![Chevon Powell, organizer of the Refuge Outdoor Festival. [Photo] Earica Brown](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a73-local-hero-chevon-powell.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Anaheed Saatchi celebrates the work of Chevon Powell, organizer of the Refuge Outdoor Festival, to create spaces for “healing and belonging” in nature and ” to advocate for a broader picture of who recreates outside.”
![Evelio Echevarria in 2018. [Photo] Cameron M. Burns](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/evelio-echevarria-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
One of the greatest South American mountain scholars has passed. Evelio Echevarria died in October 2020 of colon cancer. Echevarria stands out in the mountaineering world for the massive amount of exploration and research of the Andes he did over the course of his life. He wrote more than 90 reports for the American Alpine Journal and sent a similar amount of information to the British Alpine Journal. “He was one of a small, select handful of mountain writers who were worth their weight in gold, in terms of their depth of interest and rigorous approach,” said Alpine Journal editor Ed Douglas. “His loss might go unremarked by many climbers but those operating in South America will have benefited from his effort and attention to detail.”
![The first Make it Real (MIR) student team visits Robert Goh's Shishapangma base camp in 2002. [Photo] Robert Goh](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a73-tcl-make-it-real-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Lim Joel and his friends train for Himalayan peaks in their tropical Singapore home.
![[Book cover] Hooking Up: The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual (2019), by Peter Zabrok and Fabio Elli, $59.95. [Cover photo] Tom Evans](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/book-feature-hooking-up-1-scaled.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Of Peter Zabrok and Fabio Elli’s recent book “Hooking Up: The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual,” John Climaco writes: “Until recently and despite 40 years of climbing, I knew almost nothing about big walls. Oh sure, I’ve managed to drag myself up Leaning Tower, Half Dome and even an El Cap route…. But my real big wall skills? By the standards of ‘Pass the Pitons’ Peter Zabrok, aka Dr. Piton…they might as well have been non-existent…. Like any good teachers, the authors go to great lengths throughout the book to break up what are often extremely technical (and necessary) discussions with fun and funny stories and anecdotes.”
![George Whitmore in the Canadian Rockies, 1962. [Photo] Ed Cooper](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/george-whitmore-1.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
George Whitmore, one of the first ascensionists of the Nose of El Capitan (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La) in 1958, passed away on New Year’s Day in Fresno, California, from complications of COVID-19 at age 89. Steve Grossman recounts his influential life.
![Ethan Berman looking at the Emperor Face from their camp by the river. This was the best view he and Uisdean Hawthorn had before the mist returned. The Texqakallt Nation name for the 3954-meter peak, Yexyexescen, roughly translates to striped rock, a reflection of the multilayered horizontal striations. [Photo] Uisdean Hawthorn](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a73-on-belay-1.jpg?resize=930%2C555&ssl=1)
In this On Belay story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Uisdean Hawthorn writes about a new route that he and Ethan Berman climbed on the Emperor Face of Yexyexescen (Mt. Robson), which they named Running in the Shadows (VI AI5 M6 A0, 2000m). Hawthorn writes: “People will say, ‘They timed it perfectly and got perfect conditions.’ But in reality, we’d just stood there bleary-eyed in the dark, had a bit of confidence or perhaps a fear of failure, and we’d gone for it. It was only our curiosity that let us discover if the Emperor would be willing to accept our passage.”
![Jebel Musa in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, often thought to be Mt. Sinai. [Photo] Mohammed Moussa, Wikimedia](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a73-sharp-end-the-end-of-one-beginning-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives writes, “By learning to see beyond one beginning [to histories of mountaineering], we might recall alternative ways to climb and to live.”
![The north face of the Grand Teton with the approximate route of the North Buttress Direct drawn in red. The photo was taken from somewhere between Teewinot and Mt. Owen while on the Grand Traverse route a week earlier. [Image] Justin Bowen](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/grand-teton-north-buttress-direct-1.jpeg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
Justin Bowen’s dream came true this past August when his research confirmed that a potential route he’d been eyeing for years on the Grand Teton’s north face had somehow remained overlooked by other climbers. He enlisted his friend Mark Jenkins to make the first ascent of the North Buttress Direct (5.10+ R, 14 pitches). Here is his story of their climb and the realization of a long-held fantasy.
![Kilimanjaro (19,341'), with the Western Breach visible, as seen from Shira 1 Camp at 11,500 feet. [Photo] Christian Pondella](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a72-wired-3.jpg?resize=930%2C612&ssl=1)
In this Wired story from Alpinist 72–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Marinel Malvar de Jesus collects stories of local guides and porters on Kilimanjaro as they confront the inequities of the mountain tourism industry and the new challenges of a global pandemic.
![To Live: Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountain by Elisabeth Revol. Translated by Natalie Berry. Vertebrate Publishing, 2020. 154 pages. Hard cover, #24 (GBP). [Image] Courtesy Vertebrate Publishing](https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/book-revol-to-live-1.jpg?resize=930%2C620&ssl=1)
When Elisabeth Revol and Tomasz “Tomek” Mackiewicz reached the summit of Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat (8125m) on the evening of January 25, 2018, they had completed the second winter ascent of Nanga Parbat, and Revol became the first woman to summit the mountain in winter. Their ordeal was just beginning, however. Revol’s new book, “To Live: Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountain,” translated into English by Natalie Berry, sheds light on her dramatic rescue and the loss of Mackiewicz. Emily Hopcian reports that the book “is a deeply human account of the nightmare Revol endured…. It is a detailed exploration of that January 2018 expedition interwoven with fragments of Revol’s childhood in France; her introduction to and career in mountaineering; and her climbing partnership with Mackiewicz.”
