Ed Roberson is the author of many books of poetry, including To See the Earth before the End of the World. A dedicated mountain climber, Roberson traveled extensively throughout South America in the 1960s and ’70s. He has received several awards for his work and has taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. His poems “Peru” and “The Age of the Climber” appeared in Alpinist 58 (2017) and Alpinist 67 (2019), respectively.
![Craig DeMartino has collaborated on a variety of prosthetic designs for climbers. The one pictured here was designed by Kai Lin to perform in thin cracks. [Photo] Angela Percival](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a70-rebuilt-1-930x620.jpg)
In this feature story from Alpinist 70, Craig DeMartino writes about how he survived a hundred-foot ground fall in 2002. After doctors fused vertebrae in his back and neck, he decided to have his right leg amputated below the knee. He now mentors others who have suffered life-altering injuries, all while making the most of life with his wife and kids.
![This image is from the award-winning film documenting the first African-American team on Denali. More information can be found at AnAmericanAscent.com. [Photo] Hudson Henry](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/an-american-ascent-1-930x620.jpg)
In this fiction story that first appeared in The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 50 (Summer 2015), James Edward Mills imagines a Black 17-year-old named Jamal from Washington, DC, who finds himself dangling from a rope inside a crevasse in Alaska, pondering his attraction to the mountains in spite of what his classmates back home had told him: “Climbing is one of those fool things white people do.”
![[Photo] Noman Gilgiti. Manipulation: Robin Earle](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a70-sharp-end-1-930x608.jpg)
In this Sharp End essay from Alpinist 70, Alpinist Deputy Editor Paula Wright reflects on words by Nan Shepherd while sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wright writes, “To allow yourself extended periods without frenetic motion is itself a cultivated practice. As the mountain would teach: there is value in being still…. In times of crisis, we have the opportunity to recalibrate our relationships with each other, with our activities and with the land.”
![A view of the Southeast Face of Link Sar from base camp with the line of the first ascent. [Photo] Mark Richey](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a69-link-sar-3-1-930x620.jpg)
In this story from Alpinist 69–which is currently available in our online store–Graham Zimmerman writes of his adventure on Link Sar with Steve Swenson, Mark Richey and Chris Wright. They traveled to the Kaberi Glacier in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan In the summer of 2019 to climb the 7041-meter peak that they had dreamed about. For Zimmerman, the expedition was a chance to learn from some of the most experienced Karakoram mountaineers and challenge some of his own youthful assumptions about alpinism, risk and life.
![[Cartoon] Kendra Allenby](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a69-tcl-climbing-quiz-1-930x620.jpg)
In this story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 69–which is now available in our online store–Bosley Sidwell (or was that Steve Jervis?) poses some trivia questions. Think you’re versed in climbing lit and historical ascents? Take the quiz and find out!
Read the essays from our Mountain Profile about Mont Blanc.
In 1986 Canadian mountaineer Sharon Wood and her teammate Dwayne Congdon reached the summit of Mt. Everest (Chomolungma) via a variation to the difficult West Ridge route. Herein, Sarah Boon reviews Wood’s 2019 memoir, “Rising,” which follows Wood along her path to becoming the first North American woman to stand atop the storied peak. “Wood’s book is a window into the world of women in climbing at a time when many still considered women to be inferior mountaineers,” Boon writes.
![The author Nathan Fry and his fellow classmates approach the Chli Bielenhorn, located near the famous Furka Pass (Furkastrasse) road during the 2019 NATO Partnership for Peace Program in Switzerland. [Photo] Tyler Casey](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/partnership-for-peace-1-930x620.jpg)
In this story, US Army Mountain Warfare School officer Nathan Fry shares his experience with the NATO Partnership for Peace Program that took place in Switzerland in the summer of 2019. “At a time when international relationships seem to be fracturing, engagements such as the Partnership for Peace mountaineering course have taken on a new value in creating a shared appreciation for other cultures,” he writes.
![[Cartoon] Tami Knight](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a69-tcl-ahwahnee-brunch-1-930x620.jpg)
In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Tami Knight shares some background about the inspiration of a cartoon that she created many years ago, titled “Roger and Ed at the Ahwahnee Brunch.” She writes, “Roger is an amalgamation of the climbers I knew at that time in Yosemite…. Ed, on the other hand–Ed Spat to give his full name–was a real guy.” In addition to her story, she has also updated the cartoon in full color.
![Vivian Bruchez at the Col de Bionnassay. [Photo] Ben Tibbetts](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a69-mpessay-4-1-930x548.jpg)
In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Ben Tibbetts writes of completing the Mont Blanc Royal Traverse with Colin Haley in 2018. The 41 kilometer route along the mountain’s main axis was first attempted by Kilian Jornet and Stephane Brosse in 2012, but ended when a cornice collapsed and killed Brosse. In this story, Tibbetts confronts his own setbacks and fears after being involved in two avalanches.
![The Italian face of Mont Blanc, showing, from left to right, Brouillard Ridge Integral (Cosson-Henry-Salluard-Zappelli, 1973); the Innominata Integral (Gugliermina-Gugliermina-Proment-Ravelli, 1921). [Photo] Mario Colonel](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/a69-mpessay-3-1-930x559.jpg)
In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 69–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Claude Gardien recounts Walter Bonatti’s checkered relationship with Mont Blanc. Gardien writes: “Again and again, on mountains around the world, he’d lived through the hell of alpinists, when the elements unleash and everything becomes suffering, tragedy, grief. On Mont Blanc, he’d also known a few moments of ineffable beauty–as if he’d encountered that formidable privilege, as the writer Georges Sonnier suggested, of ‘contemplating the eye of the god.'”
