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The Ice Warriors
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First my aim was to reach people who do not know much about mountaineering. Especially those people who would probably never read a thick book about it. If I am successful with this then I hope they would find some interesting information about climbing, winter climbing, the history of mountaineering and also about Polish achievements in climbing.
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Dukkha on Funeral For a Friend
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Birth is Dukkha, aging is Dukkha, death is Dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are Dukkha; association with the unbeloved is Dukkha; separation from the loved is Dukkha; not getting what is wanted is Dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are Dukkha.
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Elbrus
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The social climate of the Caucasus was rocked politically and economically by these measures. “The area is still dangerous may be even more than before…due to the year-long economic blockade, the local people became more desperate and chance of being robbed or killed for the reason of robbery is very obvious,” writes Alex Trubachev, a guide based in Moscow whose company has halted their Elbrus tours. “Locals have lost everything–two seasons of nothing,” agrees Myasnikov.
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36 K2 Mountain Profile: Part II (1974-2012)
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70 The City and the Blade
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Cerro Torre Roundup
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Since Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk climbed a “fair means” variation to the Compressor Route and then removed the bolts from its upper pitches the international climbing community has been awash in discussions of climbing ethics and etiquette. In what will most likely be Alpinist.com’s final post on this story we have gathered a collection of links to various Op-Ed’s, blog posts, threads and Letters to the Editor here. We will continue to update this page with new links rather than creating new NewsWires should this story continue to develop. – Keese Lane, Online Editor
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2012 American Alpine Club Benefit Dinner
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Abruzzi was a duke. Cassin was a steel worker. Perry-Smith came from family money. Heckmair was a gardener. The climbing community has always spanned the gap between those with the independent wealth to travel and climb, and those who have forsaken everything else for the mountains. I cannot claim to be as destitute as Heckmair or as dedicated as Cassin, but I always felt some jealousy for my partners’ racks of shiny new cams and wiregates. My gear came off the consignment rack of the local gear exchange. The AAC Benefit Dinner was the territory of the higher end leisure…
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Exploring The Alps
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It is more intuitive to pursue “the new” in remote and unexplored mountains, as opposed to a well-known range. “It is often difficult to be alone in the Alps,” Barmasse writes, citing the proliferation of guided climbing, staffed huts and ski lifts that bring vacationers to nearly all peaks. Barmasse wanted to experience the “authentic alpinism” that he found in distant mountains to his own backyard range. He wanted to try to keep the spirit of adventure alive, even in familiar and well-trodden territory. “These ancient and maybe old fashioned mountains, if explored from a new perspective, could be a…
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Grosvenor Sees Third Ascent
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First light revealed our next challenge; an eight-inch strip of ice transecting the rock band above. We packed up, and I started climbing. A few delicate tool placements and some dry tooling allowed access to the more moderate slope above. Shortly after Jeff began to simulclimb with me, I found myself at another intimidating challenge, another section of vertical, rotten “snice.” I did my best to not pull the pitch down on myself and, fortunately, was able to place a cam halfway up.
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38 K2:The Mountaineer’s Mountain, Part One
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Book Review: Remote Exposure – A Guide to Hiking and Climbing Photography
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Nautical Series: Skip Novak
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“I still view my first Whitbred Round The World race in 1977 as my most memorable sailing achievement. I was going out into the unknown. We were out of touch the whole time. Radios didn’t work and we had no GPS; I was navigating with a sexton. I just disappeared after the start, and arrived thirty days later in New Zealand.”
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Nautical Series: Greg Landreth and Keri Pashuk
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“[T]here is a lot of common ground (between sailing and climbing)… When you’re climbing, the general rhythm is that you have an anchor, a rest and then you scurry to the next spot to put your anchor in. And do it all over again. With sailing, you just stretch out the time scale by some years (and the expense by quite a number of zeros after the comma).
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Nautical Series: Bob Shepton
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In 2010, Scottish skipper/ex-priest Bob Shepton “lured” Belgians Nicolas Favresse, Olivier Favresse, Sean Villanueva and American Ben Ditto to the coast of Greenland with photos of a virgin wall, whose location he refused to disclose until they hired him to take them there. The climbers put up several new big-wall routes, using Shepton’s sailboat–Dodo’s Delight–as their floating base camp.
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Serkhe Khollu, Bolivia: A New Line on Crutches
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A rope length away from the summit of Ala Izquierda in Bolivia, Isabel Suppe was pulled from her perch on the summit ridge and tumbled 400m. She and her partner spent the following two nights in the open, trying to crawl back to camp. Her partner died of hypothermia during the second night, and she was rescued the next day. One year later, Isabel hobbled to the base of Serkhe Khollu on crutches, and put up a new line on the southwest face of this 5546-meter peak.
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Before and After
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Two videos show how a day in the life of Renan Ozturk changed (and didn’t change) after a near-fatal accident.
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Cratering in Newfoundland
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Still gripping his axe, Eliot hung over the water. We pulled him back from being crushed. He didn’t whine, whimper or scream out; there was no indication of his pain besides the funny way he rolled his next cigarette.
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Chad’s Ennedi Dessert: A Google Earth Adventure
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They began by traveling the only paved road in the country–and then driving 700 kilometers farther.
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The Threshold Effect
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Alfred Mummery wrote in his 19th century classic book, My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus, “It has frequently been noticed that all mountains appear doomed to pass through the three stages: An inaccessible peak – The most difficult ascent in the Alps – An easy day for a lady.” While the misogynistic temper of this famous quote is obsolete, its more general point seems to ring true.
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Alexander Odintsov on Latok III
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Steve House New Hampshire Video
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Video: Grabbing The Dragon By The Horns
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In the last days of April, David Kaszlikowski and Eliza Kubarska hacked their way through the Malaysian jungle to reach the twin granitic towers that dominate the island Tioman–Dragon’s Horns.
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The Original ‘Mountain’ Bikers
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The brothers climbed the face. At 4478 meters they stood, triumphant and utterly spent. And yet, there was probably some quiet, persistent voice whispering an unpleasant reminder in the back of their minds: Nice job. Now get down there and ride back home.
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AAC Five-Year Plan: The Long-Awaited Remodel
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A look at “the most significant changes to AAC programs in its 109-year history.”
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Talented Alpinist Joe Puryear Dies at Age 37
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Mark Westman reflects on the life of Joe Puryear, who died last October after falling through a cornice on Labuche Kang, Tibet.
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The Asgard Project: A Q&A with Alastair Lee
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Hauling 30-plus pounds of equipment up the 1000m face of Mt. Asgard, Filmmaker Alastair Lee foregoes light-and-fast style in order to produce a film that is visually outstanding and leaves the audience with sweat-drenched palms and a hankering to seek out epic of their own.
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Speed Series Part IV: Hans Florine
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Recently, we at Alpinist picked the brains of the speediest climbers to learn more about speed climbing and how it fits into our grade-crazy community. “I think we may have [speed climbed] before we called it that… We were in college, and we wanted to get in as much climbing as we could before classes on Monday.”
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Piolet d’Or Nominees
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Since the Piolet d’Or’s rebirth, multiple awards have become standard, and it seems likely that on April 15 there could be several given out. Each of the teams exhibited good style in a committing environment. The Piolet d’Or’s festivities will run from the weekend April 9-10 through April 16 with evening events open to the public. In an age when guided ascents and commercial fiascos on Everest seem to dominate the mainstream media’s view of climbing, honoring the alpinists mentioned above could be a chance to show off the climbing community’s values to the general public.
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Golden Decade: The Birth of 8000m Winter Climbing
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Winter in the Himalaya is difficult for many reasons. Temperatures at base camp can plummet to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and much lower farther up. Because of the cold, climbing at night is virtually impossible, and the days are short. The winds are much stronger and more persistent because of the jet stream, which blows almost constantly from December through the end of March. Tents are constantly being destroyed or blown away. The wind also strips away the snow, exposing rock and hard ice, making easier slopes more technical and time-consuming. Lower barometric pressure leads to less oxygen in the…
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Speed Series Part III: Ueli Steck
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Recently, we at Alpinist picked the brains of the speediest climbers to learn more about speed climbing and how it fits into our grade-crazy community. “I think it is nice to be able to climb a peak in several hours instead of several days. You don’t have to suffer so much.”
