1984: Sarah’s Summit
At age thirteen, Sarah Doherty lost her right leg to a drunk driver, but the accident didn’t stop her from pursuing athletics. She became the first female amputee to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier in 1984.
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1792-Present: Deconstructing Rainier. Reconstructing Takhoma.
I wanted to share these ideas because I am the Native American mountain guide who was (is) obsessed with peak-bagging and deconstructing his colonial mindset while also reconstructing a stolen Indigenous identity. The catalyst for this revolution was Takhoma, a cultural centerpiece for many tribes and a nexus of energy, one that budding mountaineers have coveted for nearly a century and a half.
1988-1995: The Training and the Test
The mountain’s changing conditions, technical terrain and unpredictable weather make it a far more serious objective than the Lower 48’s other “Fourteeners.” It’s no wonder Mt. Rainier has been an invaluable training ground for generations of mountaineers who plan to climb higher and harder.
Climbers like Ed Viesturs, the first American to climb all fourteen 8000-meter peaks, climbed extensively on Mt. Rainier. The mountain played an important role in the early careers of other famous alpinists such as Mark Twight, Conrad Anker, Willie Benegas, Melissa Arnot Reid, Willi Unsoeld, Lou and Jim Whittaker and countless others over the years. For me, Mt. Rainier was both the training and the test…. My most memorable, and indeed most life-changing, ascent of Mt. Rainier was my third, which, I’m embarrassed to admit, is also a survival story.
The Green Man
After being involved in an avalanche that killed a beloved member of her community in Colorado’s Elk Range in 2020, Laura Yale begins a journey to untangle a web of grief. She explores the ways ancient cultures coped with the reality of loss, acknowledging the natural process of death, and brings the old wisdom to bear on her situation. The Green Man “is in the knowing that in the whites and greys and long nights of winter, green will one day emerge again,” she writes.
Hard to Explain
In honor of Veterans Day, we’re sharing this story from Alpinist 87—which is currently available on newsstands and in our online store. In this short fiction story, Ben Davis depicts a mostly silent conversation between military veterans as they make their way up the east face of Longs Peak (Neniisoteyou’u, 14,255′).
Worth the Weight?
This feature story by Michael Gardner originally appeared in Alpinist 77 (Spring 2022). On October 7, 2024, Gardner fell to his death while attempting Jannu… Read More »Worth the Weight?
Fabulous Roman Candles
[This story originally appeared in Alpinist 87 (Autumn 2024), which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Only a small fraction of… Read More »Fabulous Roman Candles
Local Hero: Nasim Eshqi
Nasim Eshqi trained in Bisotun and Baraghan, some of the most famous Iranian climbing areas. She traveled to the Alps, Oman, Armenia, India, Georgia, Turkey and China. She was driven by an irrepressible lust for life, a never-ending energy, techno music, books and “the power of pink.”
Playing his own game: An Interview with Edmund February about coming of age as a climber during South Africa’s apartheid
Edmund February found success in both the mountains and academia despite being a climber of color during South Africa’s apartheid. In this story from Alpinist 85, Brandon Blackburn interviews February about how he overcame racist norms to pursue his passions, always playing his own game.
Onward & Upward: A century of women climbing in the Tetons
In late 2022, I learned that The Teton Climbers’ Coalition would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first female ascent of the Grand Teton the next year, and they were looking for suggestions on how to engage the community. This sparked the nugget of an idea in my storyteller’s brain—I could help mark this full century of women climbing in the Tetons while sharing my own love of these mountains with a wider audience. The history of climbing here feels like a living, breathing one, where friends and neighbors I see at the trailhead and the grocery store have played a part in shaping its past, present and future. Since the start of 2023 I interviewed nine women who have climbed in the Tetons from the 1950s up until today. Their stories are varied—some have notched superlatives, while others have quietly climbed these peaks without getting their names in the history books.