Buffalo Soldiers in the Cavalryman’s Paradise
Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson explores “the pitch of the wild” for the Buffalo Soldiers on patrol in Yosemite at the turn of the twentieth century.
Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson explores “the pitch of the wild” for the Buffalo Soldiers on patrol in Yosemite at the turn of the twentieth century.
Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher recently made the third free ascent of Zodiac (VI 5.13d) on El Capitan after a 13-year period in which no one succeeded since the first and second free ascents were made in 2003.
Jim Detterline participated in more than 1,200 rescues in his long career as a climbing ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park. He was well loved and famous for climbing Longs Peak (14,259’) a record 428 times. He died in a rope-soloing accident near his home in late October. More than 1,000 people attended the memorial service.
Chris Van Leuven compares the new DMM Dragon cams to other brands and finds he likes to mix and match for optimal weight and size-runs, awarding them four stars out of five.
Ines Papert and Luka Lindic discover the best ice either of them have ever encountered so high on a mountain during the two-day ascent of their new route on Kyzyl Asker (5842m), Lost in China (ED WI5+ M6, 1200m).
Adam Ondra sets a new precedent on the second free ascent of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d) by blazing up the route in fewer than eight days and leading every pitch.
Alpinist Editor-in-chief Katie Ives describes some of the reasons Lauret Savoy’s 2015 book, Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape has become deeply relevant today: “Much of prior mountain literature, all too often, has been solipsistic and exclusionary. More than ever, we need writers like Lauret Savoy, who can help us see our shared land for it has been, what it is, and the many possible futures of what it can be. In a world in which so much seems starkly uncertain, there are much greater risks to all peoples than the individual and self-chosen ones that climbers face. There are also greater responsibilities that we all share.”
A group of Idaho climbers venture into the Canadian wilderness to complete the first ascent of a route on Wall Tower (9,560′) that was abandoned by Fred Beckey Carl Dietrich and Bill Ruch. They called their line The White Tiger (VI 5.11 A3, 1,600′).
Pete Whittaker rope solos El Capitan’s Freerider (VI 5.12d) all free in 20 hours, 6 minutes, becoming the first person to do it in a day.
In a story from Alpinist 38 (Spring 2012), Paul Hersey explores a landscape at the edge of loss on the fleeting ice fields of New Zealand’s Westland Tai Poutini National Park.