Inspired by a single photo, Australians Chris Fitzgerald and Chris Warner visit unclimbed big walls in remote northeastern Russia. Pulling out moss clumps and excavating gear placements with a nut tool, the team established six new routes and, with their camera, captured the experience.
One desert icon remembers the life of another.
Two Canadian alpinists dodge large avalanches on the storied South Face of Nuptse. None of their several attempts extends beyond half height on the massive alpine wall, but–through careful decision-making–they live to tell the story.
Raphael Slawinski, Ian Welsted and Jesse Huey travel to Pakistan to climb K6 West. At the moment of their departure down the KKH, they learn of the massacre at Nanga Parbat base camp. Each is now faced with a decision. As Jesse returns home, Raphael and Ian continue with the trip and ultimately stand on the 7040m unclimbed summit.
In the final installment of our series of essays about climbing in the High Sierra’s Palisades group, Steve Porcella quests for the “remote, barren, trailless, treeless, oxygenless and peopleless,” where he finds out what it is to really know a mountain range.
“Sixty-five Sierra routes that first summer; about a dozen the next, a fifth of them first ascents. Brutal-as-hell approaches with seventy-pound packs, decrepit knees and bad footwear. I blame Steve, but really, he and I were just the syringe plungers, and the Sierra Nevada was the heroin.”
