Himalayan Stove Project – Interim Nepal Trip Report – May 2012

We are in the middle of an exciting, rewarding, three-month trip to Nepal, distributing our first 1,500 clean, efficient cookstoves.

We just returned (May 3, 2012) from two wonderful weeks of brilliant weather in the Everest region. Our first stove was delivered to the Rinpoche of Tengboche Monastery, and 150 more stoves are being delivered to monks, nuns, individuals and families in that region, at up to 4,000 meters elevation.

We are changing people’s lives, one clean cookstove at a time, and it is unbelievably rewarding, humbling and gratifying – the impact in their homes is immediate and dramatic, and the smiles of the… [view report]

The Replicant (center) 1

Pitch 1

On our second try, Jess R and I tagged a dream of a route. I have been obsessing over it for over a decade. It was so amazing and I will be stoked on it for a long time to come. Conditions, weather, and stoke all came together this time for a great day in Banff. The approach went on forever. The avy danger was non-factor, thank god. It is steep and wanders up and over many features. It is nice to have a boot track, but it will blow over with the wind and you will wallow in some places up high. The 1st pitch was hollow, hooky, bouldery,… [view report]

Documentation of the first person to camp directly on the summit of every single Colorado 14,000' Peak from Sunset to Sunrise.  Dr. Jon Kedrowski tackles the feat in only 95 days from June 23 to Sept 28, 2011. Joined on Occasion by Chris Tomer.

Rope damage

His ice tool left where he was hit by the avalanche

lift my head and all around the edge of the bowl I see a fracture line. I am in the dead center of an avalanche I just triggered. As I start to slide I turn my head and yell AVALANCHE!!! Undoubtedly my meek voice is drowned out. My first thought is “Ed?!” 200’ below me Ed has dismantled the anchor and is climbing with me. Snowy rope quickly starts spooling at his feet. He looks up…

On November 6th Ed and I left my house at 6am with the babysitter feeding my kids breakfast. We had been on a hunt for some Ice in a nearby range. We… [view report]

Brain Crawling Through the Blow Down

Dont know if you've heard this yet—but in early Nov. there was a catastrophic wind event in RMNP. [Ed. Like the Tunguska Event? Probably not.]
Nothing less than a phenominal microburst in Glacier Gorge (more like a
hurricane).

Either the front sucked air into its mass from the west, or the wind swirled and blew out of the east, but thousands of trees are laying downhill, pointing west. The eastern half of the canyon (area below Astro Tower) is completely destroyed. I imagine that RMNP see's annual winds over 100mph and for over a century now —SO what could generate this type of destruction? [After our recent trip] we're guessing 150-200mph or more?

Brian Verhuslt & I skiied in to climb Stoneman yesterday.… [view report]

The American Alpine Club Awarded Hayden Kennedy a Mountain Fellowship Grant last fall. This is his account of his trip to Nepal. Thanks Hayden!

A lot of people ask me why I go alpine climbing. All you do is suffer, get scared, get cold, get sick, and most of the time not climb anything. Alpine climbing is a different beast and sometimes I don't even know why I go alpine climbing. My trip to Nepal was eye opening to say the least and I learned more on this trip than any other trip. The Himalayas are a very humbling place and the mountains are to be respected. To be able to climb on these amazing peaks is truly a… [view report]

Colin Haley, a 2011 Lyman Spitzer Award recipient, reports on his ill-fated expedition to the Karakoram.  Read on for the full story from Colin.

In late July I travelled to Pakistan with Bjørn-Eivind Årtun, on what turned out to be a very brief trip to the Himalaya. After spending only a few days in basecamp, I decided to come home.

After my… [view report]

Arriving in Katmandu for your first time I had an overwhelming feeling of being on the cusp of big adventure. Smog blankets the city and hides the magical views of the great range that I had spent the last 6 months dreaming of. Tyler Botzon and I hoped our stay in the smog of the ancient city would be kept to a short, two-night maximum. Seven days later, we found ourselves in the Katmandu airport—with what turned out to be slightly-counterfeit plane tickets—and wham, our trip to the Himalayas was underway. 

The plane touched down in Lukla and we were in the Himalayas. Everest still wasn’t visible and it would be a few days before Ama Dablam. Even from… [view report]

Sangsar Sol

Alam Kuh North Face

After a string of arrival flights landed in the wee, wee hours of the morning of June 5, we dealt with minor immigration hassles, cleared customs, rendezvoused with an amazingly wide awake contingent of ACI hosts, drove to our downtown Tehran hotel, napped for a few short hours, and then gathered for the first time as a group for a late lunch. By early evening, we were hiking up into the foothills of the mountains north of Tehran. Our destination: Darband, a prime bouldering site popular with young Iranian climbers. While our jet-lagged napping resulted in arriving at the site too late in the day to enjoy the company of local boulderers, we were able to get in a couple… [view report]

Kit DesLauriers skiing unnamed peak at sunset, Arctic Refuge

Written and Submitted by Kit DesLauriers—June 30, 2011 (Photo credit: Chris Figenshau)

In April 2010, I was part of a team of ski mountaineers who journeyed to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in far northeastern Alaska to climb and ski it’s high peaks and then experience skiing across the contested coastal plain to the Arctic Ocean.

From base camp near Okpilak Lake, we first climbed the northeast side of Mt. Michelson (8,855 ft; 2699 m) and made a ski descent from the summit via the east face and north-facing glacier back to camp. It may have been skied before but I don’t know for sure and it is highly unlikely to have been skied via our route since the standard… [view report]