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Laura and Guy Waterman are pictured here on the Franconia Ridge in New England's Presidential Range during the mid-1980s, when they were very involved with trail work under the Appalachian Mountain Club's adopt-a-trail program. We and some of our trail work friends had recently placed those rocks at the head of Walker Ravine in an attempt to reinforce the drainage and stabilize the trail, she told Alpinist. [Photo] Waterman family collection

On Becoming a Mountain Steward

In this unabridged version of a Climbing Life story from Alpinist 61, Laura Waterman retraces the path and climbs that inspired her to become involved in conservation work with her husband, Guy Waterman, in New England’s Presidential Range during the 1970s. Laura Waterman outlines the environmental challenges the area has faced in the past and now faces again in the form of a new hotel that is being proposed by the Cog Railway near the summit of Mt. Washington (Agiocochook).

Ryan Johnson rigging a rappel on an October 2015 attempt on the north face of the Main Mendenhall Tower. Johnson completed this dream line with Marc-Andre Leclerc, but the pair lost their lives on the descent. [Photo] Clint Helander

Remembering Ryan Johnson

Clint Helander remembers the life and prolific climbing career of his friend Ryan Johnson, who went missing and is presumed dead along with Marc-Andre Leclerc after the pair climbed a new route on the north face of the Main Mendenhall Tower in Alaska in early March.

Lopsang Tshering Sherpa recalls small perks from mountaineering work: I often came back with clothes that no one else had in Kathmandu. He drank so much tea on expeditions that he was called Tea Lopsang. Now, he grows tea in his village, where everyone calls him Chiya Baje (Grandpa Tea). [Photo] Kapil Bisht

Local Hero: Lopsang Tshering Sherpa

In this Local Hero story from the latest issue, Alpinist 61, Kapil Bisht interviews Lopsang Tshering Sherpa, who began his storied career as an expedition worker in 1959 as a kitchen helper on the 1959 international women’s Cho Oyu expedition; three years later he was among those bridging the gap for Lionel Terray and the first ascent of Jannu.

The author on the approach to Washington Column with Half Dome in the background, 2015. [Photo] Alex McKiernan collection

The Prow

Alex McKiernan suffered a spinal cord injury from a car crash in 2014 and he has slowly regained some use of his legs since then. In this story from Alpinist 60, he details the path of his recovery, and how he climbed a Yosemite big wall in 2016.

Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka by Bernadette McDonald. Rocky Mountain Books, 2017. 326 pages. Hardcover, $32. [Image] Courtesy Rocky Mountain Books

Glimpses of Higher Worlds: Bernadette McDonald’s ‘Art of Freedom’

“‘Art of Freedom,’ is a brilliant work of insight, not only into the life of the great alpinist, but also about the questions that compel us to the mountains in the first place,” writes Alpinist Associate Editor Paula Wright in her feature about Bernadette McDonald’s award-winning biography, “Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka.”

[Photo] Paul Zizka

Totality from a Mountaintop

In this letter to the editor from Alpinist 60, Christopher Elliott describes the solar eclipse that occurred on August 21, 2017, and the fleeting “moment of totality” that he and his fellow observers experienced from the top of a mountain.

[Illustration] Andreas Schmidt

Auden in the Brooks Range

In 1969, a young David Roberts buzzes the doorbell at the apartment of W. H. Auden, his literary hero, in hopes of inspiring the aging poet to journey with him to Alaska’s Brooks Range.

Hugues Beauzile and Lucien Lulu Berardini climbing at the crag they helped develop in Claret, France. [Photo] Pascal Tournaire

The Force of the Soul: Hugues Beauzile

In this feature from Alpinist 60, James Edward Mills recounts the story of Hugues Beauzile, the son of a Haitian immigrant who became one of the most promising young alpinists in France before his death on the South Face of Aconcagua 1995.

[Illustration] Andreas Schmidt

The Raven at the Door

In this Full Value story from Alpinist 60, David Stevenson gets caught in a storm returning from a hut trip in Alaska and suffers a heart attack, forcing him and his partner to spend a cold night in a shallow snow cave. In the aftermath he discovers a new significance to a haunting experience that happened decades earlier in his childhood home.

Zach Harrison on the first free ascent of the Southeast Face (III 5.11+ R, 520') of Zoroaster Temple, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. [Photo] Blake McCord

Still Distant Temple: Zoroaster, Grand Canyon

In this On Belay story that first appeared in Alpinist 60, Jeff Snyder writes of completing a first free ascent of the Southeast Face of Zoroaster Temple (III 5.11+ R, 520′) in the Grand Canyon with Zach Harrison and Blake McCord. The climbing was dangerous and crumbly in a hot desert, but Snyder discovers an appeal that is rooted far deeper than the cacti that pioneering climbers once slung for protection on the Temple’s first documented ascent in 1958.