Chris Kalman

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 and Gonzalez succeeded on the line that two previous parties (an Argentinean team in 2016, and an Ecuadorian team in 2021) had previously attempted, adding 470 meters to the Ecuadorian team’s high point that was 270 meters up the wall.

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 2020, investing 10 attempts with support from partners before succeeding on his 11th attempt this past May. Ocha-Schau-Schuich is protected with a mixture of widely spaced bolts and natural protection, with difficulties up to 8c (5.14b).

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. It may be the longest ridge traverse in the Western Hemisphere.