![[Photo] Mandi Franz](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/climbing-addicts-colored-chalk-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
A review of Climbing Addicts “Yosemite Gray” and “Wall Street Gold” Chalk prompts a treatise on climbing chalk by Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz. He found the camouflaged chalk to be as effective as anything else he’s used, and the grey and brown varieties blend in well with a range of rock types, including limestone, granite and sandstone. Five stars.
![Cover design by Sarah Nicholson. [Photo] Jimena Peck](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/as-above-so-below-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
About four years ago, Chris Kalman found himself struggling with heavy emotions while living with his girlfriend and her father who was dying of cancer. Kalman started writing what became a 103-page novella titled “As Above, So Below.” The fictional story weighs on matters of death, grief, risk and family relationships.
Two Alpinist stories from 2017 are included on the Notables List for The Best American Sports Writing 2018: Claire Carter’s feature story “To Abandon” appeared in Alpinist 57 and “The Accidental Mountaineer” by Ana Beatriz Cholo appeared in The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 59.
![Ichimura and Yokoyama at the end of Day 6 on the upper pitches of the Slovak Direct. [Photo] Yusuke Sato](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/giri-giri-boys-8.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Ten years ago, in May 2008, an unassuming group of five Japanese climbers who jokingly dubbed themselves the Giri-Giri Boys caught the world’s attention for their bold and visionary enchainments in the Alaska Range. This story by Katsutaka Yokoyama about that expedition originally appeared in Alpinist 26 (Spring 2009), simply titled “The Giri-Giri Boys.”
![Morning view of Trisul (7120m), Nanda Devi (7816m) and Nanda Kot (6861m), from Kaser Devi in the Garhwal Himalaya of India. [Photo] Coni Horler](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a63-sharp-end-1.jpg?resize=930%2C422&ssl=1)
In this Sharp End essay from Alpinist 63, Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives contemplates the varying meanings of awe as she delves into mountain darkness and solitude in search of peace.
![The Foehn Brise Pants were ideal for the chilly spring temps at the Techno Crag (ca. 9,000') above Ouray, Colorado, last May. Here the author enjoys the classic arete of All Night Rave (5.12b) with numb fingers. [Photo] Mandi Franz](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/foehn-brise-pant-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Foehn is a new, small clothing company based in Quebec, Canada, that came on the market this year and has a touching backstory. Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz tried the company’s flagship item, the Brise Pant, and found them to be well made for climbing and moving around in the mountains. Four stars.
![Andres Marin on Pitch 4 of Eternal Flame on Nameless Tower. [Photo] Anna Pfaff](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/trango-and-nameless-expedition-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Andres Marin recently capped a successful trip to Pakistan with teammates Anna Pfaff and David Allfrey by soloing the American Route on Great Trango Tower (6286m)–base camp (ca. 4000m) to base camp in less than 12 hours–on August 22 after he had climbed that route and Eternal Flame on Nameless Tower (6239m) with his partners between August 12-18. In short, Marin tagged three summits over 6000 meters in the span of 10 days.
“Honouring High Places”–the final book authored by Junko Tabei, who died in 2016 at age 77 and was the first woman to summit Chomolungma (Everest)–is now available and is a finalist for a Banff Book award. Alpinist Assistant Editor Katherine Indermaur writes of the book: “Though there are many lessons to take away from Tabei’s life, perhaps the most important is not just how and what she climbed, but also how and what she accomplished as a mountaineer when she wasn’t climbing….”
![A view of Nanda Devi (7816m) from snow camp on Devistan I (6678m) at about 6100 meters. [Photo] Suman Dubey collection](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/suman-interview-nanda-devi-2-scaled.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
With Alpinist 63 and Part II of the Nanda Devi Mountain Profile now on newsstands, we bring you this interview with Suman Dubey, who became a member of the 1961 Indian expedition to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in India’s Garhwal Himalaya when he was an undergraduate student in Delhi. Nanda Devi is a sacred peak significant to locals for embodying Hindu Goddess Nanda, and a difficult one for mountaineers due to its being surrounded by a ring of high peaks that make up the Sanctuary’s border.
The annual Banff Mountain Book Competition recently announced the nominees long-listed for recognition in several categories–out of the four articles under consideration for Best Mountaineering Article, two are from Alpinist: Alison Criscitiello’s story from Alpinist 59, titled “Contraindications,” and James Edward Mills’ story from Alpinist 60, “The Force of the Soul: Hugues Beauzile.”
