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Derek Franz

Antoine Moineville and Christian Laddy Ledergerber paddle in the North Atlantic Ocean. [Photo] Silvan Schuepbach

Metrophobia: A Thirst for Adventure

Doing a first ascent on a remote big wall was not enough for a team of three Swiss and two French men, who opted to sea kayak 170 kilometers with all their provisions just to reach the climb.

Left: Scott Adamson at the base of pitch 3 during the first ascent of The One Who Knocks WI6 M5 R/X, Reid's Peak, Uintas, Utah. Right: Kyle Dempster at the Superbowl Sunday BBQ at the top of Pitch 2 on the Great White Icicle, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. [Photos] Nathan Smith

Adamson, Dempster Remembered for Love, Tenacity

Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson were at home in wild and remote mountains. But their sense of passion and commitment spread beyond the bold routes they climbed to the people with whom they shared their lives. On Alpinist.com, Derek Franz writes about the disappearance of the two men on the north face of the Ogre II. Friends of the two climbers remember their tenacity and love.

Namesake: Tricks are for Kids

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