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Wendy Teichmann, Andrea Rankin, Gertrude Smith and Helen Butling assemble at camp as they prepare for an attempt on the unclimbed Mt. Saskatchewan in 1967. [Photo] Courtesy Andrea Rankin

1967: Summer on Mt. Saskatchewan

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Andrea Rankin recounts the women’s expedition to climb Mt. Saskatchewan in 1967, which was Canada’s centennial year. Rankin writes: “The Alpine Club of Canada coordinated with local and federal governments to organize the country’s largest-ever mountaineering endeavor, with more than 200 climbers attempting peaks in the Steele Glacier area, and 52 climbers attempting first ascents in the St. Elias Mountains.” Rankin’s team was one of four that was assigned to each of the thirteen unclimbed peaks in the Centennial Range.

The north buttress of Mt. Kennedy as seen during the 1935 National Geographic Society Yukon Expedition. At the time, Bob Bates wrote that he hoped the peak would be called Mt. Washburn. It was known as East Hubbard until it was renamed for President Kennedy in 1965. In his years as director of the Boston Museum of Science, Washburn hung an enlarged version of this photograph on his office wall. [Photo] Bradford Washburn, Bradford Washburn collection, Museum of Science

1972: Rivers that Flow Back to Mountains

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Anna Chiburis documents some of the Indigenous cultures and stories associated with the St. Elias Range, specifically within the area of Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy. “Areas such as Wrangell-St. Elias were not an empty wilderness devoid of civilization,” she writes. “Indeed, the Tlingit had developed a culture that had layered their land with profound meaning.”

The Lines Between. Watercolor on paper. Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia. [Artwork] Claire Giordano

The Shadow’s Edge

In this feature from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Claire Giordano shares stories and paintings that depict her search for hope in an era of melting ice, endangered glaciers and climate crises. After recovering from a severe childhood illness, she grew up to become a mountaineer and an artist, using her climbs and her paints to explore the fragility of both wild landscapes and human life. With this collection of mountain watercolors, she searches for hope in an era of melting ice, endangered glaciers and climate crises. “We walk the line between shadow and light,” she writes, “and we slowly move forward.”

This photograph of the Himalaya was taken from the International Space Station in 2004. Visible from left to right are: Makalu, Chomolungma (Everest), Lhotse and Cho Oyu. [Photo] Courtesy of NASA, Wikimedia

Human Dimensions of Climate Change in the Himalaya: An interview with anthropologist Pasang Yangjee Sherpa

Alpinist Managing Editor Paula Wright interviewed Pasang Yangjee Sherpa for the Alpinist Podcast in 2017 and followed up with her again this month. Born in Kathmandu, Yangjee Sherpa is an anthropologist who specializes in the human dimensions of climate change in the Himalaya. She says that “mountaineers are really well equipped to be advocates for talking about climate change…because of the kind of intimate relationship mountaineers have with the natural landscape, with mountains, snow and glaciers…. So I would like mountaineers to speak more about it and share what they know with the public.”

Mt. Mizugaki, Japan. [Photo] E64, Wikimedia

Namesake: Izumi (“The Spring”)

In this Namesake story from Alpinist 48 (2014), Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama–an original member of Japan’s famous Giri-Giri Boys, who have become known for their bold and visionary ascents–writes about the first ascent of a route he named Izumi (“The Spring”) on Mt. Mizugaki.

Underland: A Deep Time Journey.

Mountaineering in reverse: Tales from the Underland

“A peak can exercise the same irresistible power as an abyss,” Theophile Gautier wrote in 1868. Robert Macfarlane’s new book Underland explores the landscapes below our feet where, as Sarah Boon writes in her review, “people appear to find something similar in caves to what they experience in the mountains–clarity of thought and vision.”

She Explores. [Photo] Katie Ives

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Outdoor Media Landscape: A Note from the Editors

As they praise the publication of She Explores–a 2019 anthology of women’s outdoor stories and photos–Alpinist editors Katie Ives, Paula Wright and Derek Franz write, “We felt struck by two thoughts: how rare outdoor publications like this book, with such a variety of women’s images and voices, were in the past; and how much the field of outdoor literature still needs to broaden to include the vast constellations of under-represented and long-silenced voices today.”

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La (El Capitan) with Half Dome in the background, Yosemite. [Photo] Murray Foubister, Wikimedia

The Story of Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

The following story is an Ahwahneechee creation story of Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La (El Capitan) as told by Julia Parker, an Ahwahneechee descendant of Yosemite Valley, mother of climbing legend Ron Kauk and the grandmother of Ron’s son, Lonnie Kauk. This story originally appeared as a sidebar to a feature about the Kauk family, Lonnie’s childhood in Yosemite and how he made the first redpoint of his father’s route “Magic Line,” for which the story is named.

On April 5, 2018, three skiers were caught in an avalanche while ascending Sentinel Pass in Alberta, Canada. When the snow settled, Michelle Kadatz, pictured, came to rest beneath thirteen feet of debris. [Photo] Tim Banfield

Thirteen Feet Under

Last April, as she scouted ice climbs deep within Canada’s Banff National Park, Michelle Kadatz was engulfed by an avalanche that swept her 650 feet down slope and buried her at a depth far beyond the reach of her partners’ avalanche probes. While entombed thirteen feet under, she experienced something that seemed as improbable as her eventual rescue. One year later, Jayme Moye recounts Kadatz’s accident.

Lonnie Kauk on Magic Line (5.14c). Jim Thornburg

Magic Line

The son of legendary climber Ron Kauk and Ahwahneechee descendant Lucy Parker, Lonnie Kauk has long felt a deep connection to the rocks of his home in Yosemite Valley. In this oral history recorded by Alpinist Managing Editor Paula Wright and featured as the cover story for Alpinist 66, Lonnie, friends and family recount his journey from growing up beneath the granite cliffs of Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La (El Capitan) to making the first redpoint ascent of his father’s Magic Line, once considered the most difficult single-pitch climb in the Valley.