![[Photo] Drew Thayer](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/valandre-sleeping-bag-2-1.jpg?resize=813%2C527&ssl=1)
Drew Thayer describes the Valandre Shocking Blue Neo Sleeping Bag as “the Cadillac” of cold-weather sleeping bags. But all the added features increase the weight and the price compared to other cold-weather bags. Four stars.
![Columbia Icefield, Alberta. [Photo] Manasseh Franklin](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/poetry-feature-experiencing-ice-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this poetry feature, writer and adventurer Manasseh Franklin shares work from Experiencing Ice, a series of images and poems about glaciers and “vastness to ponder.”
For years, Alan Cattabriga has roamed the White Mountains of New Hampshire, exploring the spaces between the contour lines of maps and creating long, arabesque-like enchainments of classic ice routes. Herein, a tale from one of the East Coast’s most imaginative wanderers.
![Base camp on the frozen Nipissis River below the M51 cliff, in Nitassinan, the Innu name for this land that overlaps with northeastern Quebec. [Photo] Maarten van Haeren](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/the-country-of-winter-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Pete Takeda ventures into some of the vast realms of ice, and the countries within countries of Nitassinan and northeastern Quebec.
![The author said that the CiloGear 30:30 backpack is basically an improved version of the CiloGear 45-liter pack pictured here in Patagonia in 2012, loaded with enough gear to go alpine style on Mate, Porro y Todo lo Demas (6c [5.11b], 900m) on the North Pillar of Fitz Roy (3375m), which looms in the background. Huckaby writes, Troutman aka 'Coleman Blakeslee' and myself climbed up the North Pillar to the summit and descended down the Franco-Argentine route on the other side of Fitz. [Photo] Josh Huckaby](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/cilogear3030-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Yosemite Search and Rescue member Josh Huckaby puts the CiloGear 30:30 backpack to the test and is stoked with the product. He plans to use it in Patagonia this January. Five stars!
![Shelika (6045m), south face, northeast of Jindong. [Photo] Tom Nakamura](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/hidden-mountains-of-tibet-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Eighty-two-year-old Japanese mountaineer Tamotsu “Tom” Nakamura has been exploring and documenting the seldom-visited regions of Tibet for the last 25 years. In this feature he shares photographs of southern Tibet’s “hidden” mountains.
![From Conrad Anker's The City and The Blade in Alpinist 38. Mugs Stump on the Spanish Pillar of Meru North (6450m) in 1988. [Photo] Steve Quinlan](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/mugs-stump-file-photo.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
The 2017 Mugs Stump recipients aim to tackle: the East Face of Golgotha (Alaska); the West Face of Xanadu (Alaska); the North Face of Rungofarka and a prominent rock buttress on the nearby Northwest Face of Peak 5780 (India); the North Face of Barnaj II (India); and the world’s second highest unclimbed peak, Mucho Chhish (Pakistan).
![Conrad Anker is the keynote speaker for the 2017 American Alpine Club Annual Benefit Dinner on February 25 in Seattle, Washington. [Photo] Jimmy Chin](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/aac-benefit-dinner-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
The American Alpine Club opens registration for its Annual Benefit Dinner on February 25 in Seattle, Washington. Five people will receive awards. Conrad Anker is the keynote speaker.
![El Hermano (ca. 4,500), Chile. In 2014 Libby Sauter's team mostly followed the sun-shadow line, and then cut to the right a few hundred feet from the top. [Photo] Doug Tompkins](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/beyond-the-dusk-1.jpg?resize=900%2C620&ssl=1)
After the death of her brother Michael in June 2012, Suzanne Ybarra noticed a reference to a mysterious “El Hermano” amid his files, along with photos of a massive unclimbed wall. In 2014 one of Michael’s friends, Libby Sauter, organized an expedition to make the first ascent and complete his dream.
![The red line marks the route and camps of Moveable Feast (ED2 M7 WI5 5c A3, 1400m) on Thalay Sagar (6904m), India. [Photo] Courtesy of Dmitry Golovchenko and Mountain.RU.](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/thalay-sagar-moveable-feast-1-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
The golden trio of Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry Grigoriev and Sergey Nilov score another Russian Golden Axe for their alpine-style first ascent of Moveable Feast (ED2 M7 WI5 5c A3, 1400m) on Thalay Sagar (6904m) last September.
