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Andrew McLean Remembers Alex Lowe, David Bridges and the 1999 Shishapangma Avalanche
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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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Memorial Services to be Held for Eric Klimt
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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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Mountain Profile: Zion National Park, A Photo Essay
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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 altitude; the ocean, of power; this great temple, of eternity.”
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Namesake: Tricks are for Kids
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During the mid-1980s, Steve Hong was finishing his medical studies at the University of Utah, but he wasn’t yet done with his youthful antics. On weekends, he and his partners explored Indian Creek’s arid landscape of silent towers, crimson walls and grazing cattle. There, they found fissures that would eventually rank as iconic desert climbs. One was a 160-foot crack leading skyward up a smooth panel of maroon and orange varnish
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Mingma Gyalje Sherpa’s Solo Ascent of Khang Tagri (Mt. Chobutse)
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ONLY A FEW CLIMBERS have seen Mt. Chobutse, the 6686-meter mountain above my village in the Rolwaling Valley of Nepal. In Tibetan scripture, the original name of the peak is Khang Tagri. Although the north and south ridges rise in gradual arcs, the west face looks as sharp as an upturned axe.
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1998: Leaving Llamaland
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JANUARY: SHADOWS AND SILENCE fill the canyon of Zion National Park. Within the Emerald Pools amphitheater, icicles clatter to earth. I pull out my binoculars. A gently overhanging prow on Mt. Majestic catches wan winter sun. Bracketed by deep clefts, the sleek, southeast-facing buttress rises through dark-red sandstone and mahogany iron stains.
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1998-1999: Cracks in the Walls
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COFFEE LIFTS ON THE AIR. A dog marks time (and place) in the distance, its tail a silent metronome. The cold air, gently sinking, pulls a breeze across my face. I don’t like it. I want to crawl deeper in my bag. From the floor of the living room in John “Deucey” Midddendorf’s Hurricane home, I can just see the top of Mt. Kinesava, I think, starting to light up in the eastern sun.
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1967–Anguished Moans; Occasional Songs: Mt. Tyree, Antarctica
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This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1966 American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition. This is John Evans’s story of the first ascent of Mt. Tyree–one of six unclimbed peaks the AAME team summited.
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Through the Field: A Photo Essay
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We reached out to Graham Zimmerman, author of “Through the Field: The First Ascent of Changi Tower and The Southwest Ridge of K6 West,” in our latest issue, Alpinist 53, and asked him to share additional photos for us to post online.
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Mooncakes and Rice: Qionglai Mountains
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Qionglai Mountains, China. After several weeks of effort spread out between bouts of rainfall, Szu-ting Yi and her husband Dave Anderson completed their new route on the South Face of Eagle Peak East (5300m), calling it Secret Moon Cake (5.10 R, 760m).
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AAC Recognizes David Allfrey for Outstanding Accomplishment
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“It’s a huge honor. I’m in shock about whole thing,” David Allfrey said when we congratulated him after hearing that the American Alpine Club awarded him the Robert Hicks Bates Award.
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Yosemite in the Fifties The Iron Age: An Interview with the Photo Collector
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Photographer Dean “Bullwinkle” Fidelman, a 1970s Stonemaster, has called Yosemite his home for decades, first arriving there in 1971. He has produced several books celebrating the park’s climbing culture.
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Metanoia
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IT’S DIFFICULT TO SEPARATE WHAT part of the Eiger’s ambience is due to its actual limestone, snow and ice, and what part is due to all the stories that played out on that grand vertical stage. I don’t think it matters at this point.Most aspirants will start with those tales finely etched in their brains. At times, along the way, they’ll climb with the souls of those who perished. That’s what happened to me.
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Conrad Anker’s Guest Postings December 8 to 14
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From December 8–14, we shared glimpses of Conrad Anker’s life through images and short stories via the Alpinist Community project. Anker has authored first ascents in the Great Ranges for nearly two decades, includes new routes in the Alaska Range, Patagonia, Antarctica, the Karakoram, and the Himalaya.
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The Trail, the Road, and the Space Between
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The story of Cochamo can start anywhere. But since the trail is where all climbers now begin their adventures, that is where this story will begin. The path was likely cut by the Mapuche, “People of the Land,” or by their ancestors, some of the first known human inhabitants of Northern Patagonia.
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Dreams on a Yellow Bike
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I’ve been on the move for four hours. My first summit, strapped in winter snow, falls further behind me. I step off the ridge into a west facing couloir. Boot skiing and heel plunging morphs into log jumping and running.
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Squirreling Away First Ascents on the Storm Creek Headwall
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Canadian alpinists Jon Walsh and Michelle Kadatz, both from Calgary, Alberta, recently visited the Storm Creek Headwall.
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Paul Zizka’s Social Media Guest Postings November 30 to December 6
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From November 30 to December 6 we presented photos by Paul Zizka as part of our Alpinist Community project.
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Sisterhood of the Rope
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August 9, 2011: The mountains march east into China. That silver sentinel on the horizon is Muztagh Ata, I tell my sister, Christine. To the south rise the dusky ramparts of the Hindu Raj, indistinct in the morning haze. I point north across the Wakhan Corridor, panhandle of Northern Afghanistan.
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Drew Smith’s Social Media Guest Postings November 23-29
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From November 23 to 29 Drew Smith shared his photos and video on our social media pages as part of the Alpinist Community project. Smith has established new routes in El Chalten, Argentine Patagonia; Cochamo, Chilean Patagonia; and in Sequoia National Park, California.
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Being with the Mountain
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WHEN I WAS A CHILD, reading adventure stories in a house by the sea, I often dreamed about worlds above the clouds. One day, my father took me on a hike up a nearby mountain. It was just a little one–a rocky summit poking through a thick carpet of trees–in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan. But for the first time, I thought I could touch the clouds. It was as though I’d walked into one of the illustrations in my books.
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Searching for Nightfall in Renland
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“Our arrival, aboard our yacht, before the walls of Renland left us speechless. Imagine if you could sail to Yosemite Valley, amidst an array of glaciers, the ocean flirting with the foot of the rocky slopes. Before our very eyes there were more [unclimbed] rock faces than we could ever climb, even if we stayed there for the rest of our lives.”
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Lizzy Scully’s Social Media Guest Postings November 16-22
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Between November 16 and 22, we posted Lizzy Scully’s photos and video to our social media pages as part of the alpinist community project. She calls her collection “The Middle Path”.
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Uncharted
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DARKNESS OVERTOOK US. In the midst of absolute night, in the heart of the Cordillera Sarmiento, Camilo and I returned from the summit of Cerro Alas de Angel. The fog closed in, and a white wind filled the gloom, deepening our blindness.
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A Stairway to Heaven on the Matterhorn
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Sixty-five-year-old French alpinist Patrick Gabarrou is always watching the mountains. He spends a great deal of time in the Alps–he sees them in different seasons, different lights. He discovers features that are not often visible–features less-devoted climbers might miss.
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Anna Pfaff’s Social Media Guest Postings November 9-15
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Between November 9 and 15, we posted Anna Pfaff’s photos and video to our social media pages as part of the alpinist community project.
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Creeksgiving
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NO PLACE SUCKS UP SUN like the Johnny Cat enclave at the Cat Wall, Indian Creek. The maroon cliffs are striped with perfect, cleaved fissures like vertical gateways into a hidden world. The desert heat can be oppressive, but in late autumn, the low golden rays cast long shadows over the walls.
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Ashes and Air
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JAGGED RIDGELINES DARKEN and blur in the dim light. A palette of blues merges into thick, bland grey. I lean my head forward to rest on the rock wall in front of me. I pay out slack listlessly as the rope twitches to Chantel. In the murk of early morning, we find ourselves 2,500 feet up the Denali Diamond, with another 5,500 feet of mountain above. We’ve taken turns belaying each other as we explore the “snow band” for possible bivy spots. So far, we’ve found only shallow ice over steep rock. After thirty hours of climbing, my fatigue dulls…
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The Andy Tyson Memorial Fund
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As climbers, we expect the unexpected. We know events happen out in the world–a hold breaks beneath a foot, a cam pulls during a short fall, a rock plummets down a mountain couloir, or a cascading avalanche scours a benign slope. We do what we can to mitigate risk and danger, but we know that bad stuff happens during good times.
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Jeff Shapiro’s Social Media Guest Postings November 2-8
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Between November 2-8, Alpinist contributor Jeff Shapiro posted his photos and stories on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages as part of our Alpinist Community project. Shapiro was instrumental in our most recent issue’s feature story, “Going Home.” He’s been featured in NewsWires including “Grosvenor Sees Third Ascent,” and “Trip Report: New Mixed Route in Glacier NP and the story Searching for Light in the Dark Arts.”
