![Corrado Korra Pesce in 2015. [Photo] Klaus Dell'Orto](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/corrado-korra-pesce-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
On Thursday, January 27, two teams of climbers summited Cerro Torre together after completing two new, parallel routes up the Patagonian tower. But while they were descending, an avalanche injured Tomas “Tommy” Aguilo (Argentina) and killed 41-year-old Corrado “Korra” Pesce (Italy). A rescue effort involved more than 40 people toiling for nearly two days without sleep.
![Lance Colley leads the Grand Traverse on the West Buttress (VI 5.9 A3) of El Capitan (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La), Yosemite, with the Edelrid Neo 3R rope. [Photo] Lance Colley collection](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/edelrid-neo-3r-rope-1-1.jpg?resize=900%2C620&ssl=1)
Mountain Standards Gear Review: Lance Colley tested the Edelrid Neo 3R rope while living and working in Yosemite this past autumn. Colley enjoys speed climbing on big walls and has a few records to his name, and he was able to put some heavy mileage on Edelrid’s new rope design, which is made with 50% recycled pre-consumer materials. He writes: “The durability, handling and price of the Neo 3R matches any of the other ropes on the market, but the Neo 3R packs technology that could make those ropes obsolete. This rope is built for climbers ready to embrace a sustainable future.” 5 stars.
![Kim Chang-ho (right) chats with climbing partner Choi Seok-mun (left) at a popular crag in Seoul, South Korea in September 2015. [Photo] Joo Min-wook](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a75-local-hero-1.jpg?resize=799%2C620&ssl=1)
In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 75 (Autumn 2021), Oh Young-hoon, former editor of Alpinist Korea, memorializes Kim Chang-ho and his philosophy of “being mountaineering.”
![The red line shows the approximate route of Frozen Fight Club (M7 A3, 780m). [Image] Marcin Tomaszewski collection](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/frozen-fight-club-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Polish climbers Marcin “Yeti” Tomaszewski and Damian “Dany” Bielecki completed a new big wall aid route in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range on a 700-meter cliff known as the Uli Biaho Gallery. They spent 11 days establishing Frozen Fight Club (M7 A3, 780m) on December 5-16. Frozen Fight Club might be the first big wall route in the region that was climbed during the coldest season.
![Bronwyn Hodgins nears the top of El Capitan (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La) in May 2021, when she became the third woman to free climb Golden Gate (5.13a, 34 pitches). [Photo] Nick Smith](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a76-ob-yosemite-dreams-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this On Belay story from Alpinist 76–which is now on newsstands and available in our online store–our digital editor Derek Franz travels to Yosemite to climb through layers of historical and personal past, and witnesses some history in the making.
![[Artwork] Jeremy Collins](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a76-tcl-dreams-of-rising-waters-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this science fiction story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 76–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Mailee Hung considers the conundrum of climate change in a short essay. Her narrator declares: “I don’t want to go back to the land. I grew up on frenetic cartoons and fake marshmallows in breakfast cereals; I built an academic career on movies and cyborgs. We look, guilty, at our well-heeled boots, wax poetic about the feeling of our hands in dirt, but I don’t want to till the soil. The digital is like dreaming, intangible yet inextricably material: heat radiating from our bodies or server stacks. We once were wind-carved, exposed to the elements. It was hard, then, harder than skyscrapers or computer chassis. Will we be glad to have somewhere to retreat to when the waters rise?”
![Derek Franz on the rim of the Black Canyon in 2020 after finishing a route during which he wore his new Black Diamond Crack Gloves for the first time. [Photo] Morgan Williams](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/black-diamond-crack-gloves-1-1.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Mountain Standards Gear Review: Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz has been using the Black Diamond Crack Gloves to jam cracks across the west for the past several months. He writes: “I’ve used these gloves in Yosemite, Black Canyon and Utah desert, and also crammed them into some sharp, crumbly choss cracks near my home on Colorado’s Western Slope, and they’re holding up well, much better than I predicted based on how thin they felt when I first tried them on…. I found these puppies to perform well in thin hand cracks as well as for offwidth teacup fist jams.” Five stars.
David Smart’s book, Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites, received the Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in November. The biography was published in 2020 and provided some of the inspiration for Smart’s Mountain Profile on the Cima Grande in the Dolomites that was recently published in Alpinist 76. In this feature, an interview with Smart explores topics related to Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites, the Cima Grande profile and Smart’s writing and climbing career.
![The author was thankful for the slick sheath of the Sterling Ion R 9.4 XEROS rope, which helped reduce rope drag on long pitches in the Tetons without the gummy feel that is characteristic of so many dry-treated ropes. [Photo] Noah Bergman](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/sterling-ion-xeros-rope-1-1.jpg?resize=675%2C620&ssl=1)
Mountain Standards Gear Review: Corey Buhay, a member of the US Ice Climbing Team, has been testing the Sterling Ion R 9.4 XEROS rope. The new XEROS technology is the first of its kind in which every filament of the rope is dry-treated, a process that adds a deeply integrated level of protection from water absorption. Buhay writes: “While I haven’t been using the rope long enough to vouch for its long-term durability, the new XEROS technology exceeds expectations on all counts so far. If you’re looking for a rope that’s meticulously dry-treated and reliable in all conditions, the Ion R 9.4 XEROS is a safe bet.” Five stars.
Today we’re sharing an excerpt from an award-winning book written by a longtime Alpinist contributor and former intern Chris Kalman and illustrated by Craig Muderlak. “Dammed If You Don’t” is Kalman’s third book and recently won the Mountain Fiction and Poetry category at the annual Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. Book competition jury member Pete Takeda wrote: “Kalman’s third book asks a very topical question: Can we love a place to death? Kalman answers this question with a spare quality that evokes a bit of James Salter. His portrayal of a lush, pristine Chilean valley is immediate and profound. His writing is peppered with the intimate details that also bring the characters, their foibles, and struggles to life. Their dilemmas soon become our dilemmas. Perhaps the best thing about ‘Dammed If You Don’t’ are the plot twists, building to a final scenario that is plausible, disturbing, and strangely uplifting.”
