![Clarence King (far right) with other members of the Geological Survey of California in 1864. [Photo] Silas Selleck, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a61-sharp-end-1.jpg?resize=699%2C620&ssl=1)
In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 61, Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives ponders the legend of the “mountain of diamonds” in nineteenth-century American history and the obsession with the idea of hidden riches: “How quickly visions of distant summits turn into longings for conquest, exploitation and gain. But if an imaginary peak is a creation of desire, its elusiveness might also hint at more insubstantial or transcendent things.”
![View of Devils Thumb (Taalkhunaxhk'u Shaa) from the front yard of Dieter Klose. [Photo] Mike McMahon](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/pressure-lift-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this story from Alpinist 61, Cole Taylor recounts his solo journey of sailing north along the Pacific coast from Washington, navigating miles of crevassed glaciers and pulling off the second ascent of the North Pillar of Devils Thumb (Taalkhunaxhk’u Shaa) with borrowed gear, 40 years after it was first done by Bob Plumb and Dave Stutzman.
![Marc-Andre Leclerc on a successful free ascent of El Capitan's Muir Wall (VI 5.13c 900m) with Brette Harrington and Alan Carney in 2015. [Photo] Bradford McArthur](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/leclerc-remembered-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Brette Harrington, Luka Lindic, Sonnie Trotter, Bernadette McDonald, Tom Livingstone and others recount the impressive climbing career and profound life of beloved Canadian alpinist Marc-Andre Leclerc.
![Fred Beckey on the summit of Mt. Goode. [Photo] Douglas McCarty](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a-short-stretch-of-freds-road-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this story from Alpinist 61, Douglas McCarty recalls his adventures on the road with Fred Beckey, which started in 1972 when McCarty and a friend hopped a freight train from Montana to Seattle, where the 17-year-olds subsequently met Beckey. Since then, McCarty joined the legendary mountaineer on trips to Alaska, China, Kenya, Mexico and Tanzania, with urban bivies at public parks in between.
![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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/mountain-steward-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ryan-johnson-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a61-local-hero-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a60-tcl-the-prow-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/art-of-freedom-1-scaled.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
“‘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](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a60-letter-to-editor-1.jpg?resize=923%2C620&ssl=1)
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.
