![The Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, hosts the Outdoor Retailer. [Photo] hakkun, Wikimedia](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/patagonia-or-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
![Looking east from the summit of North Six Shooter in Indian Creek, Utah, provides a glimpse of the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument. South Six Shooter is in the foreground and Bridger Jack Butte and pinnacles are in the middle ground. The Abajo Mountains are in the background to the right and the La Sal Mountains are just out of view to the left. Canyonlands National Park lies behind the photographer, just a few miles to the west. [Photo] Derek Franz](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/bears-ears-1-2.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
![Rudugaira Peak (5819m) is one of the mountains being promoted with lower permit fees this year by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. [Photo] Courtesy of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/imf-permit-fees-1.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
![This photo shows Gimmigela East (7005m) from a vantage point above the team's base camp. Auer wrote, Our plan of putting up a base camp with a direct view to the mountain was shut down by our porters. They all stopped in Camp Pangpema, the base camp for Kangchenjunga (8586m). We convinced five of them to shuttle up our loads a little bit higher during a few days. [Photo] Elias Holzkenecht](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/gimmigela-east-2.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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).
![Bachelor Party: After a typical Black Canyon approach, the author (right) prepares to climb back to the rim with his buddies Jack Cody (middle) and Todd Preston (left), in June 2015, the day before the author's wedding. [Photo] Derek Franz](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/sportiva-tx2-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
The La Sportiva TX2 approach shoes shine brightly on fast-and-light rock missions when you need to carry your approach shoes with you on the climb. Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz awards them five stars.
![Nik Mirhashemi and Mark Pugliese climbed a route they called Wrong Way Bud (5.6 M4, 500m) on Norbu Peak (5634m) on October 23. [Photo] Nik Mirhashemi](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rolwaling-trip-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
![The red line shows the approximate route of Standing Room Only (Russian Alpine Grade 5a, Scottish IV, M4, 650m) on the West Face of Xialongrezha (5678m). The first four pitches are obscured below the fin of rock. [Photo] Rob Baker](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/xialongrezha-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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 makes the first ascent of Dust in the Wind (M8, 100m), Val di Fassa, Italy, while rope-soloing. [Photo] Tom Ballard](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ballard-rope-solos-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
![This aerial shot shows the magnitude of the Eiger North Face (3970m). Metanoia (VII 5.10 M6 A4, 1800m) takes a central line up the shadowy face. [Photo] Archive Metanoia](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/metanoia-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Thomas Huber, Roger Schaeli and Stephan Siegrist complete the second ascent of Metanoia (VII 5.10 M6 A4, 1800m) on the Eiger North Face (3970m), more than 25 years after Jeff Lowe established the legendary route that became a turning point in his life.
![Marcin Tomaszewksi leads a pitch during the first ascent of Titanic (M5 5.10c A3 WI4, 1800m) on the North Face of the Eiger (3970m), which he completed with Tom Ballard on November 30 to December 6. [Photo] Tom Ballard](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/eiger-titanic-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Tom Ballard and Marcin Tomaszewksi have only climbed together three times, but all those climbs have been first ascents. They added another hard new route to the Eiger North Face in December –Titanic–and Ballard continued his legacy with the mountain that his mother, Alison Hargreaves, had climbed while she was pregnant with him.
