Skip to content
Home » Weekly Feature » Page 24

Weekly Feature

[Photo] Alberto Cafferata/Wikipedia Commons

The Glass Mountain: A Fable

During the nineteenth century, Jim Bridger was well known for tall tales about the ranges of the American West. Herein, the modern climbing writer Jeff Long retells Bridger’s attempt on “Glass Mountain,” examining the aspirations and consequences of frontier mythology.

The Black Dike, Cannon Cliff, New Hampshire, 1970s. Laura Waterman was the first woman to climb the route, four years after John Bouchard's 1971 first ascent. [Photo] Ed Webster

The Precarious World–The Sharp End, Alpinist 57

At a time when the word precarious is used increasingly to describe many aspects of our current existence, Katie Ives reflects on the differences between confronting risk in the mountains and responding to much vaster political and ecological uncertainties in the US and the world. “I think now, especially with climate change, we are without a doubt living in a precarious world,” climber and environmental advocate Laura Waterman tells her. “We have to make the right decisions, ethically, as best we can.”

[Photo] Alberto Cafferata/Wikipedia Commons

After the Expedition

In this work of short fiction from Alpinist 18, Stevenson weaves a tale about a driftless climbing guide balancing his successes “against an unwritten page of his climbing resume, against the darkness.”