Derek Franz

The inaugural First Ascent Expedition Award is giving grants to four teams across three categories. The Grit and Rock Foundation created the award last September to “encourage female participation in pioneering alpine ascents and to further the understanding and exploration of the unclimbed peaks.”

Arc’teryx, Ibex and Polartec join Patagonia to oppose Utah’s efforts to rescind Bears Ears National Monument. The tactics range from boycotting the Salt Lake City location of the Outdoor Retailer trade show and making financial donations to conservation efforts, to using the trade show as an opportunity to lobby Utah legislators.

On February 3, Utah legislators moved to rescind Bears Ears National Monument. In response, Patagonia announced the company will stop attending the Outdoor Retailer trade shows hosted twice a year in Salt Lake City, Utah, but the company has no further plans to pull its business from Utah at this time.

Now that President Donald Trump is in office, and a new, Republican majority controls both the U.S. House and Senate, discussions about federal land management and resource extraction have intensified. This article briefly summarizes the current actions that are taking place and the political landscape, especially as it pertains to the new Bears Ears National Monument, which is near the center of the federal lands debate.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation offers reduced permit fees on 81 select mountains for the 2017 season. The goal is to encourage foreign expeditions and disperse traffic from some of the most popular areas.

When Hansjorg Auer and Alex Blumel couldn’t get a permit for their original objective last November they were pointed to Gimmigela East (7005m). It turned out to be a great choice, as they became the first people to approach the mountain from the northern side and climb its previously untouched North Face (M4, 85-degree ice, 1200m).

Americans Nik Mirhashemi and Mark Pugliese made three probable first ascents on three peaks in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley on their first trip to the Himalaya last autumn.

A team of five friends self-fund an expedition to a rarely visited area of Tibet and climb a previously unnamed 5678-meter peak they named Xialongrezha. They climbed the west face and called their route Standing Room Only (Russian Alpine Grade 5a, Scottish IV, M4, 650m).

Tom Ballard closes out the year in the Dolomites with a rope-solo first ascent of Dust in the Wind (M8, 100m) and a casual multiday rope solo of the Gogna Route (5.10, 800m) on Marmolada Punta Rocca (3309m), which he finished on New Years Eve.