We packed up camp high on the Roosevelt Glacier and began climbing towards Mt. Baker’s North Ridge (WI2-3, 3,000′, Beckey-Widrig, 1948), in Washington’s North Cascades, at 6 a.m. Challenging weather conditions required creative route finding. At noon, six hours later, we climbed into a storm below the summit.
Though I spend countless hours in a harness every season, I rarely get excited about them. To me, they are merely utilitarian. As long as the harness is comfortable and functional, I don’t think too much about it. That changed with the new Petzl Sitta harness.
This year I put my new pair of Electric Tech One sunglasses through rigorous field-testing. I wore them on a month-long climbing trip to Colorado’s Front Range, the Moab area and northern Arizona.
From December 8–14, we shared glimpses of Conrad Anker’s life through images and short stories via the Alpinist Community project. Anker has authored first ascents in the Great Ranges for nearly two decades, includes new routes in the Alaska Range, Patagonia, Antarctica, the Karakoram, and the Himalaya.
The story of Cochamo can start anywhere. But since the trail is where all climbers now begin their adventures, that is where this story will begin. The path was likely cut by the Mapuche, “People of the Land,” or by their ancestors, some of the first known human inhabitants of Northern Patagonia.
