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Sharon Wood’s book “Rising” is a reflection of her 1986 ascent of Chomolungma (Everest) and a male-dominated culture then and now
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In 1986 Canadian mountaineer Sharon Wood and her teammate Dwayne Congdon reached the summit of Mt. Everest (Chomolungma) via a variation to the difficult West Ridge route. Herein, Sarah Boon reviews Wood’s 2019 memoir, “Rising,” which follows Wood along her path to becoming the first North American woman to stand atop the storied peak. “Wood’s book is a window into the world of women in climbing at a time when many still considered women to be inferior mountaineers,” Boon writes.
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Mountain troops rope up and strengthen bonds during the Partnership for Peace program in Switzerland
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In this story, US Army Mountain Warfare School officer Nathan Fry shares his experience with the NATO Partnership for Peace Program that took place in Switzerland in the summer of 2019. “At a time when international relationships seem to be fracturing, engagements such as the Partnership for Peace mountaineering course have taken on a new value in creating a shared appreciation for other cultures,” he writes.
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The Ahwahnee Brunch Retrospective (starring “Roger” & “Ed” in an eating contest of stupendous proportions)
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In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Tami Knight shares some background about the inspiration of a cartoon that she created many years ago, titled “Roger and Ed at the Ahwahnee Brunch.” She writes, “Roger is an amalgamation of the climbers I knew at that time in Yosemite…. Ed, on the other hand–Ed Spat to give his full name–was a real guy.” In addition to her story, she has also updated the cartoon in full color.
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2018: Ultra Royal Traverse of the Mont Blanc Massif
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Ben Tibbetts writes of completing the Mont Blanc Royal Traverse with Colin Haley in 2018. The 41 kilometer route along the mountain’s main axis was first attempted by Kilian Jornet and Stephane Brosse in 2012, but ended when a cornice collapsed and killed Brosse. In this story, Tibbetts confronts his own setbacks and fears after being involved in two avalanches.
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Walter Bonatti: Citizen of Mont Blanc
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Claude Gardien recounts Walter Bonatti’s checkered relationship with Mont Blanc. Gardien writes: “Again and again, on mountains around the world, he’d lived through the hell of alpinists, when the elements unleash and everything becomes suffering, tragedy, grief. On Mont Blanc, he’d also known a few moments of ineffable beauty–as if he’d encountered that formidable privilege, as the writer Georges Sonnier suggested, of ‘contemplating the eye of the god.'”
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1912-1913: Paul Preuss
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–David Smart recounts the bold endeavors of Paul Preuss to complete the longest ridge traverse in the Alps, and his final season of climbing in 1913.
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1876: A Winter’s Tale
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Alpinist Deputy Editor Paula Wright describes the first winter ascent of Mont Blanc in 1876, by Mary Isabella Straton, Jean Charlet, Sylvain Couttet and Michel Balmat. “Women are capable of everything,” historian Charles Durier later wrote in his book, Le Mont-Blanc.
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The Measure of a Mountain
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Looking at the role of summits in climbing history, from the early days to twentieth-century discussions and more recent Himalayan news about inaccurate claims, Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives asks: What is the measure of a mountain?
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The melting glaciers of Koma Kulshan
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In this story that was commissioned as part of the Covering Climate Now campaign, Ilana Newman and photographer Matthew Tangeman document how melting glaciers have caused drastic changes to some popular climbing routes on Koma Kulshan (Mt. Baker) in Washington.
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In Search of Lost Peaks
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In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 68–which is currently on newsstands–Alpinist Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives goes in search of a secluded alpine basin to retrace the steps of a famous guidebook author, Harvey Manning.
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A Visit with Dee Molenaar (1918-2020)
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Dee Molenaar died January 19 at age 101. In honor of his inspiring life, we are sharing a profile written by Michael Ybarra for the Climbing Life section of Alpinist 36 (Autumn 2011). Sadly, Ybarra preceded Molenaar in death, when he died in the summer of 2012 while climbing solo in California’s Sierra Nevada Range. Both men are dearly missed.
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Melting Giants: La Meije, Massif des Ecrins, France
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For 141 years since its first ascent, mountaineers from around the world traveled to climb la Meije in the Massif des Ecrins of France. Meanwhile, the permafrost that held its stones together was melting. On August 7, 2018, rockfall destroyed much of the normal route. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 68, two locally based guides–Benjamin Ribeyre and Erin Smart–recount a search for a new way up the peak amid the uncertainties of the planet’s future.
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Tool User: Kendal Mint Cake
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In this Tool Users story that first appeared in Alpinist 68–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–John Hessler explores the history of an energy bar invented in 1869: the famously (or infamously) sweet Kendal Mint Cake.
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Blood That Dreams of Stone: Antonia Pozzi, Climbing Poet
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During the early twentieth century, the talented young poet Antonia Pozzi sought freedom from her family and her society amid the rock spires of the Dolomites and other Italian peaks. In this feature story from Alpinist 68, David Smart provides an introduction to her career, along with translations of three of her climbing poems, with the help of Brian McKenzie and illustrations by Rhiannon Klee.
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Local Hero: Katie Sauter
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Whether they’ve collected summits, books or memories, many climbers long to preserve records of the past. In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 68–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Paula Wright presents the person responsible for cataloguing and managing one of the most extensive of these collections: Katie Sauter, director of the Henry S. Hall Jr. American Alpine Club Library.
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The Less You Talk
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In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 68, our digital editor Derek Franz articulates the value of staying quiet while climbing with his wife. “I’ve learned that my enthusiasm can be a detriment,” he writes. “My impulse, ever since I was a kid, has been to try to offer guidance…. I want to encourage her; I want her to realize the ability she has. My words usually come out wrong.”
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The Thing with Feathers: On mountains, climate science and hope
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In this story that was commissioned as part of the Covering Climate Now campaign, Michelle Dowd reports on her time spent observing scientists at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado last summer and considers today’s climate crisis through the lens of her deeply religious upbringing.
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Pandora’s Box: The Brief, Brilliant Life of Kei Taniguchi
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In 2009 Japanese alpinist Kei Taniguchi became the first woman to receive a Piolet d’Or for her first ascent of the Southeast Face of Kamet (7756m), with Kazuya Hiraide. During the final years of her life, Taniguchi continued to explore challenging new routes, while hinting at a mysterious personal quest. Piecing together diary entries and interviewing family and friends, her biographer Akihiro Oishi tries to see inside what Taniguchi called “the Pandora’s box.”
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Robert Paragot (1927-2019): An Old Man’s Lesson
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Robert Paragot, a highly influential alpinist and Fontainebleau boulderer, passed away at his home near Paris on October 24 at age 92. French climbing journalist Claude Gardien reports that Paragot continued to be involved in the climbing community up until his death: “He was a great climber and a very nice man.” Chris Schulte, an American climber who has referred to Fontainebleu as a “second home,” summarized Paragot’s career: “Exceptionally well rounded, Paragot achieved many difficult and historic ascents in the Great Ranges of the earth, from the north faces of the Drus and the Grand Capucin in the Alps,…
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Denali, A Universe
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In 1913 Walter Harper, an Irish-Athabascan climber, became the first person to stand on the summit of Denali, soon joined by teammates Harry Karstens, Robert Tatum and Archdeacon Hudson Stuck. In this Wired story from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Harper’s grandniece, Jan Harper-Haines, shares a few family histories of his short, but remarkable life.
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The Unclimbed
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In this story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Ana Beatriz Cholo faces a difficult choice: Following an unexpected cancer diagnosis, she must decide if she is willing to forgo her long-dreamed-of expedition to Denali to reunite with her estranged father. She first wrote about her ambitions to climb Denali in a story for Alpinist 59 (2017) titled “The Accidental Mountaineer.”
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David Guterson’s book “Turn Around Time” applies mountaineering themes to youth, aging
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Sarah Boon reports that David Guterson’s new book Turn Around Time applies the mountaineering concept as “a metaphor for life.” The book-length series of prose poems cover “the themes of youth, aging and compassion for the elderly,” Boon writes. “It also investigates the boundaries between reality and myth, and common sense and imagination in the outdoors. Illustrations by Justin Gibbens enhance the whimsical nature of the book.”
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Alpinist 67 Mountain Profile Essays | Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy
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Read the essays from our Mountain Profile about Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy in the St. Elias Range of Alaska and Canada.
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1998: The Pugilist at Rest
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Barry Blanchard relives a couple of new routes that he explored with Mark Wilford in 1998 on Mt. Alverstone in the St. Elias Range. He recalls one particular moment: “I lay raw and exhausted, shouldered to the mountain and anchored to it…. Our ledge was two feet at its widest and nine feet long. Strangely, I felt secure, as if I belonged there, as if I’d been in land like this at some time in the past.”
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1996: The Wall of Arctic Discipline
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Jack Tackle writes about his time on the north face and north ridge of Mt. Kennedy, which culminated in a freezing epic with Jack Roberts in 1996 when they lost a crampon and spent nine days on the wall waiting out storms. “Years later, I still reflect upon the solace, joy and suffering we experienced together,” Tackle writes.
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1967: Summer on Mt. Saskatchewan
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Andrea Rankin recounts the women’s expedition to climb Mt. Saskatchewan in 1967, which was Canada’s centennial year. Rankin writes: “The Alpine Club of Canada coordinated with local and federal governments to organize the country’s largest-ever mountaineering endeavor, with more than 200 climbers attempting peaks in the Steele Glacier area, and 52 climbers attempting first ascents in the St. Elias Mountains.” Rankin’s team was one of four that was assigned to each of the thirteen unclimbed peaks in the Centennial Range.
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1972: Rivers that Flow Back to Mountains
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Anna Chiburis documents some of the Indigenous cultures and stories associated with the St. Elias Range, specifically within the area of Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy. “Areas such as Wrangell-St. Elias were not an empty wilderness devoid of civilization,” she writes. “Indeed, the Tlingit had developed a culture that had layered their land with profound meaning.”
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The Shadow’s Edge
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In this feature from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Claire Giordano shares stories and paintings that depict her search for hope in an era of melting ice, endangered glaciers and climate crises. After recovering from a severe childhood illness, she grew up to become a mountaineer and an artist, using her climbs and her paints to explore the fragility of both wild landscapes and human life. With this collection of mountain watercolors, she searches for hope in an era of melting ice, endangered glaciers and climate crises. “We walk the line between…
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Human Dimensions of Climate Change in the Himalaya: An interview with anthropologist Pasang Yangjee Sherpa
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Alpinist Managing Editor Paula Wright interviewed Pasang Yangjee Sherpa for the Alpinist Podcast in 2017 and followed up with her again this month. Born in Kathmandu, Yangjee Sherpa is an anthropologist who specializes in the human dimensions of climate change in the Himalaya. She says that “mountaineers are really well equipped to be advocates for talking about climate change…because of the kind of intimate relationship mountaineers have with the natural landscape, with mountains, snow and glaciers…. So I would like mountaineers to speak more about it and share what they know with the public.”
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Namesake: Izumi (“The Spring”)
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In this Namesake story from Alpinist 48 (2014), Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama–an original member of Japan’s famous Giri-Giri Boys, who have become known for their bold and visionary ascents–writes about the first ascent of a route he named Izumi (“The Spring”) on Mt. Mizugaki.
