Alaska season is almost upon us, and this issue of The Line is focused on Alaska’s legendary Kichatna Mountains. Four first ascents in the Kichatnas from April and May 2023 will be featured in the upcoming AAJ. Here are highlights of those climbs, including a custom story-map from AAC partner onX Backcountry (see “Explore These Routes” below).

Citadel and Rise and Shine

During this same period in April, Joseph Hobby and Zach Lovell flew onto the Shelf Glacier with Paul Roderick of Talkeetna Air Taxi—the first time climbers had landed on this glacier. This gave them easy access to two previously unclimbed lines: the northwest face of the Citadel (8,520 feet), which they called the Borealis Face (2,000’, 85° ice), and the first ascent of Rise and Shine, a previously unnamed formation south of the Riesenstein. This challenging route, Superfly Couloir, went at AI5 M6 A2 in about 10 hours.

Cemetery Spire

In mid-May, Italian climbers Silvia Loreggian and Stefano Ragazzo flew onto the Cul-de-Sac Glacier, aiming for a climb of towering Kichatna Spire. Heavy snow at the start of their trip ended those plans. Scoping for alternatives, they found the southwest face of Cemetery Spire. Once the weather cleared, the pair fixed two pitches up the steep rock face and then returned the next day and climbed Gold Rush (600m, 5.12a A1+), with one bivouac on the way back down.

Explore These Routes

Learn More

Zach Lovell’s report about new routes on the Citadel and Rise and Shine is available now at at the AAJ website. The Augustin Peak and Cemetery Spire reports will be published online in the coming weeks and will appear in the Alaska section of AAJ 2024.

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The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Contact Heidi McDowell for sponsorship opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

In this edition of “The Line,” American Alpine Journal editor-in-chief Dougald MacDonald offers his annual insider’s guide to the newest AAJ, pointing out a few gems that readers may overlook. “The AAJ mainly exists to document new climbs, but it’s a testament to our contributors’ creativity that their stories are rarely dry,” says MacDonald. “Nearly every report reveals something unexpected: a moment of humor or fear, or a bit of climbing history. You never know what you might find.”

This online feature is made possible by Hilleberg the Tentmaker, presenting sponsor of the AAJ’s Cutting Edge Podcast. 

Deep in the Fango

I love a route name with interesting origins, and so it was hard to ignore the fact that two new routes in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca shared the word fango in their names: Fango Fiesta, the first route up the east face of Hualcán, climbed in early July last year, and Fango, Mushrooms, and Cornice, the first ascent of the southwest face of Caraz II, done in August. Both teams included Aritza Monasterio, a resident of Huaraz, whose original home was in Spain. It turns out the Spanish word fango means “mire” or “mud.” Anyone who has attempted to wallow up unconsolidated snow on the shady side of Peru’s big peaks will know exactly how these names originated.

By the way, the “cornice” part of the Caraz II route name has a pretty wild backstory—check it out on page 208 of the new book or read it online.

The Source

Lindsay Griffin, the AAJ’s senior editor, is without a doubt the premier chronicler of alpine and Himalayan climbing in the English language. He began working at the AAJ in 2003, and before that he had long contributed to the famed “Mountain Info” section of various British magazines—a sort of mini-AAJ that appeared in every issue—starting with the esteemed Mountain magazine around 1990. Based in North Wales, Lindsay has made dozens of first ascents all around the world, and his knowledge of obscure and remote mountains—and the ability to recall details of their ascents—is astonishing.

Yet somehow, various climbs of Lindsay’s have never made it into the pages of the AAJ. This year, prompted perhaps by the renaming of peaks he climbed and named decades ago, he shared an account of a two-person trip in 1984 to the Sumayar Valley, near Rakaposhi in Pakistan. Climbing solo or with partner Jan Solov, Lindsay made the first ascents of six technical peaks up to 5,750 meters. I’ve asked him to dig into his file cabinets for more stories!

Don Quixote for a Day

Some of the best writing in the AAJ often can be found in the In Memoriam section, where climbing partners and friends recall the people they loved. Sometimes, not all of their tales will fit into the printed edition, but we always tell the full stories at the AAJ website. This was the case with John Thackray’s lovely tribute to mountaineer Roman Laba, who died last December; one anecdote in Thackray’s piece, summarized here, appears only at the website.

In the mid-1970s, traveling from Peru to Bolivia, Thackray and Laba caught a ride in an open truck packed with local people and uniformed soldiers, some of whom began harassing some young women in the truck. Despite a fierce altitude headache, Laba leapt to the women’s defense, confronting the soldiers and yelling at the ringleader in Spanish, “What kind of man are you? Why not pick on someone your own size? Me!” Fortunately, this confrontation ended with laughter instead of bloodshed. Years later, Laba recalled to Thackray, “I was Don Quixote for one day. And it was great.”

By the way, our photo of Laba is by Jim Herrington, creator of the brilliant 2017 book of portraits called The Climbers. Jim said he shot this photo of Laba in a tent during a ski tour in the Sierra Nevada in 1999, and that his friend was passing some time by reading a book by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau…in French.

Advanced Rockcraft

Readers of the AAJ occasionally may glean information about new techniques making the rounds of advanced climbers. I remember, for example, when climbers started mentioning the use of ice hammocks to help pitch tents on steep ice and snow slopes. (The ice hammock was invented by Mark Richey and first described in AAJ 2012 during his account of the first ascent of Saser Kangri II, with Steve Swenson and Freddie Wilkinson, in 2011.) In this year’s book, I noted several new-ish techniques for moving efficiently in the mountains.

One of these is “fix and follow,” described by Vince Anderson in his story, starting on page 42 of the new AAJ, about a difficult climb on Jirishanca on Peru with Josh Wharton. With this technique, the leader fixes the rope at the end of a pitch, and then, instead of ascending the fixed rope, the follower self-belays with a Micro Traxion (backed up), so she or he can attempt to free the pitch while the leader relaxes, rehydrates, and prepares for the next pitch. As you’ll hear in the newest Cutting Edge podcast, covering the second ascent of the Cowboy Ridge on Trango Tower, parties of three also use this technique: The leader can start up the next pitch, belayed by the second, while the third climber is freeing the pitch below.

In Nadya Oleneva’s story about a direct new route up the north face of Pik Korolyova in Kyrgyzstan last summer, she described another interesting technique: “When the wall became steeper, we switched to the ‘Krasnoyarsk style,’” Oleneva wrote in the AAJ. “The leader climbed for 30 meters, made an anchor, fixed a second rope at its midpoint, and then continued climbing; the belayer ascended the fixed rope and at the same time belayed the leader with a Grigri [on the lead rope], while the third member of the team ascended the rope below. This allows the team to climb very quickly, and we climbed all the difficult sections in this style.”

Been There, Done That

Sometimes a quote just resonates with me, like this one from a report about a recent route near Tucson, Arizona. I definitely can relate: Although I’ve never been pulled over by the cops for scoping while driving, my wife sometimes insists on taking the wheel when we drive up or down a rock-lined canyon, because I can’t keep my eyes on the road!

The Power of Youth

For climbers of a certain age, like me, it can be astonishing to see the strength and motivation of younger climbers—and to remember that, way back when, similar strength resided in our own legs and lungs. The new AAJ reports three long new routes and a significant repeat by Sam Boyce and partners in the remote and rugged Picket Range of the North Cascades—where brutal two-day approaches are the norm—all during the span of a single month last summer.

Boyce, a 28-year-old guide, and Lani Chapko, another guide, first made the third ascent of the Mongo Ridge of Mt. Fury, including the second ascent of the Pole of Remoteness, named because it might be the hardest-to-reach point in the Lower 48. Boyce then paired up with Joe Manning, made another two-day approach into the Northern Pickets, and climbed the 2,000-foot south ridge of Spectre Peak. At the end of July, Boyce and Eric Wehrly climbed the north buttress of East Twin Needle in the Southern Pickets. Boyce and Chapko then returned to the Northern Pickets to climb the 2,000-foot south buttress of Whatcom Peak (likely the first route in that entire cirque). “We only had three days off work—a short window for the Pickets—but we were motivated,” Chapko wrote in the AAJ. She added, “We did the 16-mile approach, with 6,000 feet of gain, in one day.”

Fred Beckey described the Pickets this way: “Although the wild and jagged Picket Range is only 95 miles from the center of Seattle, it remains the most unexplored region in the Lower 48 because of its rugged nature.” Thanks to Boyce and his stalwart partners, it's a little less unexplored now.

South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex

The relabeling of certain mountains and routes that had troublesome names, though controversial to some climbers, continues to gain traction. In the Chugach Mountains of Alaska, the twin summits once known as Suicide Peaks, visible from Anchorage, were renamed North and South Yuyanq’ Ch’ex last October. At the end of that month, Dana Drummond and Elliot Gaddy climbed a cool new ice and mixed route up the northwest face, calling it We Fear Change (1,700’, WI4 M4). The peaks’ new name is from a Denai’ina Athabascan phrase meaning “breath from above” or “heaven’s breath.” That’s a very beautiful name for a mountain.

This edition of The Line and the AAJ’s Cutting Edge podcast both are presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker, which has been making strong, versatile tents for more than 50 years. Visit Hilleberg’s website to order “The Tent Handbook,” their super-informative catalog.

The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

Historic Summer

At the AAJ, we love uncovering little-known climbs from the past. The 2023 AAJ, which is now being mailed out to AAC members, includes several previously unpublished tales from as far back as the 1970s. But none tops our story about a singular summer in the life of Kim Chang-ho, who died in 2018, at the age of 49, at the base of Gurja Himal in Nepal.

Kim Chang-ho was perhaps the most accomplished mountaineer from Korea. He was noted for high-altitude ascents such as a south-north traverse of Nanga Parbat, a new route up the south face of Gangapurna, and the first ascents of Batura II and Himjung. He climbed all of the 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. However, less well known outside Korea was his solitary exploration of the mountains of northern Pakistan from 2000 to 2004.

In AAJ 2023, Korean climber and journalist Oh Young-hoon provides details of four solo first ascents of 6,000-meter peaks during the summer of 2003, when Kim was 33 years old. He spent more than three months that summer and fall wandering through the Little Pamir, Hindu Raj, and Karakoram ranges, climbing and exploring previously untraveled passes, alone or with inexperienced porters and hikers. Rarely has the freedom of the hills been so richly expressed. Oh based his AAJ story on Kim’s unpublished journals and on articles for Korean magazines, and we’re excited to bring it to English-speaking readers.

For more on Kim’s life and climbs, check out Oh Young-hoon’s “Local Hero” piece for Alpinist, published in the fall of 2021.

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

Partner-level members receive The American Alpine Journal book every year. Documenting mountain exploration and the year’s most significant ascents through first-person reports and photos, it’s an essential historical record and a feast of inspiration.

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

The North Cascades High Route

Speaking of unfettered travel through the mountains: Last summer, climber/runners Jenny Abegg and Kaytlyn Gerbin stitched together a mega link-up in the state of Washington, traveling 127 miles, north to south, through the high country of North Cascades National Park. “It’s no secret that this style of travel has grown more popular throughout the last decade or so,” Abegg writes in AAJ 2023. Climbers want to go faster and lighter; runners want to go bigger. In Washington’s Cascades, mountaineering routes have become common ground for those looking for that engaging cocktail of endurance and skill.” The North Cascades High Route took seven days. Here’s a small gallery, generously shared by pro photographers Nick Danielson and Steven Gnam.

See a 17-minute film of the North Cascades High Route here. We’re also happy to say that Jenny Abegg is joining the AAJ editing team and will be working on some Climbs & Expeditions reports for the 2024 edition.

Farewell to Two Greats

This summer the climbing world lost two greats of international mountaineering: Dmitry Pavlenko and Ermanno Salvaterra.

Pavlenko and his wife, Svetlana, and two clients disappeared during an attempt on 7,439-meter Pik Pobeda in Kyrgyzstan in late July. Dmitry Pavlenko gained fame as a key member of two large teams that climbed big-wall-style routes up the west face of Makalu and north face of Jannu. More recently, he based his guiding business and climbing attention in the Ala-Archa mountains of Kyrgyzstan, climbing the steep north face of Pik Svobodnaya Koreya (“Free Korea Peak”) many times, including several new routes. The most recent of these came last September, when the Pavlenko couple climbed Chumba and Raccoon (800m, ED+ 6b A3), a new line reported in the next AAJ.

Ermanno Salvaterra, who died in a fall in mid-August in the Brenta Dolomites, near his home in Italy, was famous for his visionary routes up the biggest and steepest walls of Cerro Torre in Patagonia—the south face and the east face—along with the first winter ascent of the tower. In 2005, Salvaterra teamed up with Alessandro Beltrami and Rolando Garibotti to climb El Arca de los Vientos, the first complete route up the north face of Cerro Torre. Salvaterra’s feature story about this climb in the 2006 edition was his final article for the AAJ.

The AAJ extends its condolences to the family and friends of these two climbers.

Sign Up for AAC Emails

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

O CANADA!

Canada is an enticing destination for U.S. climbers: an international locale that’s easy to reach and to navigate, yet with a wilder feel than many of the crowded crags and peaks back home. With the 2023 AAJ going into the mail next month, here’s a teaser from the upcoming edition: five fresh reports from five Canadian provinces and territories.

Northwest Territories

Seba Pelletti, an Australian who resides in southern Chile, traveled to northern Canada last August with three Chilean friends: Pato Diaz, Michael Pedreros, and Hernan Rodriguez. The prime objective was Mt. Dracula, a hulking summit in the Vampire Peaks, about 20 kilometers to the northwest of the famed Cirque of the Unclimbables. This rainy zone rarely sees visitors, but the 2022 team was lucky, with enough good windows to put up three new routes, including a 650-meter line up a previously unclimbed face on Dracula (see photo above), possibly only the third ascent of this isolated peak. Pelletti described their adventures in his story for AAJ 2023.

British Columbia

Near Terrace, B.C., is a striking granite pyramid known variously as the Shark’s Fin or the Saddlehorn. This peak had been climbed and even skied, but the beautiful southern prow had no known routes. Zach Clanton, Kris Pucci, and Tim Russell changed that last July, with an 11-pitch line that begs to be climbed. The first ascent went smoothly. As Zach wrote in his AAJ report, “Sometimes, very rarely, even with all of the mysteries intact, things go according to plan…. We had no brushes with death, no dicey bear encounters, and no stories of terrifying choss. And that’s just how we like it.”

Alberta

Sam Wall’s family used to run one of the backcountry lodges at Amethyst Lake in the Tonquin Valley of Jasper National Park, below the incredible quartzite walls of the Ramparts. (Those lodges were closed recently in an effort to protect a small herd of caribou in the valley.) During his years of staring at the walls, Sam picked out a possible new route up the northeast face of Oubliette Mountain. In August, he and Shep Howatt rowed across the lake to access the face and succeeded with a 900-meter new route (5.10-) to the summit. After a bivy on the ridge, they traversed along the Ramparts to climb the north ridge of Bennington Peak, also a first ascent. Read Sam’s report here.

Newfoundland

New Englanders have been making the trek to western Newfoundland for decades to explore the East’s biggest ice climbs. (See Alden Pellett’s Recon story in AAJ 2021 for the climbing history of this area.) In 2022 and 2023, a rotating crew of Northeastern U.S. climbers has focused on Parsons Pond, a remote area accessed by snowmobile. Ryan Stefiuk reveals the goods in AAJ 2023.

Nunavut

From Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory comes our final AAJ teaser: a short video about a new route up the northeast face of Mt. Turnweather by Neil Chelton, Owen Lee, and Maria Parkes. This fun look at expedition life was edited by Chelton, creator of the VDiff instructional website. Rainy Day Dream Away, the 20-pitch route they climbed, takes a direct line to the east ridge of Turnweather, a route first climbed in 1977 by former AAC vice president Clark Gerhardt and Craig McKibben. The full story of last summer’s ascent will appear soon in the 2023 AAJ and at our website.

THE 2023 COVER: A FAMILY AFFAIR

As the AAJ is being prepared for mailing, here’s a preview of the 2023 cover, showing a precarious stance on Shield of Dreams (5.13b), one of several hard new routes climbed last year on Trapezoid Peak in the High Sierra. The climber is Chase Leary, who, as Andy Puhvel writes in his AAJ report, is “a local granite master whose wizardry on the rock has earned him the nickname ‘Swami.’ Chase’s family goes back three generations in the Eastern Sierra, and his father, Kevin Leary, was one of the first climbers to establish the 5.12 grade in Tuolumne and the Eastside.”

Puhvel also has multi-generational family ties to the Sierra: He and Lisa Coleman ran the Yo! Basecamp Rock Climbing Camp in these mountains for more than 20 years, and they still operate the Nor Cal Youth Climbing League, the longest running competition series in North America. And their son, Cashus, shot this year’s spectacular cover photo!

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

Partner-level members receive The American Alpine Journal book every year. Documenting mountain exploration and the year’s most significant ascents through first-person reports and photos, it’s an essential historical record and a feast of inspiration.

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

THE HUNTINGTON SPECIAL

The latest Cutting Edge podcast highlights three young climbers from the U.S. and Canada—Zac Colbran, Dane Steadman, and Grant Stewart—who found a beautiful and challenging new route up the west face of Mt. Huntington, one of North America’s most iconic peaks. Listen here.

Sign Up for AAC Emails

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

THE BEST 5.11 IN THE HIGH SIERRA?

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a route which, in my honest opinion, has the potential to become known as one of the five best 5.11s in the High Sierra.” That’s the start of Vitaliy Musiyenko’s report for AAJ 2023 on Against the Grain, a new route up Charlotte Dome in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. Musiyenko, co-author of the new High Sierra Climbing guidebooks, and Brian Prince completed the 1,800-foot 5.11c route in late July of 2022.

“I had just developed COVID symptoms on the day we hiked into camp at Charlotte Lake,” Prince wrote in an email, recalling the first ascent. “The next day, when we climbed the route, I was really pretty wrecked. I think the only way I was able to keep climbing was that the route was so good. I put on a mask at the belays to try and protect Vitaliy, but he ended up testing positive a few days later anyway. It says a lot about Vitaliy that he didn't hate me for giving him COVID when he avoided it after working through the height of the pandemic in an emergency room.”

Prince added, “I just felt grateful that Vitaliy asked me to join him to climb the route after he put so much work into it. It felt like a kind of peak in our partnership because he would be moving out of California [to Utah] soon after.”

Against the Grain takes a direct line up the southeast face of Charlotte Dome, well to the right of the classic South Face route (Beckey-Jones-Rowell, 1970), and also to the right of Dance of Dragons, a route that Musiyenko established in 2017 with Jeremy Ross. Curious about the claim that the new route might be among the best 5.11s in the High Sierra, we asked Musiyenko and Prince—two of the Sierra’s most active first ascensionists—to fill out their top five. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they agreed on most of the climbs. Here’s their list in alphabetical order:

Against the Grain (Charlotte Dome) • Friends (Spring Lake Wall) • Positive Vibrations (The Hulk) • Tradewinds (The Hulk) • Valkyrie (Angel Wings)

Prince also mentioned Sky Pilot on Mt. Goode and Sword in the Stone on Mt. Chamberlin, but added that he hadn’t done the latter. He said the new route on Charlotte Dome might be the best of them all: “Not just the top five…. It is vertical face climbing on a backcountry granite dome for pitch after pitch. There's just nothing else like it.“

Do you have a favorite long 5.11 in the High Sierra that ought to be on this list? Name it in the comments below.

THE WILDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO

In a “Recon” article for AAJ 2020, geographer and exploratory climber Camilo Rada described the history and climbing possibilities in the remote Cordillera Darwin of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. Inspired in part by this article, Spanish climbers Eñaut Izagirre and Ibai Rico organized an expedition to the Cordillera Darwin in 2022 to attempt unclimbed peaks and study the snow and glacier dynamics in the range. With a base camp aboard the yacht Kotik, the seven-person expedition found great success, making the first ascents of the central summit of Monte Roncagli and Cerro Sara, as well as a new variation on Monte Francis. The team also collected snow samples from extremely remote sites and recovered thermometers and recording devices placed by Izagirre during a previous expedition in 2018. Among the early findings: The Roncagli (Alemania) Glacier has retreated at the alarming rate of more than a kilometer in just four years.

Izagirre and Rico’s article about the expedition will appear in AAJ 2023, which will be mailed to AAC members at the end of this summer. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of the team’s photos from the wild and beautiful Cordillera Darwin.

Photographer and climber Andrew Opila has produced a 30-minute film about the expedition, Into The Ice, which premiered in Bilbao, Spain, and was shown at the Wasatch Film Festival in April. More festival dates are pending. See the trailer here.

THE CUTTING EDGE IS BACK!

Season five of the AAJ’s Cutting Edge podcast kicks off with an interview featuring Jackson Marvell, the 27-year-old alpinist from Utah who just climbed his second new route up the mile-high east face of Mt. Dickey in Alaska. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

GREENLAND’S GIANT MYSTERY WALL

In the early to mid-1970s, one of the great challenges of arctic climbing was the southwest face of Ingolfsfjeld, an enormous wall 120 kilometers northeast of Tasiilaq on Greenland’s east coast. Visible from the sea, the peak was first climbed by its northeast ridge in 1971, by a Croatian duo, but the biggest face—rising at least 1,200 meters—remained unclimbed despite several attempts.

In 1975, a six-person British expedition finally succeeded, with three of the climbers making the final push to the summit. The resulting route had around 2,000 meters of climbing and was graded ED+ UIAA VI+ (5.10) A3, an extremely difficult wilderness wall for the era. Yet the climb has been largely forgotten, and until this year, no account had been published in the AAJ. 

Expedition member Steve Chadwick has described this remarkable expedition at length in a previously unpublished article, now available at the AAJ website, along with photos, a topo, and a pitch by pitch summary of the 63-pitch climb, which likely has never been repeated. (The last known attempt on any route up the mountain was in 1986!) An overview of the 1975 climb, written by senior editor Lindsay Griffin, will appear in AAJ 2023, which will be mailed in late summer.

MINI-EPIC(S)

Winter climbing is hard on climbers—and on their approach vehicles. Last winter, Mark Allen, Jesse Charles, and Seth Keena snowmobiled about 25 miles along closed Highway 20 in the North Cascades to make the first ascent of the east face of Black Spire by a varied ice line. Late in the day, they skied back to the unplowed road and mounted their sleds for the ride back to the car. Soon, the troubles began.

Keena opens his report for the upcoming AAJ 2023 with a description of his body slamming into the handlebars of his 1999 Yamaha Phazer. “I had acquired my snow machine for a bargain price, with the caveat that it had an ‘intermittent electrical issue, but not that big of a deal.’” he wrote. “Now, while cruising at 55 mph, the engine and lights had cut off, bringing sudden darkness and deceleration.”

Keena restarted the sled and followed his partners toward the plowed road. “Eventually we all made it back to Mark’s truck at the end of the plowed highway,” he wrote. “But, once again, we quietly faced the power of winter when we discovered the truck’s battery was dead.”

At least their phones still worked. A pleading call summoned help. Said Keena: “A friend is someone who, at 11:30 p.m., leaves their warm bed and drives to the end of the highway to jump-start your dead battery: Thank you, Patrick Murphy, you are a true friend.”

Without apparent irony, they called the new route Chimaphila (“winter lover”). Read Keena’s full AAJ report here.

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

Partner-level members receive The American Alpine Journal book every year. Documenting mountain exploration and the year’s most significant ascents through first-person reports and photos, it’s an essential historical record and a feast of inspiration.

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

DENALI’S EAST BUTTRESS:
A 60-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

Some years ago, Peter Lev, one member of the team that made the first ascent of Denali’s east buttress, published a photo-filled retrospective of the expedition. Lev summited on May 25, 1963, along with Rod Newcomb and Al Read. The other teammates were Warren Bleser, Jed Williamson, and Fred Wright. Here, we bring Lev’s images to light with a gallery of the marvelous photos from his piece. (Click on the images for captions.) You can download the complete retrospective in PDF form by following a link at the end of Read’s feature article in the 1964 AAJ.

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Sign Up for AAC Emails

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

ARRIGETCH ADVENTURES

The next AAJ’s Alaska section will open with a report from the Arrigetch Peaks in the Brooks Range, where Ethan Berkeland and Tristan O’Donoghue traveled with the help of an AAC Mountaineering Fellowship Fund grant for climbers 25 or younger. Their trip was plenty challenging, with a week of storms at the start. But eventually they managed a couple of new routes, including a beautiful long traverse, before packrafting out of the mountains at the end of the expedition. We only have space to publish one photo in the 2023 AAJ, so Ethan and Tristan agreed to share more of their images here. Enjoy!

WILD ALASKA

Speaking of Alaska….. One year ago, four Alaskans took advantage of exceptional conditions to make a possible first ascent and certain first descent of a wild face in the Kenai Mountains. The west face of Mt. Alice rises about 2,500 feet above a high basin, with pitches up to 65 degrees. After a series of storms in March plastered the face in deep maritime powder, Michael Burmeister, Ryan Hokanson, Raven (Samuel) Johnson, and Ben Rininger climbed the face and successfully skied and snowboarded back down on March 21. Johnson’s report for the 2023 AAJ is available now online.

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

Partner-level members receive The American Alpine Journal book every year. Documenting mountain exploration and the year’s most significant ascents through first-person reports and photos, it’s an essential historical record and a feast of inspiration.

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

‘ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER…’

Jack Tackle’s expeditionary climbing career spans nearly 50 years, including more than two dozen Alaska expeditions. Hear his climbing origin story and why he prefers to let his climbing do the talking in the AAC’s latest Legacy Series video (below). Then check out Jack’s beautiful AAJ 2010 article, “Catharsis,” describing an Alaskan comeback tour with longtime partner Jay Smith, following two life-threatening episodes in Jack’s life.

OVERHEARD

Hoping to climb the first route up the north face of Holliway Mountain in the North Cascades, Rolf Larson and Eric Wehrly made a false start that cost them three hours. After retreating, they wandered along the base of the wall to search for another possible line. As predicted, starting up an unclimbed 2,000-foot alpine route at nearly noon did earn them some hardship, but they still sent. You can read Wehrly’s report for the upcoming AAJ at our website.

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The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 75,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

EIGHT-PITCH CLIMB IN…MISSOURI

“Yes, that’s right: You are seeing a climb in Missouri in the AAJ  for the first time ever—and perhaps the last.” That’s the start of Jeremy Collins’ report on The Osage Party Barge, an unusual new line at Monegaw Springs Crag in western Missouri. Over a number of years, Collins and other climbers developed the sport climbing at the sandstone crag, and one day, just for the heck of it, he and Jarod Sickler traversed sideways across the Burnside sector at Monegaw. After that 35-meter traverse, Collins thought, We could keep going. The result was an eight-pitch girdle traverse of the 50- to 65-foot-high crag, “a sideways big wall shining in the Osage sun.” Read all about it in Collins’ report for the 2023 AAJ, now online.

UNCLIMBED: EAST KARAKORAM

The Rassa Glacier in far northern India’s East Karakoram mountains has seen only three climbing expeditions, starting in 2014. The most recent was in September 2022, when a British team made the first ascent of a 6,365-meter mountain they called Dagarpheth Kangri (Ladakhi for “Halfmoon Peak”). Although the logistics and permissions for expeditions in this area are challenging, there are many attractive unclimbed 6,000m mountains, writes Derek Buckle in his 2023 AAJ report. Three of the unclimbed summits are seen in this photo, taken during the recent ascent of Dagarpheth Kangri.

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Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

AT THE MOVIES: MOROCCAN ICE

Moroccan climber Faiçal Bourkiba dreamed of attempting a 500-meter mixed climb on the north face of Tazarhart in the High Atlas mountains, but the line seemed too daunting for his limited experience. An invitation to French ice master Jeff Mercier resulted in the partner of a lifetime. This charming and eye-opening film about their climbs reveals some of the winter climbing potential of the High Atlas.

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AAJ PRO TIP

Thousands of photos, maps, and topos are published with the archived reports at the AAJ website. To see the maximum detail in a photo or topo, drag it from the media gallery to your desktop or save it onto your mobile device. We upload most photos with enough resolution to enlarge them significantly more than they’re displayed at the website; topos and maps are saved at even higher resolution. So, save that photo to your device and zoom right in!

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 75,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line is the monthly newsletter of the American Alpine Journal.

HARD ROCK IN IDAHO

It’s rare that the very first routes up a backcountry wall are 5.12 or harder, but that’s the case for the northeast face of Storm Dome, near McCall, Idaho. The sheer 275-meter wall is reached by a strenuous eight-mile hike from the road, and though attempts had been made, no routes had been completed before 2021. “From the few photos I had seen and based on a scouting mission, the wall seemed devoid of continuous crack systems but highly featured,” writes Michal Matyjasik in his report for the 2023 AAJ.

During the summers of 2021 and 2022, Matyjasik and partners Zach Cook, Duncan Ralph, and Abe Rigeb made numerous trips to the wall and established two high-quality free routes, protected by a mix of bolts and traditional gear: Milwaukee’s Best (9 pitches, IV 5.12 PG-13) and Heart of Diamond (7 pitches, IV 5.13 PG-13), the latter with three 5.13 pitches. Read Matyjasik’s dispatch from Storm Dome at the AAJ website.

SLOVAKS ON THE SLOVAK

The Slovak Direct on Denali, one of the premier hard alpine climbs in North America, made the news last spring when two American teams climbed the route in less than 24 hours. Less attention went to a pair of Slovak climbers who succeeded with their own single-push ascent of the 9,000-vertical-foot climb in 2022: Richard Nemec and Michal Sabovčík climbed the route in just 40 hours, all free (WI6 M8) and with no bivouac, despite a malfunctioning stove that left them desperately dehydrated on the final push to the summit. Read their report at the AAJ website.

Want more Slovak Direct? Episode 53 of the Cutting Edge podcast featured an in-depth interview with Matt Cornell, Steve House, and Rob Smith, talking about their own single-push climbs of this legendary route.

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

Partner-level members receive The American Alpine Journal book every year. Documenting mountain exploration and the year’s most significant ascents through first-person reports and photos, it’s an essential historical record and a feast of inspiration.

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

Climbing can be a risky pursuit, but one worth the price of admission. Partner-level members and up receive $7,500 in rescue services and $5,000 in emergency medical expense coverage. Looking for deeper coverage? Sign up for the Leader level and receive $300k in rescue services.

NEVER TOO LATE

Takeshi Tani, a Japanese climber who lives and guides full-time in Canada, made the first ascent of the much-eyed northwest face of Kangchung Nup in Nepal with his friend Toshiyuki Yamada in 2022. In his new AAJ report, Tani wrote, “Five years earlier, Toshiyuki had asked me to go to the Himalaya, but at the time I was struggling to make a living in Canada, trying to master English, and busy with my Association of Canadian Mountain Guides training course. He asked me again every year. It was just an excuse on my part, but I had never heard of anyone who had just become a guide at the age of 40 going to the Himalaya for a new route.”

In the spring of 2022, the two finally made the trip, and the result was a two-day climb of the 900-meter face (with two more bivouacs on the approach and descent). Once on top of the 6,043-meter peak, Tani wrote, “The feeling was the same as when I climbed in the Japanese Alps for my first time: The surrounding mountains were just so beautiful.”

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A HARD WAY DOWN DENALI

One of the foremost big-mountain skiers of our time is Tiphaine Duperier from France, who contributes regularly to the AAJ. In late May, she and Boris Langenstein skied a wild line down the southwest face of Denali in Alaska, dropping more than 3,800 meters from the summit. AAC board member and pro skier Brody Leven interviewed her for Episode 58 of the Cutting Edge podcast.

LAST CALL FOR AAJ REPORTS

The 2023 American Alpine Journal will go to press in April, and the deadline for new reports is coming up fast. If you or someone you know climbed a long new route in 2022 on rock, ice, or mountain terrain, we want to hear about it. (“Long” depends on the climbing style, difficulty, and area, but in most cases we’re talking at least six pitches.) The deadline for the 2023 book is January 31! Email us at [email protected].

Sign up for AAC Emails

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 75,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

THE RUBBERNECKER

Over the last two summers, Nathan Hadley and partners established two very hard new free climbs on the southeast face of South Early Winters Spire, near Washington Pass in the North Cascades. The harder of the routes, which Hadley sent on August 22 this year, is Rubbernecker, a seven-pitch, mixed bolt and gear route with three 5.13 pitches (including a 13+ traditionally protected crack) and a 5.14- bolted pitch. Ace photographer Jeremiah Watt shot Hadley on the route and graciously allowed us to share some images from Rubbernecker here.

Hadley’s report for AAJ 2023 and more Jeremiah Watt photos are available now at our website. The Rubbernecker? Hadley explains: “I named the route because of the way I and others always stare up at the Washington Pass spires from our car windows.”

CHILEAN GOLD

In the last few years, Sebastian Pelletti has been contributing fascinating AAJ reports from South America, often from little known peaks and ranges. Pelletti, whose mother is Australian and father is Argentinean, first visited Chilean Patagonia in 2015 and fell in love with the small towns and easy access to wild mountains. “During the pandemic, I built a little cabin on the outskirts of Puerto Natales, from where I’m based most of the year,” he says. In his work as a guide and during his free time, he scouts new lines on lesser known walls of Torres del Paine National Park, as well as the surrounding fjordlands. Here are highlights of three reports from AAJ 2022, describing climbs with a variety of South American partners—Pelletti’s full reports are all at the AAJ website.

Grupo La Paz

Pelletti and friends made two trips from Puerto Natales in 2021 and 2022 to a “mystical looking group of three rock towers situated in the southern Cordillera Riesco. The towers are seldom seen, and we had only a few photographs for reference.” After a six-hour boat ride across Canal Santa María, they first linked the east and central towers of the Grupo La Paz, making the first ascent of Aguja Central. Still drawn to the towers, Pelletti returned in February with two other friends and traversed the entire massif, including the western peak, first climbed by Yvon Chouinard and Jim Donini in 1988. Read the report. 

Cuerno Este

On January 8, 2022, Pelletti, Pepe Jurado (Ecuador), and Romano Marcotti (Chile) pulled off a rare feat: the first ascent of a significant summit in Torres del Paine. Cuerno Este looks like some kind of mad layer cake, with golden granite below and dark, loose metamorphic rock frosting the top. Their 600-meter route, Vacaciones Metamorficas, shared some pitches with an earlier route that didn’t quite reach the summit, and it went all free at 5.11-. Read the Cuerno Este report here.

Cerro San Luis

Last August, Camilo Pedreros, Nicolás “Nico” Secul (both from Chile), and Pelletti kayaked west from Estancia Perales across Fiordo Última Esperanza to reach the northern Cordón Monumento Moore. On the second day of this adventure, they bushwhacked “through very dense subpolar forest, at times progressing on our hands and knees. It took approximately eight hours to travel five kilometers to the base of the broad south face of Cerro San Luis,” their objective. The made the second known ascent of the peak and named their route Memoria Kawésqar (750m, AI4 80°), “in honor of the Kawésqar, an indigenous people who navigated these fjords by canoes thousands of years ago.” Read the report here.

Seba Pelletti is already sure to have at least one report in the 2023 AAJ: This past summer, he and friends from South America climbed several new routes in the Vampire Spires of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

MINI-EPIC

Prolific Sierra climbers Vitaliy Musiyenko, Brian Prince, and Brandon Thau joined forces on a new line at the Spring Lake Wall last summer. Establishing the route required two trips into the mountains (about four hours of steep hiking for each approach). For the second trip, Musiyenko writes in AAJ 2022, “I brought along a cheap backpack covered with images from the popular show Friends, which I’d bought from Walmart with the intention of using it as a lightweight haul bag. However, the pack lasted only half a pitch of hauling before exploding. All of our extra cams, headlamps, water, and food fell to the talus field. The only logical solution was for me to hike out, drive home, and grab the extra rack…and a real haul pack. I didn’t get much sleep but was back at the base of the wall at 8 o’clock the next morning.” The new route is Friends (8 pitches, 5.11b).

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 45,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: [email protected].