinist 75

    Alpinist 75 will be available on newsstands soon. In the meantime, we’re offering a preview of The Climbing Life section, with a story by Douglas Brockmeyer about a 1970s magazine photo that inspired him to become a climber (and thus changed the course of his existence), poems by Katherine Indermaur about the fourth-century pilgrim Egeria…

  • Gnarly Nutrition BCAAs: A dietary supplement geared especially for vegans, alpinists and older athletes

    Mountain Standards Gear Review: Digital Editor Derek Franz has been using the Gnarly Nutrition Pre and BCAA (branched chain amino acid) dietary supplements for the past year. Though unable to definitively say how much of a difference, if any, the supplements have made for his fitness, he writes: “What I do know, is that my…

  • A season of spontaneous commitment in the Alaska Range

    Between late April and the end of May, Mike Gardner and Sam Hennessey added a new line on Denali’s Isis Face that they dubbed Anubis (Alaska Grade 6: AI5 M6, 6,900′); ascended the classic Bibler-Klewin on the North Buttress of Begguya (Mt. Hunter); and then finished by climbing Denali’s Cassin Ridge in deep snow with…

  • Local Hero: Vasu Sojitra

    In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Dani Reyes-Acosta celebrates the community-building work and mountain adventures of ice climber and backcountry skier Vasu Sojitra, co-founder of the Inclusive Outdoors Project.

  • US-Colombian trio complete a new route on Peru’s Concha de Caracol (5640m)

    On July 13 and 14, Andres Marin, Anna Pfaff and Alex Torres completed a new route on Concha de Caracol (5640m) in Peru’s Cordillera Vilcanota. Cerveza, Pan y Acido (ED: 90°, 700m), which translates as “beer, bread and acid,” is the second route on the mountain’s south face. The climbers weathered an open bivy below…

  • Nejc Zaplotnik, Mountain Poet

    As one of the first ascensionists of the West Ridge Direct of Chomolungma (Everest), Slovenian alpinist Nejc Zaplotnik (1952-1983) was among the great climbers of the twentieth century. To many, however, he is best known for his lyrical memoir, The Way (“Pot” in Slovenian), which gave voice to the dreams of his generation and beyond.…

  • Chantel Astorga completes first female solo of Denali’s Cassin Ridge in 14 hours, 39 minutes

    At 8 p.m. June 14, Chantel Astorga became the first woman to solo the Cassin Ridge on Denali (20,310′), completing the route in just 14 hours and 39 minutes. Generations of alpinists have considered the Cassin (Alaska Grade 5, 5.8, AI4) a formidable and coveted objective. Astorga, who works as an avalanche forecaster in Idaho…

  • Marek Holecek and Radoslav Groh endure an epic to complete a new route on Baruntse

    On May 21, two-time Piolet d’Or recipient Marek “Mara” Holecek and fellow Czech climber Radoslav “Radar” Groh set out to climb a new route on the west face of Baruntse (7129m) in Nepal’s Hunku Valley. They packed food for six days–they were on the mountain for ten. After several storm-bound days on the way up…

  • 1993: Picture on a Wall

    In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Greg Child recounts the first ascent of the East Pillar Direct on Slesse (Selisi) with Perry Beckham in 1993. To read more history about this 2429-meter peak in British Columbia, check out Tami Knight’s Mountain Profile in Issue…

  • Years of Sunsets

    In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives ponders her obsession with mountaintop sunsets, and the question posed to her by a college professor years ago: “How many more sunsets will you see?”

  • Dragon Alliance PXV2 Goggles: Sun protection for a range of activities and conditions

    Mountain Standards Gear Review: IFMGA/AMGA guide Mike Lewis has been using the Dragon Alliance PXV2 snow goggles this past winter. The goggles come with two fog- and scratch-resistant lenses, and feature a Swiftlock changing system that allowed him to swap out the lenses with gloved hands on a ski lift. He writes: “My suggested ideal…