![The author appreciating the sticky rubber of the Salewa Wildfire Edge approach shoes during a log crossing on a backpack trip in western Colorado last June. [Photo] Mandi Franz](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/salewa-wildfire-edge-1-2.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz has been wearing the Salewa Wildfire Edge approach shoes everywhere for the last several months. He reports that the shoes provide excellent support, feature very sticky rubber and are best described as “technical.” Five stars.
![The author's father, Ricardo Cholo, in Cogua, Colombia, January 2018. [Photo] Ana Beatriz Cholo collection](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a67-tcl-the-unclimbed-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.”
![The author preparing the Peak Refuel Sweet Pork and Rice entree at Camp 1 on Ama Dablam in Nepal. [Photo] Clint Helander collection](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/peak-refuel-1-2.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Clint Helander recently discovered a new personal standard when it comes to freeze-dried food. In this review he explains why Peak Refuel meals are in a different category from other backcountry food products that he has tried over the last 20 years. Five stars.
![[Cover] Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest. David Guterson. Illustrations by Justin Gibbens. Mountaineers Books. Hardcover, 144 Pages. $21.95.](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/turn-around-time-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.”
![This illustration by Andreas Schmidt appeared with Sara Aranda's Full Value story, Into Darkness We Go, in Alpinist 62. [Illustration] Andreas Schmidt](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a62-full-value-aranda.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Two stories from Alpinist 62 (2018) have been selected for the “Notables Lists” for Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing, respectively: Sara Ann Aranda’s Full Value story, “Into Darkness We Go,” and Joe Whittle’s Wired story, “Adventures on the Turtle’s Back.”
![The Unparallel Up Lace resemble the well-known Five Ten Anasazi Lace in design and performance. [Photo] Chris Kalman](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/unparallel-up-lace-1-2.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Chris Kalman checks out a little-known shoe company named Unparallel that makes climbing shoes eerily similar to the well-known designs made by Five Ten. He found that even Unparallel’s proprietary rubber is similar to the famous Stealth C4 rubber that Kalman has loved for many years. The fit and sizing of the Up Lace felt slightly different to him compared to the Anasazi, however. Four stars.
![Phil Powers at an American Alpine Club Benefit Dinner with Doug Walker, a former president of the AAC who died in an avalanche in 2016. [Photo] Jim Aikman](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/phil-powers-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
American Alpine Club CEO Phil Powers announced yesterday, October 1, that he plans to retire after 14 years. He will remain CEO until this winter, then he will step back and continue working with the organization as a senior advisor until next summer. The goal is to transition to new leadership by summer 2020.
Read the essays from our Mountain Profile about Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy in the St. Elias Range of Alaska and Canada.
![The Pugilist at Rest (5.10 A3 M5) follows the long center rib in the middle of the photo. The Wilford Couloir is the gully just to the left. [Photo] Mark Wilford](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/pugilist-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.”
![Jack Tackle on Pitch 11 of A Pair of Jacks/Arctic Discipline, Mt. Kennedy. [Photo] Jack Roberts](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/arctic-discipline-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
