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K2 1938: The First American Karakoram Expedition

American Alpine Journal

The Line: Nepali Climbers Exploring Nepal's Mountains

Base camp below Khunjungar (the snowy peak on the right). Prakash Gurung and Pur Bahadur Gurung made the first ascent of Khunjungar in December 2023. Photo by Prakash Gurung.

A prominent trend in international climbing is the rise of local climbing communities and cultures around the world, not least in Nepal. As documented in Bernadette McDonald’s award-winning Alpine Rising book, Sherpas and other Nepali climbers, who long worked in the mountains only as skilled employees, now guide their own paying clients and, increasingly, go climbing for fun, with impressive results—the 2021 first winter ascent of K2 being the most dramatic example.

The 2025 AAJ will have our biggest Nepal section in many years—at least 38 pages of new routes and exploration—and one reason is the number of Nepali climbers exploring their local mountains, from the first ascent of 6,750-meter Khumjungar to success on the huge south-southwest ridge of Cho Oyu after more than 40 years of attempts.

Here, we’re sharing the story of a Nepali expedition to the remote and wild Kanjiroba Himal: Three 8,000-meter guides went on a post-work holiday adventure and succeeded on the first ascent of a 6,500-meter peak.

PATRASI, FIRST ASCENT

Climbers in the remote Chaudhabise Valley of western Nepal, en route to the first ascent of Patrasi. Photo: Pasang Rinzee Sherpa.

In the premonsoon season of 2024, Nepali guides Vinayak Jaya Malla, Pasang Kami Sherpa, and Pasang Rinzee Sherpa worked commercial expeditions to 8,000-meter peaks. After returning to Kathmandu, they enjoyed only a few days of rest before heading to Jumla in West Nepal, arriving on June 4. They were perfectly acclimatized for the adventure ahead: the first ascent of the highest summit of the Patrasi group, situated on the western rim of the Kanjiroba Sanctuary, a trip partially sponsored by the Mount Everest Foundation. None of the climbers had previously trekked or climbed in the area.     

Along with four helpers from Kathmandu, the team drove to Pere (2,700m) on June 5. Adding a local guide and three porters, they then walked four hard days via the Chaudhabise Valley to a base camp at 5,050 meters below the west side of the Patrasi group. Day three involved crossing the Tang Tang Pass (4,950m) and descending to an overnight camp at 4,100 meters in the Changda Valley, where they met an encampment of local people gathering yarsagumba (caterpillar fungus) for traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine.

At 8 a.m. on the 10th, they began their ascent of Patrasi. They first climbed a 200-meter snow couloir to reach the northwest ridge of Patrasi II (6,471m). After climbing 11 belayed pitches with rock to French 5a (around 5.8), and simul-climbing other sections, they reached 5,700 meters, where they were able to fashion a partial tent site. For safety, they slept that night in their harnesses.

Steep ground on day two of the first ascent of Patrasi I. Photo: Pasang Rinzee Sherpa.

The following morning, they left at 5 a.m. After another 11 pitches (up to M4) and a little simul-climbing, they arrived at 6,000 meters, where they decided to pitch their second camp at around 4 p.m. The climbing had been quite challenging, in cold and windy conditions with intermittent snow showers. The rock was poor, and there were many places where protection points were 10 to 15 meters apart.

At 4 a.m. on June 12, the three set out for a long summit push. Following the corniced ridge, then crossing a section of hard blue WI3, they reached the top of Patrasi II, descended a little to a snow slope, then headed up onto the left flank of the northeast ridge of Patrasi I. They reached the 6,521-meter summit at 4:35 p.m. in cloudy weather.

The route and bivouacs on the northwest ridge of Patrasi I, crossing over the summit of Patrasi II. Photo: Pasang Rinzee Sherpa.

The descent was long and tiring, with their muscles cramping toward the end of the day. Downclimbing and 15 long rappels (they climbed on 70-meter ropes) took them back to the 6,000-meter camp. It was 9:30 p.m., and they didn’t bother to cook, instead falling asleep very quickly.

On the 13th, it took the trio almost 11 hours to descend all the way to base camp. By the 17th, they were back in Jumla. All equipment and nondegradable waste was packed out, and they left only five snow stakes, 10 pitons, and some cord on the mountain.

Commenting on the trip, Pasang Kami Sherpa said, “This expedition added an interesting chapter to my mountaineering journey. It was in stark contrast to my experience on 8,000m peaks, where fixed rope, oxygen, well-stocked camps, and support systems are the norm. Here, we were on our own, a small team carrying only essential things, making our own decisions, and adapting to whatever the mountain presented us.”

For his part, Vinayak Jaya Malla said, “Let me tell you, for passionate mountaineers there’s nothing quite like the pure joy of alpine climbing in one of Nepal’s most remote areas. Far from human settlements and with no communication networks, one must be well prepared. Alpine-style climbing is a whole different game.”

—Lindsay Griffin, AAJ, with information from Vinayak Jaya Malla, Nepal

BE A FRIEND OF THE AAJ

Friends of the AAJ in the 2024 edition.

Love the AAJ? Consider supporting the 2025 edition with a donation—every donor of $250 or more can choose to be listed in the book as a “Friend of the AAJ.” Plus, these donors will receive a copy of our 2025 hardcover collector’s edition, signed by alpinist Jack Tackle. Of course, donations at any level are greatly appreciated.

To make a donation specifically for support of the 2025 AAJ, go to the “Donate” page at the AAC website, choose an amount, and select “American Alpine Journal” from the drop-down menu under “Apply Your Donation to a Specific Program.” The deadline for Friends of the AAJ members to be listed in the book and receive the limited-edition hardcover is April 15, 2025.

AAJ PHOTOS ARE BACK ONLINE

Good news for climbers and researchers: The AAC’s publications website has been repaired, and visitors can once again view all photos and captions posted with stories, and can enlarge photos with one click.

The AAC is working on an entirely new website, which will include the Club’s vast publications archive, slated to be launched this autumn. The site will have several upgrades, including new ways to search every article ever published in the AAJ or Accidents in North American Climbing.

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line: News From the Cascades to the Karakoram

Binocular view of the crux fourth pitch of Borrowed Time on the west face of Sloan Peak. Photo: Michael Telstad.

SLOAN PEAK, BORROWED TIME

The west face of Sloan Peak, about 20 kilometers southwest of Glacier Peak in Washington’s North Cascades, has seen a flurry of winter climbing in the past five years. But one obvious plum remained: a direct route up the center of the face, with an intimidating crux pitch leading past steep rock to a hanging dagger. In January, Northwest climbers Justin Sackett and Michael Telstad picked that plum, climbing nearly 2,000 feet up the west face in a long day. We’re sharing Telstad’s report for AAJ 2025 here.

The west face of Sloan Peak (7,835’) has been at the forefront of my mind for about as long as I’ve been winter climbing. Despite numerous attempts, the main face was unclimbed to the summit in winter until 2022, with the completion of Superalpine (IV WI3/4, Legallo-Roy). In 2023, the Merrill-Minton (a.k.a. The Sloan Slither, 1,600’, IV WI4+) climbed partway up the center of the face, then moved rightward to join Superalpine. A previous winter line on Sloan Peak, Full Moon Fever (IV AI4 R 5.8, Downey-Hinkley-Hogan, 2011), started on the west face then angled up the northern shoulder.

Directly above the point where the Merrill-Minton cuts right to easier ground, a large hanging dagger is guarded by gently overhanging, compact gneiss. Known as one of the biggest unpicked plums in the North Cascades, the direct line past the dagger was going to get climbed sooner or later—it was just a question of by whom and in what style. When a perfect weather window arrived in the forecast, I convinced Justin Sackett to drive up from Portland for an attempt.

The west face of Sloan Peak showing the line of Borrowed Time, climbed in January 2025. The climbers followed the Merrill-Minton Route (2023) up to the middle of the big rock band, then continued straight up where the Merrill-Minton veered right. Photo: John Scurlock.

Early on January 19, 2025, we stepped away from the car and into the rainforest. We reached the base of the route at first light. Following the Merrill-Minton for the first three pitches, we encountered climbing up to WI5 R—a far cry from the moderate ice reported on the first ascent. Below the dagger, we took a short break and got ready for an adventure. I’d chosen to leave the bolt kit behind. This route deserved an honest attempt on natural gear before being sieged.

No bolts on this mixed pitch: Michael Telstad zigzags up overhanging gneiss on the fourth pitch of Borrowed Time, the M7 crux of the route. Photo: Justin Sackett.

After traversing back and forth a few times, I chose my line to the ice and started up. The rock on this portion of the wall is highly featured but compact and fractured. Just about every seam that might take gear was packed full of frozen moss; finding decent protection was a slow, agonizing process. A steep crux near the end of the pitch held potential for a huge fall, but an improbable no-hands rest allowed me just enough of a reprieve to get good gear.

On the summit. Photo: Justin Sackett.

Justin joined me in the sun above the dagger, and we continued up a pitch of perfect blue water ice to snow slopes. Rather than finish via the standard scramble route, we opted for an obvious corner system above us. Reminiscent of Shaken Not Stirred on the Mooses Tooth in Alaska, this narrow slot held steps of water ice broken by sections of steep snow—the ideal finish to an excellent climb.

Arriving on the windless summit around 3:45 p.m., we took a short break and began our descent along the southeast shelf. After what felt like an eternity of steep downclimbing, we post-holed back to the cars, arriving a bit after 8 pm. Our direct new route is called Borrowed Time (1,900’, IV WI5 M7). 

RESCUE ON SLOAN PEAK

In a sad footnote to the Sloan Peak story, a climber was severely injured in a long fall on the mountain about a week after the ascent reported above, apparently attempting one of the initial pitches on either this line or the Merrill-Minton route. The climber was pulled from the face in a dramatic helicopter mission—the five-minute video from Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is a remarkable window into such rescues. We wish the climber well in his recovery.

The third bivouac on the north pillar of Yashkuk Sar I. Photo courtesy of Dane Steadman.

YASHKUK SAR FIRST ASCENT

Crashhhhh! rang through the perfectly still night. To say this woke up August Franzen, Cody Winckler, and me would be a lie. How could we sleep? We were camped below the biggest objective of our lives, on our first trip to Pakistan, alone in the Yashkuk Yaz Valley aside from our two cooks and liaison officer back at base camp, surrounded by the most beautiful, terrifying, inspiring, and chaotic mountains we’d ever seen. Now, on the glacier beneath Yashkuk Sar I (6,667m), about a mile past our advanced base camp, I poked my head out the tent door to see a gargantuan avalanche roaring down the peak’s north wall, its powder cloud billowing toward us.

“Should we run?” asked August.

That’s the start of the article Dane Steadman has written for AAJ 2025. The new AAJ will be mailed to AAC members in September, but you can hear Dane talk about this climb right now in the latest Cutting Edge podcast. Along with Dane’s interview, you’ll hear alpinists Kelly Cordes and Graham Zimmerman, plus AAJ editor Dougald MacDonald, sharing their insights on this climb and the unique challenges and attractions of climbing in the Karakoram.

The 2024 Yashkuk Sar I expedition was supported by a Cutting Edge grant from the American Alpine Club.

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line: Exploring Zanskar

“In recent years, the peaks of Zanskar have seen increasing popularity with mountaineering expeditions. Despite this, there are still plenty of unclimbed summits from 5,500m to 6,500m….”

That’s the start of a report for AAJ 2025 from Matic “Matija” Jošt from Slovenia, who has completed four exploratory expeditions to Zanskar, in the southwest of Ladakh, India, in the last decade. Jošt’s detailed, photo-rich trip reports have prompted a lot of recent activity (including three additional reports in the upcoming AAJ). Below, we offer highlights from Jošt’s latest exploration, plus a brief Q&A with the man himself.

The view from around 5,200 meters above the Chhogo Tokpo. At left is the south summit of T16, climbed in 2016 by Cosmin Andron and Cristina Pogacean from Romania. The main summit of T16, climbed in 2024 and named Skarma Mindruk Ri, is hidden to the left. At right is unclimbed T13 (6,436m). Photo by Matic Jošt.

Chhogo Tokpo, Four First Ascents

“Uroš Cigljar, Tilen Cmok, Boštjan Dečman, Nejc Škrablin, Tomaž Žerovnik, and I arrived on July 7 at base camp in the Chhogo Tokpo, the eastern branch of the Haptal Tokpo. [Tokpo is a word for “valley” in this area of India.] While several parties had visited adjacent valleys and climbed a few peaks on the watershed ridges with the Chhogo, the only reported climbing expedition to visit the Chhogo valley was an Indian-Romanian team in 2016 that climbed one peak and attempted another (AAJ 2017).

“A very complex 6,431m mountain known as T16 was our main objective. [Peaks above various Zanskar valleys were numbered by Kimikazu Sakamoto, whose teams made exploratory expeditions in Zanskar from 2009 to 2016; Sakamoto published the first climber-friendly topographical sketches of these mountains.] The lower south summit was climbed by Romanians Cosmin Andron and Cristina Pogacean in 2016, but the easiest approach to the main top appeared to lie up the south slopes above the Khapang Glacier, east of the Chhogo valley. The big riddle was finding a suitable passage from the Chhogo to the Khapang, and we decided to devote part of our acclimatization to solving this problem.

The final ascent to Skarma Mindruk Ri (6,431m), the peak formerly known as T16. Photo by Matic Jošt.

“Aiming for a col on the ridge south of T16, we hiked up a side glacier, passing the route climbed by the Romanians, and climbed a 300m west-facing gully (300m, D+ 60° M3) to reach the col (5,836m). From there, it would be easy to descend to the gentle Khapang Glacier and traverse over to T16’s main peak.

“The whole team returned to the col camp on the 14th, and the next day, in perfect weather, we climbed south-facing slopes above the Khapang Glacier and along the east ridge to the summit of T16 (600m, D+ 60°). Our expedition had been organized by a club from the Slovenian town Šentjur, so we named our route Šentjurka (900m, D+). We later encouraged people in the nearest village, Tungri, to suggest a name for the peak, and they came up with Skarma Mindruk Ri. (Skarma is “star,” and Mindruk is a specific star in the constellation of Pleiades.) Maybe the name will catch on.”

Boštjan Dečman and Nejc Škrablin on the upper Khapang Glacier. The col they crossed to reach the glacier is just left of Škrablin. The huge rock fin behind leads to unclimbed T13 (6,436m). In back on the left is unclimbed Peak T11 (6,177m). Photo by Matic Jošt.

Later in this expedition, Jošt and Žerovnik crossed a different col to reach the Korlomshe Tokpo, where a British team in 2015 had attempted what they called a “Matterhorn-like peak.” The Slovenians climbed the east face and south slopes to reach the 6,130m summit. “We named the route Charlatan De Balkan (500m, D+ 60° ice) after an album by a popular Slovenian group,” Jošt writes. “As the peak was absolutely nothing like the famous Swiss mountain, we named it Antimatterhorn.”

Team members also attempted the west face of unclimbed Peak 5,435m, close to base camp, and made the first ascent rock tower east of camp, which was dubbed Ibex (5,321m).

Below the east face of the Antimatterhorn (6,130m). Photo by Tomaž Žerovnik.

By July 24, most of the party had left base camp. “Although I’ve been climbing around 45 years, I don’t have much experience with soloing, but I decided to try the north face of T9 (6,107m), which I had seen from the Antimatterhorn approach,” Jošt writes in his report. “I left base camp at 1 a.m. on the 25th, carrying two axes but no rope. The north face became icier and brittle the higher I climbed, but at 8:30 a.m. I reached the west ridge. The upper section of this ridge was rockier, but in one hour I was standing on the summit.” Uncomfortable with downclimbing the north face he had ascended, he headed down a couloir on the southwest face to a neighboring glacier, traversing the mountain, and made it back to base camp by 3 p.m.

“The locals suggested the name Spao Ri for the peak. It means “brave mountain.” I named the route Old and Abandoned (700m, TD II/III 75° ice). Why? Because I’m not young anymore.”

Jošt’s comprehensive report from the 2024 expedition, including some general notes on climbing in Zanskar, will be available at the AAJ website later this year. To see a copy sooner, email [email protected].

—Matic Jošt, Slovenia

Four Questions

Matic Jošt, 55, first appeared in the AAJ in 1996 as a member of a Slovenian expedition to Gasherbrum I. His expeditions have taken him to high mountains throughout Asia, as well as climbs in Peru.  

Jošt climbing the north face of Planja in the Julian Alps of Slovenia. Photo by in Matjaž Dušič.

Q. Where do you live in Slovenia and what do you do for work there?

A. At the moment, I mostly live close to Celje in the central part of Slovenia. I am a self-employed engineer. In 2021, I applied for the IFMGA guide course and probably will finish this summer. So, last year I earned some money as an aspirant guide, too. I also sometimes do rope access work.

Q. What is it about Zanskar that keeps luring you back? 

A. Easy logistics and some unexplored areas, nice local people. The mountains are not so high, and I can find easily something that fits my ambitions. It is not too expensive, and I can afford it. And after all, I am quite familiar with the geography of the region. 

Q. Are there issues with climbing there?

A. The lack of quality maps in the area has partly been mitigated by navigation applications, but there is still confusion regarding peak names and, over the years, a general lack of systematic recording of activity. The IMF (Indian Mountaineering Federation) has a list of open peaks that includes geographical coordinates and altitudes, but they simply number the peaks; very few mountains on the list have names.

I also think the IMF expedition policy for foreigners and their system based on “peak permissions” is out of date and quite inappropriate for such areas as Zanskar and other mountain ranges north of the main Himalayan divide. A more suitable management model would set boundaries within which climbers could choose any peaks they want to attempt.

Q. Other than your trips to India, what have been your favorite international expeditions? And where is your favorite place to climb at home?

A. All of my expeditions are my favorite. I am happy that from all the expeditions which I have participated in, we all came home alive. We have had some close escapes, accidents, and injuries, but we had luck. At home I really like Ojstrica (in the eastern Kannik Alps). It has nice north face above Logarska dolina (valley) to climb in summer, and nice southern slopes for skiing in winter. I also sport climb as much as I can to keep my fitness. 

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line: Ascents for the Ages

Babsi Zangerl high on Free Rider during her first flash ascent of El Cap. Photo by Miya Tsudome for Highpoint Productions. 

BABSI ON FREE RIDER—THE PODCAST

Babsi Zangerl’s flash ascent of Free Rider on El Capitan in November—the first flash of any El Cap big-wall free route—was a highlight of the year in climbing. In the new Cutting Edge podcast, the 36-year-old Austrian climber describes her preparation, fears, and the intense effort of her no-falls ascent of the 5.13a wall. Plus, Alex Honnold, Josh Wharton, and AAJ editor Dougald MacDonald add personal perspective and context on Babsi’s historic Free Rider ascent. Listen to the new episode here!

Yawash Sar I (6,258m) in far northern Pakistan. The round-trip from base camp took seven days. Photo: Janusz Majer.

FOWLER-SAUNDERS IN PAKISTAN

Two of the most accomplished and adventurous climbers of the modern era are Mick Fowler, a retired tax inspector for Great Britain’s revenue department, and Victor Saunders, a U.K. architect turned Chamonix mountain guide. The two completed their first major new route in Pakistan together 37 years ago. This past autumn, Fowler, now age 68, and Saunders, 74, completed another big new route: the first ascent of a 6,258-meter peak, also in Pakistan. Read on to learn more about both climbs.

YAWASH SAR I, FIRST ASCENT

Victor Saunders (left) and Mick Fowler in Pakistan. Photo by Mick Fowler.

In September 2024, Victor Saunders and I made the first ascent of Yawash Sar I (6,258m), a shapely peak at the head of the Koksil (a.k.a. Shop Dur) Glacier in the Ghujerab Mountains, very near the frontier with China. [In 2022, a British team made three attempts on the south face and southern ridges of Yawash Sar I, on the opposite side of the mountain. (See AAJ 2023.) No prior attempt from the Koksil Glacier, which drains to the northwest, has been reported.] 

Victor and I met in Islamabad on August 26, flew to Gilgit, spent a night in Karimabad, and arrived at Koksil (ca 4,000m), 12 kilometers west of Khunjerab Pass on the Karakoram Highway, on the 28th. Bad weather delayed us for a day, but on the 30th, after one day of walking, we established a base camp at around 4,600 meters on the highest grassy meadows below the Koksil Glacier.

You call this a retirement home? Fowler at the cramped first bivouac on Yawash Sar I. Photo by Victor Saunders.

The weather was unstable over the period from August 31 to September 9. However, we were able to make a reconnaissance of the approach to Yawash Sar and get good views of its north and northwest flanks. During this period, to aid acclimatization and get more views of Yawash Sar, we ascended Peak 5,636m, first climbed by a Polish-Italian team in 2011 (see AAJ 2012).

On September 10, we left base camp to attempt our main objective. That day we walked up the main Koksil Glacier to camp at a point below the 5,426m West Yawash Col. On the 11th we climbed through an icefall to gain the previously unvisited glacier basin between Yawash Sar I and Peak 6,072m.

The west-northwest face of Yawash Sar I has three groove/couloir lines. We climbed the central one. On September 12, we crossed the bergschrund and were pleased to find excellent conditions. Once established on the line, we climbed thin ice runnels to a bivouac at about 5,750m. There was a notable dearth of good bivouac sites, and we had to traverse about 35m out of the couloir to a point where we were able to fashion a ledge on a sharp rock crest. On the 13th, we climbed more thin ice streaks and mixed ground to meet the southwest ridge at about 6,050m. Here, we endured a very uncomfortable and windy sitting bivouac.

Saunders arriving at a belay on Yawash Sar I. The high summit on the left is unclimbed Peak 6,072m. Photo by Mick Fowler.

On the 14th the weather deteriorated, and it began to snow. We traversed left across a rock wall (where we’d been concerned we might be stopped) and gained the summit slopes, which we followed to the top, arriving at around 11 a.m. We stayed about five minutes and then rappelled all the way to the bottom of the face, reaching the glacier at about midnight on the same day. On the 15th and 16th, we returned to base camp.

The upper reaches of the Koksil Glacier had only been visited by one previous party, the Polish/Italian team noted above, and numerous possibilities for climbers remain.

— Mick Fowler, U.K.

Much of the Golden Pillar of Spantik consisted of thin ice or powder snow over marble slabs, making for long runouts and very insecure climbing. Photo by Victor Saunders from AAJ 1988.

THE GOLDEN PILLAR OF SPANTIK

If the Piolets d’Or had existed at the time (they didn’t debut until 1992), Mick Fowler and Victor Saunders’ ascent of the Golden Pillar of Spantik (7,027m) in 1987 surely would have earned them a golden ice axe. Their six-day climb of the 2,100m northwest face was a landmark of late-’80s alpinism, with bold climbing in unstable weather on a stunning formation, followed by a nerve-wracking descent on uncharted terrain. Here’s an excerpt from Saunders’ article in AAJ 1988, describing day four of the climb:

Photo from AAJ 1988 by Victor Saunders.

“By midday, we reached a large flat ledge, the top of a giant jammed block. There we made tea and relaxed until it occurred to us to look up. We were completely surrounded by overhangs. Fowler led an aid pitch to gain the lowest of a series of ramps. The lower ramps led to a shield, which was the other area of uncertainty for us. From Base Camp there had appeared to be no line around this feature, but a hidden chimney revealed itself at the end of the ramp. Because it was blank-sided and there was no belay at the top, I had to belay Mick by wedging my body across the chimney and asking him not to fall.

“I do not remember having a more miserable bivouac than the one we had that night. We were benighted and there was no ledge, nor even the possibility of cutting one on the thin ice. We used the tent as a hanging bag, inside of which Mick spent the night in his harness, while I stood in my rucksack. It snowed all night.”

There’s much more to enjoy in this classic AAJ story: Read it here. To see the story in its original format, download the PDF (icon in upper right of the web page.)

FOWLER AND SAUNDERS: FURTHER READING

Fowler and Saunders have published many articles and books, replete with wild adventures and Brit-style self-deprecating humor. For tales from Fowler’s early years, turn to his 1995 book Vertical Pleasure: The Secret Life of a Tax Man. Saunders’ 1990 book Elusive Summits (winner of Britain’s Boardman Tasker Prize) is probably his best. Both books describe the landmark Spantik ascent.

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line: A Great Year for Women in the Mountains

All-women teams have been exceptionally active around the world this year. This month we’re highlighting two of them: a Slovenian women’s expedition to Zanskar, India, and an Italian pair in the Pamir Alai of Kyrygzstan. Two other highly ambitious expeditions in 2024 involved American women: Chantel Astorga, supported by an AAC Cutting Edge Grant, nearly completed a new route up Shivling in India with Fanny Schmutz; and Michelle Dvorak, armed with a McNeill-Nott Grant, got high on the unclimbed southeast buttress of Chaukhamba III, also in India, with Fay Manners, before a rockfall incident forced them down. Just this month, Babsi Zangerl made her extraordinary flash of an El Cap free route. Plenty more women’s climbs will appear in the 2025 AAJ: See the gallery above for a little preview!

Anja Petek on the east ridge of Lalung I during the first known ascent of the peak. Photo: Patricija Verdev.

LALUNG I, FIRST ASCENT, VIA EAST-WEST TRAVERSE

Our all-female expedition to Zanskar, India, was comprised of Ana Baumgartner, Urša Kešar, Patricija Verdev, and me (all from Slovenia). On August 26, we left the road with 18 porters to climb in the Lalung Valley. Our main goal was Lalung I and neighboring peaks. The day after our arrival at base camp, we explored higher up the valley. It took an entire day to make a 20-kilometer round trip on moraine and glacial terrain, and, as the weather was poor, we didn’t see much of the higher peaks.

The four Slovenian women climbed four new routes and dealt with numerous bears at base camp during their expedition to the Lalung Valley in northern India. Expedition Photo.

On August 31, Patricija and I climbed a new route on a granite north-northwest face not far from base camp. This buttress, which starts at around 4,200 meters, lies on the south side of the valley and rises to Peak 5,346m. One route had been climbed previously near the center of this face, by Indians Korak Sanyal and Spandan Sanyal (see AAJ 2018). Our new route, Connection (VI-), took 15 hours and involved around 1,400 meters of climbing.

Before moving up to an advanced base camp, we had a nighttime visit from a bear. It was an unpleasant encounter, with the animal sniffing around our tents for food. All four climbers were happy to relocate to a bear-free advanced base at 4,800 meters. Urša had difficulties with the altitude, however, so after a couple of days she and Ana returned to base camp, where they and our cooks and liaison officer had to deal with a full-on bear saga. After more than 10 nighttime bear visits, resulting in Patricija’s tent being ripped, heaps of food stolen, and the toilet tent demolished, they managed to scare off the bears with fire and enjoy a few peaceful nights.

During this period, Urša and Ana climbed two more new routes on the north-northwest face of Peak 5,332m, finishing on the northwest ridge. Meanwhile, on September 9, Patricija and I left advanced base for the east ridge of unclimbed Lalung I (6,243m), camping a little way above the start. We’d had a forecast for a good weather window, but a snowstorm on the 10th forced us to set up tent in the middle of the day and sit out the bad weather. The storm lasted all the next day, but the 12th dawned clear and we climbed late into the night.

Lalung I (6,243m) from the north. The peak was traversed from left to right, with four bivouacs en route. Photo by Patricija Verdev.

Day five on the ridge required even more determination, and it wasn’t until 1:30 a.m. that we settled down for a rest, having climbed the final difficult mixed pitches. In a moment of carelessness brought on by fatigue, we lost our tent poles to the wind and slept in the open in bivouac sacks. The next morning was foggy, making it hard to navigate, but after some snow slopes, we reached the summit at 9 a.m. on the 14th.

We proceeded with a long descent along the west ridge and then five rappels on the north face to reach the glacier at 6:30 p.m. It took another eight hours to reach advanced base. Next day, we descended to base camp. Just before stepping off the moraine, we saw three silhouettes, Ana, Urša, and Freni, who brought smiles to our tired faces. We named our route Here Comes the Sun (M6+ AI5+, with around 2,000 meters of climbing).

— Anja Petek, Slovenia

 AK-SU VALLEY, PIK 3,850, MESSY DREAMERS

Camilla Reggio (left) and Alessandra Prato in Kyrgyzstan. Photo by Camilla Reggio.

Camilla Reggio and I met on the Eagle Team of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and immediately became friends, connected by our huge passion for the mountains. We decided to plan our first expedition together and ended up in Kyrgyzstan, with the intent of climbing on the incredible granite of the Ak-su Valley in the Pamir Alai mountains. We hoped to open a new route. 

Walking up and down the valley in search of possible lines, we were impressed by the 500m south face of Pik 3,850m (a.k.a. the south buttress of Pik Slesova). The following morning, August 12, we brought all our gear up to the wall, walking and scrambling for hours with incredibly heavy haulbags to reach the base. We found a five-star bivy spot—a small cave for two people lying close together—and got to  work. 

Messy Drreamers (15 pitches, 7b) on the south face of Pik 3,850m in the Ak-su Valley of Kyrgyzstan. Two prior routes ascended the same face, one on either side. In back is the well-known Pik Slesova (a.k.a. Russian Tower). Expedition Photo

We opened the first pitches, placing cams and pitons and one bolt for each anchor, and then returned to base camp, as excited as little kids. We returned the following day with food and sleeping gear. The route that followed was amazing, but harder then expected. We mostly opened it traditionally, bolting only when strictly necessary (10 lead bolts in 15 pitches). In all, we spent about a week of effort on the route, with four bivies in the cave, including one night with a terrible storm, trapped in the dripping cave and wondering if we would drown. The very next day, we managed to climb all the wet pitches and open the last ones, reaching the foresummit of Peak 3,850m (about five or six pitches of easy climbing from the true summit) in the dark, screaming with joy after 15 pitches of struggles. 

When we finished the rappels, we had a final night in our luxury hotel and went back to the base camp the following morning, with backs destroyed by the heavy sacks but hearts full of happiness and satisfaction. We called our route Messy Dreamers (500m, 7b). [The two women free climbed all but two pitches of Messy Dreamers during the first ascent; Nordic climbers Elias Annila and Misha Mishin repeated the route soon after and freed the eighth and 12th pitches at 7b and 7a, respectively.]

— Alessandra Prato, Italy

KILIAN JORNET ON THE CUTTING EDGE PODCAST

Born and raised in the heart of the Pyrenees, Kilian Jornet is the GOAT in mountain running and skimo, and he’s an accomplished climber too. This past summer, Jornet used his extraordinary fitness and deep reservoir of mountain savvy to tackle one of the greatest challenges of the Alps: a traverse of all 82 of the range’s 4,000-meter peaks, solely by foot and bike. The fastest previous time for this link-up was 60 days. Jornet did it in 19.

Cutting Edge host Jim Aikman interviewed Jornet about his “Alpine Connections” project—the preparation, the physiological and psychological challenges, and the real dangers of covering hundreds of kilometers of serious alpine terrain at speed, often alone. For context on the history of grand Alpine enchainments and commentary on Jornet’s latest feat, Jim spoke with Colin Haley, elite climber and Chamonix resident; Buzz Burrell, one of the originators of the Fastest Known Time (FKT) movement; and Dougald MacDonald, editor of the American Alpine Journal. Don’t miss it!

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line: Exploring Africa’s Stunning Granite Domes

In AAJ 2024, we highlighted new climbs in Angola spearheaded by American climber Nathan Cahill, along with local developers—see Cahill’s story here. The pace of exploration on the beautiful rock of this southwest African country has not slowed. This past summer, a Spanish quintet visited the province of Cuanza Sul and climbed seven new routes on six different granite domes. Here is the story they‘ve prepared for the 2025 AAJ.

CONDA AREA, FIRST ASCENTS OF HUGE DOMES

Top: Climbing Bon Día Boa Noite on Hande. Establishing the 420-meter 7a was the highlight of the July 2024 trip, said Manu Ponce. Bottom: The topo for Bon Día Boa Noite. (Manu Ponce Collection)

During July 2024, our team of five Spaniards—Miguel A. Díaz, Alex Gonzalez, Indi Gutierrez, Jaume Peiró, and me, Manu Ponce—traveled to Angola in search of big walls. Having many options to explore, we decided to start in the Conda region of Cuanza Sul province, around eight hours south of Luanda, the capital. Once in Conda, we headed about ten kilometers south to the village of Cumbira Segundo.

We knew from past reports that we would find big walls, but the reality far exceeded what we imagined. Amid the lush jungles surrounding the small village of Cumbira Segundo were enormous granite domes, between 200 and 400 meters tall. Some of these had been climbed before, but many had not.

In this type of adventure, the easiest aspect is often the climbing itself, and this was true here, as the dense vegetation full of wild animals—many of them very poisonous—required us to open paths to the walls with extreme care. Taking turns, we chopped through the jungle with machetes meter by meter until we reached our starting points.

Once on the wall, we were in our element, though temperatures were scorching: between 20°C and 25°C, with almost 100 percent humidity. These were truly tropical conditions. We tried to choose walls in the shade, although this wasn’t always possible.

We climbed everything ground-up, using bolts as sparingly as possible, though some of the walls had very little opportunity for removable protection. Most of our routes involved technical slab climbing, with few cracks, poor handholds, and friction-dependent footwork. This meant that, at the end of the day, you would end up with your head mentally fried.

We had several wild moments during the expedition: falls of more than ten meters with a drill included, scorpions as big as your hand defending their nest as you climbed, and running into black mambas on the nightly return to camp. Despite this, if asked if we would return, we would all answer without hesitation: Sim, claro!

In total, we opened seven routes on six different peaks, two of which had never been summited before. This totaled around 2,000 meters of climbing, all of which made us sweat meter by meter. The seven routes were: 

●      Bon Día Boa Noite (420m climbing distance, 7a) on Hande.

●      Peluchitos (380m, 7b) on Hande.

●      Vuelta al Armario por Festivos (350m, 6b+) on Cunduvile.

Top, from left to right: Indi Gutierrez, Chilean Lucho Birkner of Climbing for a Reason, Manu Ponce, and Miguel A. Díaz on the summit after the first ascent of Leca via Raices (200m, 6c). The dome Hande rises behind. Bottom: The topo for Raices. (Manu Ponce Collection)

●      Quero verte Vocé (100m, 6a+) on Wende, first ascent of the formation.

●      Raices (200m, 6c) on Leca, first ascent of the formation.

●      Os Mulatos (130m, 6c+), the first climbing route on Cawanji. The formation can be ascended by hiking via another route.

●      Fumaca Densa (115m, 7b) on Nhenje.

We received much valuable help from Nathan Cahill of  Climb Angola, and Lucho Birkner and Javiera Ayala from the nonprofit Climbing for a Reason. The local community, specifically all the children with which the latter organization works, helped us from the moment we got up each day until we returned in the evening through the dense vegetation. A very humble community opened its arms to us without asking for anything in return.

A group of women from Cumbira Segundo. The Angolan village is surrounded by many large granite domes. (Manu Ponce Collection)

We are particularly grateful for the work Climbing for a Reason is doing in this place. It has given life and a lot of hope to a large part of the town’s population: the children. Due to the incredible climbing and potential for route development, we are sure this place soon will be visited by people from all over the world. Climbing for a Reason is helping prepare and teach the inhabitants what can be done in their “garden.”

In all, we are very happy with what we have achieved, and more importantly with the experience we had with the people of Cumbira Segundo. Our weeks were full of learning, and we came to feel comfortable in a wild terrain full of surprises.

—Manu Ponce, Spain

CUTTING EDGE PODCAST: NEW HOST, MORE VOICES

The Cutting Edge podcast returns for its seventh season this week, with a new host and deeper dives into first ascents and iconic climbing locations around the world. Hosting the show is filmmaker and podcaster Jim Aikman, creator of the AAC’s “Legacy Series,” featuring interviews with climbing legends from the Club’s deep vault of oral history.

As it has for the past six years, the podcast will continue to center on a recent cutting-edge ascent. Each month, Jim also will explore the climbing history and significance of the peak or range we’re visiting, drawing on the expertise of the American Alpine Journal team, as well as other climbers past and present.

Up first: Mt. Dickey in Alaska’s Great Gorge of the Ruth Glacier. British climber Tom Livingstone talks about his brand-new route up the south face, and you’ll also hear from AAJ Editor Dougald MacDonald, Ruth Gorge climber and filmmaker Freddie Wilkinson, and an archival interview from the late David Roberts, who was first to climb Dickey’s mile-high walls, half a century ago.

We asked Jim Aikman for a few thoughts on taking over as host of the podcast:

1. What’s your number one goal in taking the reins of The Cutting Edge?

Well, this is a beloved show with a great following, so the first goal is to continue delivering for the core audience. Beyond that, I'll be bringing a documentary style to the storytelling, where interviews still drive the show but I'll dig more into the history and larger context through research, voiceover, thematic richness, and more expert voices. The ultimate goal is to create a compelling narrative that explores the depth and meaning of a new climb, its setting, history—and what it adds to the limitless evolution of the sport.

2. Why should the average climber care about cutting-edge climbs?

I think this gets to the essence of climbing and what makes it interesting to me as a storyteller. Climbing is still so new, and it really shines on the extreme end of the learning curve. Startling stuff is happening all the time, and will continue to, because we are still exploring what we're capable of as a species interacting with the natural world. That comes through better training practices, technical innovation, and sheer boldness, playing out in venues with the highest stakes, yet with perhaps intangible rewards. I’ve heard answers to the question “why climb?” from many of climbing's greatest luminaries, and the answers are as philosophical as they are bewildering, and that just draws me in. Obviously I'm not alone in that, as we've watched climbing stories and figures finally break into the mainstream in recent years.

3. You obviously love climbing history. What draws you to the stories and people from climbing’s past?

I’ve been telling climbing stories since 2007, starting with Sender Films and the Reel Rock crew, followed by 15 years of short and feature-length documentaries on the sport. Then there’s the VIP interview series, which I've been capturing for the AAC with Jim McCarthy and Tom Hornbein (who we lost last year, RIP) since 2012. We have more than 75 interviews telling the oral history of American climbing, and we're still going strong. I think history is fascinating in general, but climbing is just this incredible spectrum of personalities and motivations, all playing out in the last couple of generations. I mean, how crazy is it that Americans reached the highest point on Earth only six years before we put people on the moon? And now we have this progression of strength and technique that makes the sport incredible to track as a purely athletic pursuit. I'm a fan of other sports as well, but there's really nothing like climbing. 

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line — Mark Westman’s Long Quest to Climb Mt. Russell

Mark Westman has been climbing in the Alaska Range for nearly three decades and was a Denali Mountaineering Ranger for ten years. He has attempted Mt. Russell, on the southwest edge of Denali National Park, three times by three different routes over 27 years. The third time was the charm, as he and Sam Hennessey raced to the summit in a single day in late April. It was only the ninth ascent of the 11,670-foot peak, and Westman believes the line they followed may be the most reliable way to reach this elusive summit.

Sam Hennessey scales the rime wall just below the summit of Mt. Russell. Photo by Mark Westman.

Mt. Russell, East Face and South Ridge

At 9:45 a.m. on April 27, Paul Roderick dropped Sam Hennessey and me on the upper Dall Glacier, directly beneath the nearly 6,000-foot-tall east face of Mt. Russell—our objective.  

We had in mind a rapid round trip. After quickly setting up a tent to stash food and bivouac gear, we departed half an hour after landing with light packs. We started up the left side of the east face, following the same line that Sam had climbed the previous spring with Courtney Kitchen and Lisa Van Sciver. On that attempt, they carried skis with the hope of descending off the summit. After 3,600 feet of snow and ice slopes, they reached the south ridge, which they found scoured down to unskiable hard ice. They retreated and skied back down to the Dall Glacier.

The route Sam and I followed on the east face steepened to 50° at about mid-height, and the snow we had been booting up gave way to sustained hard névé and occasional ice—much icier conditions than what Sam and partners had found at the same spot in 2023. We continued to a flat area at 9,600 feet, near the base of the upper south ridge of the mountain. Until this point, we had climbed unroped for most of the way.

The line of the Hennessey-Westman Route on the east face and south ridge of Mt. Russell. The first ascent (1962) reached the south ridge from the far side of the mountain. The direct south face and south ridge (2017) is at left, and the original east face (1989) and northeast ridge (1972) are on the right. Photo by Mark Westman.

The upper south ridge was the route followed by Mt. Russell’s first ascent team in 1962 (see AAJ 1963). They accessed it from the west side via an airplane landing on the Chedotlothna Glacier (which is no longer feasible because of glacial recession). This section of ridge was repeated by Dana Drummond and Freddie Wilkinson in 2017 after they pioneered a new route up the direct south face and south ridge of Russell (5,000’, AK Grade 4; see AAJ 2018).

A moderate section of the upper south ridge of Russell. Photo by Mark Westman.

From where we intersected the ridge, there were several tricky sections of traversing across 50° ice and knife-edge ridges. We used the rope for these parts, then continued unroped for several hundred feet, easily avoiding numerous crevasses. Just beneath the summit, we reached a near-vertical wall of rime ice, surrounded by fantastically rimed gargoyle formations that spoke to the ferocious winds that typically buffet this mountain. We belayed the short bulge of rime and minutes later became only the ninth team to reach the summit, just seven hours after leaving our landing site.

Nomenclature

The peak known today as Mt. Russell appears to have been called Todzolno' Hwdighelo' (literally “river mountain”) in the Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan language. This is according to a National Park Service–sponsored study of Indigenous place names written by James Kari, professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Alaska. Today’s Mt. Russell was named for geologist Israel Cook Russell—one of founding members of the AAC. The California 14er Mt. Russell is also named for him.

There wasn’t a cloud in any direction and not a breath of wind. I had made storm-plagued attempts on Russell in two different decades, and there were many other seasons where I had partners and dates lined up but never left Talkeetna due to poor weather. It was truly gratifying to reach the top of this elusive summit.

Sam and I descended to the landing site in just four hours, making for an 11-hour round-trip climb and the mountain’s first one-day ascent. Paul picked us up the following morning.

While all of the terrain we followed had been climbed previously, the east face and south ridge had not been linked as a singular summit route. Having attempted the now very broken northeast ridge in 1997, and having climbed most of the Wilkinson-Drummond route in 2019, I feel confident the Hennessey-Westman (5,700’, UIAA V with 50° ice and 80°+ rime ice) is the fastest and most straightforward way to the summit of Mt. Russell. There is a perfectly flat bivouac site on the south ridge at approximately 9,600 feet, albeit very exposed to the wind. While the technical difficulties are modest, this route is sustained, serious, and committing.

Alaska Range Top Five

We asked Mark Westman, one of the most experienced modern climbers in Alaska, to name his five most memorable or personally important Alaska Range climbs. In chronological order, they are:

Mark Westman on the Infinite Spur of Sultana (Mt. Foraker) in 2001. Photo by Joe Puryear.

  • South Buttress (1954 Route), Denali, with the late Joe Puryear, April-May 1996. Significant for being my first time to reach the top of Denali, but also for being a month-long true wilderness adventure in total isolation on the mountain. It cemented my partnership with Joe for much bigger things that lay ahead.

  • Infinite Spur, Mt. Foraker, with Joe Puryear, June 2001. One of the most committing routes I ever did, and also the finest achievement I had with Joe after a decade-long climbing partnership that began when we were neophytes.

  • South Ridge of Mt. Hunter, with Forrest Murphy, June 2003. [It] had every sort of challenge one could expect in Alaska Range alpine climbing: difficult mixed and ice climbing, a serious icefall, a traverse of a high and massive mountain, extreme commitment, and, most of all, one of Alaska's most legendary corniced and knife-edged ridges (The Happy Cowboy), one of the most engaging mental exercises I have ever faced. 

  • The Warrior’s Way, Mt. Grosvenor, with Eamonn Walsh, April 2006. How often does one get to make the very first ascent of a big face (the direct east face) on the west side of the Ruth Gorge? This was the last of three new routes we did on the peak (which were also the second, third, and fourth overall ascents), and it takes a king line straight up the middle of the face. Best of all, although run-out in places, it is relatively safe, and although technical, it goes at an approachable grade and has been repeated twice. 

  • Denali Diamond, Denali, with Colin Haley, June 2007. This was a huge step up technically and stylistically for me, marking a multi-year transition from slower and heavier climbing to contemporary lighter and faster alpine-style techniques, with much credit to Colin for his youthful embrace of these methods. Managing this 8,000-foot-plus face in just 45 hours was a step well beyond what I would have imagined possible for myself many years earlier, and it was one of those rare climbs where literally everything goes as perfectly as you planned it back home in the living room.

A Place Among Giants

Lisa Roderick, Westman’s wife (and pilot Paul Roderick’s sister), was the base camp manager on the Kahiltna Glacier for more than two decades. (She attempted Russell with Westman and the late Joe Puryear in the late ’90s.) In early November, her memoir of nearly four years of cumulative time spent on the glacier, shepherding planes and climbers in and out of Denali base camp, will be published: A Place Among Giants: 22 Seasons at Denali Basecamp.

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

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The Line: Global Ambition

Read how a professor of mechanical engineering at Seattle University solved a geographic mystery in Uzbekistan and made the first known ascent of that nation’s highest peak. (This same peak was also No. 141 in the professor’s quest to summit the high point of every country in the world.) Plus: attempting Everest, climbing Kangchenjunga, completing the “Seven ’Stans,” and becoming a Snow Leopard—just a few recent accomplishments in the very busy life of Eric Gilbertson.

Nearing the summit of Alpomish. Photo: Eric Gilbertson.

The following is adapted from a report by Eric Gilbertson for AAJ 2024.

Alpomish:
The First Ascent

Until recently, it was widely accepted that a broad, rocky 4,643-meter mountain in the Gissar Range, on the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan border, was the highest peak in Uzbekistan. This was based on the 1981 Soviet topographic map, the most accurate and recent map of the area. (In recent times, some online sources have called this mountain Khazret Sultan, but this is incorrect.) While researching Peak 4,643, possibly first climbed by Soviets in the 1960s, I realized that a border peak about six kilometers to the south, known as Alpomish, was potentially taller than Peak 4,643. Andreas Frydensberg (Denmark) and I laid plans to carry a differential GPS unit and sight levels to both summits and determine which was higher.

Acclimatized from ascents of Pik Korzhenevsky (7,105m) and Pik Ismoil Somoni (Pik Communism, 7,495m) in Tajikistan, Andreas and I headed to the Uzbekistan border region, and on August 21 we started our approach from Sarytag village. We hiked southwest alongside the Dikondara River, cached a few days of food, and continued south over several glaciated 4,000-meter passes and many talus fields, around 23 kilometers in total. Our base camp was by an unnamed glacier below the steep east face of Alpomish.

The first known ascent of Alpomish, by the east face (5.8). The rock wall is about 400 meters high. Photo: Eric Gilbertson.

The four-spired peak loomed above camp with 400-meter granite faces on each spire. The southernmost spire looked to be the tallest, which I verified with sight levels.

On August 23, we hiked to the east face and scrambled up a big gully on scree until it was blocked by a huge chockstone. I led a rock face then traversed left delicately to reach the top of the chockstone. Above a waterfall in the gully, ice continued all the way up to the notch, and since we’d left our ice gear below, we climbed the rock wall and ridge crest to the left. Once on the gendarmed summit ridge, a final knife-edge brought us to the top.

Using the sight levels, I first verified that all the nearby spires of the peak were shorter—we were definitely on the highest point of Alpomish. I set up the differential GPS, but it had trouble acquiring satellites. So I pointed my sight levels toward Peak 4,643, and with each level measured 10min–20min angular declination looking down at the distant summit. Clearly it was lower. There were no anchors, cairns, or any sign of human passage anywhere on Alpomish, so it seemed very likely we had made the first ascent. Our measurements showed that Alpomish is 25 meters (+/-8 meters) higher than Peak 4,643, giving an elevation for Alpomish of around 4,668 meters.

Gilbertson and Frydensberg on the summit of Alpomish. Photo: Eric Gilbertson.

After rappelling and downclimbing, we staggered back into camp shortly before midnight. Our route was the Upper East Face (300m, 5.8).

To be absolutely certain about the relative elevations, I wanted to take measurements from the top of Peak 4,643, looking back to Alpomish, so the next day we retraced our route over the glaciated passes, picked up our food cache, and hiked to the base of Peak 4,643.

On August 25, we climbed the northeast ridge, with long stretches of 4th-class scrambling on a knife-edge and two pitches of 5.7. On the summit, I used sight levels to measure the angular inclination up to Alpomish. All six measurements showed that Alpomish is higher than Peak 4,643, making it the highest point in Uzbekistan.

Andreas Frydensberg on top of Noshaq, the 7,492-meter high point of Afghanistan, in July 2019, two years before the Taliban takeover of the country. Photo: Eric Gilbertson.

The Seven ’Stans

Breaking trail up massive Pobeda, the highest summit in Kyrgyzstan. Photo: Eric Gilbertson.

Eric Gilbertson and Andreas Frydensberg’s climb of Alpomish was part of a four-year effort to reach the highest point of all seven nations whose names end with “stan.” Most of these were very challenging mountaineering objectives.

In 2019, they climbed Noshaq (7,492m, Afghanistan). In 2021, they tagged the summits of Khan Tengri (7,010m, Kazakhstan) and Pobeda (7,439m, Kyrgyzstan). In 2022, it was K2 (8,611m, Pakistan), without supplementary oxygen. And in 2023 they climbed Ismoil Somoni (7,495m, Tajikistan), Ayrybaba (3,139m, Turkmenistan), and Alpomish (ca 4,668m, Uzbekistan). Gilbertson reported that Pobeda (via the Abalakov Route) was technically and physically the most difficult of the seven (technical climbing at high altitude with no fixed ropes, deep snow, serious objective and frostbite danger) and that Noshaq was logistically the toughest (landmines and kidnapping hazards).

EVEREST & KANGCHENJUNGA

As if climbing two 7,000-meter peaks in Asia last summer weren’t enough, Eric Gilbertson also made a strong attempt on Everest in May (reaching 8,500 meters without supplementary oxygen or personal Sherpa support). He then flew to Kangchenjunga and summited the world’s third-highest peak, thus ticking the high point of India on his list.

Gilbertson, along with his twin brother, Matthew, ultimately hope to reach the high point of every country in the world, a project that started in 2010. As of this month, Eric has climbed 143 of 196 the world’s high points. See the Country Highpoints website for his extensive trip reports.

Having climbed the five 7,000-meter peaks of the former Soviet Union, Gilbertson and Frydensberg applied to be named Snow Leopards, a great honor of Russian mountaineering. In November 2023, Gilbertson became the third American Snow Leopard (after William Garner and Randy Starrett in 1985) and Frydensberg the first Dane, but not without proving their case: The authorities argued that they had climbed the wrong summit of Pobeda. Gilbertson embarked on another geographic investigation and soon settled the matter. The results are documented in The True Summit Location of Peak Pobeda.

How Does He Do It?

How does a 38-year-old assistant professor have the free time and spare cash to complete so many international expeditions? Gilbertson explains:

”I'm a teaching professor at Seattle University. This means I get about three months off every summer for mountaineering, and also winter and spring breaks between quarters. Sometimes I can get permission to overload my teaching schedule in a few quarters and take another quarter off. This was important for a peak like Kangchenjunga, which needs to be climbed in spring.“ As graduate students, Gilbertson and his brother, Matthew, were invited to international engineering conferences, which they paired with climbs.

“I try to be as frugal as possible,” he said. “Most of the European country high points I climbed as part of long-distance bicycle tours, camping in the woods every night, so transportation and lodging were basically free. I generally don’t pay for guides unless required by law. I sign up for airline credit cards to get free flights.” Gilbertson and his partners also maximize their efficiency and success rate during expeditions by paying for custom, satellite-delivered weather forecasts from Denver meteorologist Chris Tomer.

For Everest, Gilbertson hired the relatively inexpensive Seven Summit Treks (SST) for logistics and base camp services, then he climbed on his own above BC and did not pay for oxygen service (the same way he climbed K2 in 2022). As he was shopping for a guiding service, he negotiated for a multi-summit and multi-climber discount.

As events turned out, SST required Gilbertson to hire a Sherpa and use oxygen for his rapid Kangchenjunga ascent after Everest. “It would cost another $11K…and I could just barely afford that if I zeroed out my bank account,” Gilbertson wrote in his trip report. “That would be cheaper than losing all the money I’d already invested and then paying more a future year to come back. So I reluctantly agreed.”

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line — July 2024

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

It’s prime season for climbing in the high peaks of the western United States, so we’re sharing six brand-new mountain routes from six states around the West.

AAC Members: Get a Sneak Preview of the AAJ right now! AAC members can now download a PDF of the complete 2024 AAJ. Log in at your member profile and click the Publications tab to download your sneak preview. Physical copies of the 2024 AAJ will start going into the mail next month.

Bluebell (Cascade Range, Washington)

The line of Bluebell (21 pitches, 5.13-) on the North Norwegian Buttress of Mt. Index. Photo by Nathan Hadley.

Nathan Hadley and friends spent more than 25 days establishing and free climbing Bluebell (2,000’, 5.13-), the first free route up the North Norwegian Buttress of Mt. Index. About one-third of the bolt-protected route’s 21pitches are overhanging. Hadley believes it’s one of the steepest long free climbs in North America (“Imagine two of Yosemite’s Leaning Towers, with sections of slab before, in between, and after.”) Hadley’s AAJ report describes the arduous effort to establish the climb and also offers a touching tribute to one of his partners on the route: Michal Rynkiewicz, who died in a rappelling accident soon after this climb was completed.

Aiguille Extra (Sierra Nevada, California)

James Holland following the second pitch (5.10+) of the new direct start to the East Buttress of Aiguille Extra. Photo by Cam Smith.

The East Buttress of Aiguille Extra, a 14,048-foot satellite of Mt. Whitney, was first climbed in 1978 with a bit of aid. Forty-five years later, James Holland and Cam Smith freed the 10-pitch route at 5.10+, adding a three-pitch direct start. In AAJ 2024, Smith writes, “James and I hope the free version of the East Buttress (1,230’, IV 5.10+) will encourage others to check out [Aiguille Extra], an unsung gem of the Eastern Sierra.”

Takin’ ’Er by the Tusks (Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho)

Benj Wollant finishes the crux sequence of pitch three (5.12a R) on Takin’ ’er by the Tusks. Photo by Greg Rickenbacker.

A rare new route up the beautiful Elephant’s Perch was completed in September by Greg Rickenbacker and Benj Wollant. Takin’ ’Er By the Tusks (625’, 5.12a R A3) combines challenging aid and stout free climbing on the southeast face of the granite formation. A bolting ban in Sawtooth National Forest ensured plenty of exciting climbing. Wollant, who grew up in the nearby town of Stanley, wrote in his AAJ report that establishing a route on the Elephant’s Perch was “a longtime dream come true.”

Spirit Animal (Rocky Mountains, Colorado)

The line of Spirit Animal on the 1,500-foot northeast face of Chiefs Head in Rocky Mountain National Park. Photo by Bill Duncan.

“Given that I’d never stepped foot into Glacier Gorge [in Rocky Mountain National Park], you might say my plan to rope-solo a new line up the 1,500’ northeast face of Chiefs Head (13,577’) was ambitious,” writes Nathan Brown in AAJ 2024. But that’s what he did. Brown, a prolific new-router who earned his ground-up chops in North Carolina before moving to Colorado, spent two summers establishing Spirit Animal (10 pitches, 5.11), all alone, on the remote and steep Chiefs Head wall. Brown finished work on the route last September, but had not yet redpointed the full route in a continuous ascent. Just this month, he made the trek into Glacier Gorge yet again and rope-soloed the route completely free, with a bivouac in the middle.

Directissima (Mt. Owen, Teton Range, Wyoming)

(A) The Grand Teton. (B) Mt. Owen. (1) The original North Ridge Route (1951). (2) Directissima (2023). Both routes continue up the long ridge to the summit of Mt. Owen. However, the FULL north ridge, continuing over Mt. Owen and up the north ridge of the Grand, may never have been linked. Photo by Acroterion | Wikimedia.

Tetons guide Michael Abbey had long imagined a more direct route up the north ridge of Mt. Owen, hewing closer to the ridgeline than the original North Ridge Route (Clayton-Emerson, 1951), which slants in from the left. It took a couple of attempts, but in 2023 he and Karen Kovaka completed Directissima (V 5.10) over two days in August. In his AAJ report, Abbey notes that another North Ridge Direct was climbed in 2001, but the key pitches of the new line were most likely unclimbed before last summer.

Ménage Trout (Beartooth Mountains, Montana)

Jackson Marvell climbing the sixth pitch of Ménage Trout, high above East Rosebud Creek in the Beartooth Mountains. Photo by Austin Schmitz.

Until 2023, the Bear’s Face had only one known full-length route: Ursus Horribilis, established in 1998 by Andrew McLean and the late Alex Lowe. Last summer, Chantel Astorga, Matt Cornell, and Jackson Marvell, along with photographer Austin Schmitz who was shooting images of The North Face team members, completed a line started by Cornell, Marvell, and Justin Willis three years earlier. Ménage Trout has 13 pitches and went at 5.10+ R A2+. Astorga wrote in her AAJ report that the team hopes to return to free the climb.

Bear’s Face also got its first winter ascent in 2023, when Adrien Costa, Charlie Faust, and Paul Shaughnessy completed Dancing Bears (310m, WI5 M6 R) on the left side of the face, on the last day of the year, after multiple attempts.

Explore These Peaks

Take a closer look at all six of the peaks and ranges highlighted here with this interactive map from onX and Mountain Project.

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

The Line is supported by:

Must-Read Ascents On Great Trango Tower From The American Alpine Journal

By: Sierra McGivney

A wonderful panorama looking southeast over Great Trango Tower from the summit of Trango II. (A) K7 (6,934m). (B) Yermanendu Kangri (7,163m). (C) Masherbrum (7,821m). (D) Mandu East (7,127m). (E) Mandu West (7,081m). (F) Urdukas (6,320m). (G) Seemingly unnamed. (H) Liligo Glacier. (I) Great Trango northeast (6,231m). (J) Great Trango Main (6,286m). (K) Great Trango southwest (ca 6,250m). (1) Great Trango normal route. (2) Top section of Krasnoyarsk Route. The lower left foreground is the summit of Trango Tower. PC: Jakob Schweighofer

"The impressive rock spires of Great Trango Tower and Trango (a.k.a. Nameless) Tower create one of the wonders of the Earth, capturing the imagination of everyone who travels on the Baltoro Glacier. Great Trango resembles a giant castle flanked by steep walls. On top of nearly a mile of sheer rock, four magnificent summit turrets comprise the East, West, Main (middle), and South summits," writes John Middendorf. 

Will it hold? Marek Raganowicz starts pitch 26, Bushido, Great Trango Tower. Photo by Marcin Tomaszewski.

Great Trango Tower is located in the Baltoro Glacier region of the Karakoram Range of Pakistan. The Karakoram is located mostly in northern Pakistan but also reaches into Tajikistan, China, Afghanistan, and India, creating a diverse ecosystem. Cutting-edge alpinists travel to the area to test their skills by climbing new routes on some of the biggest walls in the world. Great Trango Tower, which sits at 6,286 meters, offers challenging granite face-climbing and unforgettable rock features. The climbing history of the mountain runs deep, so we have compiled a list of must-read ascents on Great Trango Tower from the AAJ. 

Don't worry! We haven't forgotten Trango Tower (AKA Nameless Tower), the other famous monolith in the Trango Towers group. Our next dive into the AAJ archives will focus on the legendary ascents on Nameless Tower, so be on the lookout. Until then, dive into these epic stories from Great Trango Tower. 

1. The First Ascent of Great Trango Tower

Great Trango Tower. Climb Year: 1977. Publication Year: 1978. Author: Dennis Hennek.

Kim Schmitz on perfect granite at 18,000 feet on the Great Trango Tower. Photo by Galen A. Rowell.

This list wouldn't be complete without the first ascent of Great Trango Tower. After rerouted and canceled flights, Galen Rowell, John Roskelley, Kim Schmitz, Dennis Hennek, and Dr. Lou Buscaglia began their trek through the Shigar Valley up the Braldu River Valley, where they met up with the final member of their team, Dr. Jim Morrissey. Once they established basecamp on Trango Glacier, a four-day storm settled over them, causing debris to fall on their proposed climb.

Telephoto view of Gasherbrum IV and Hidden Peak over Baltoro Glacier from the summit of Great Trango Tower. Photo by Galen A. Rowell.

"The scene greeting us at the base of the gully brought us back to reality and the seriousness of the next 3,500 feet."

On the first day of climbing, Hennek, Rowell, Schmitz, and Roskelley witnessed an avalanche filling the gully they had just ascended, where they believed Buscaglia and Morrissey to be. But "luck stayed with us"— the two had scrambled to the side of the gully to check out a waterfall, the avalanche narrowly missing them. This was only the first day, and it wouldn't be the only hurdle in their journey. Yet the rewards were great. "The afternoon was warm and clear, with an unobstructed, unforgettable view in all directions. We all agreed that there could be no better view of the Baltoro Karakoram." Read about the first ascent while looking at black and white photos from their expedition here. 

2. Suffer Well: Thirst and Hunger On The Azeem Ridge

Great Trango, Pakistan. Publication Year: 2005. Author: Kelly Cordes.

The cover of AAJ 2005: Josh Wharton traversing (5.10+ A1) into the headwall on day 3, about 1,500m up the Azeem Ridge, Great Trango, Pakistan. Photo by Kelly Cordes.

This article stands out in the AAJ archives because of what a saga this ascent turned out to be. Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes climbed Great Trango’s southwest ridge, which they called the Azeem Ridge (7,400' vertical, 5.11R/X A2 M6), in what they deemed "delusional optimism," "disaster style," and "safety fifth!" climbing. Cordes and Wharton climbed 54 pitches, facing many challenges. On the second pitch, one side of their jury-rigged double-gear slings came undone, causing about a quarter of their cams to fall. Then, halfway up the wall, the two ran out of fuel, leaving them with only one option, sucking on snow in place of drinking water. Cordes wrote: "When we reached the bivouac where our last fuel sputtered out, we never spoke of retreat." On the fourth morning, Wharton's headlamp slingshotted out of his hands and was lost to the tower. Soon after, Cordes’ belay device suffered the same fate. At this point, their only option was up and over. Continue reading about how Cordes and Wharton kept heading up, even against all odds. 

3. Climbers vs. Technology

Great Trango Tower's Northwest Face. Publication Year: 2000. Author: Jared Ogden. 

Alex Lowe and Mark Synnott with computers at Camp I. Photo by Jared Ogden.

This article was written at the turn of the century when technology and climbing began to clash. Jared Ogden, Mark Synnott, and Alex Lowe faced moral dilemmas about filming and hosting a live internet site during the expedition for their sponsor, Quokka Sports Inc. Quokka.com was one of the only virtual adventure sports websites near the dawn of the internet, until they went bankrupt in the spring of 2001. Ogden, Synnott, and Lowe brought "all assortments of cyberspace technology," including computers and video cameras, and fixed more than 3,000 feet of rope. Foreshadowing today's day and age of viral climbing videos on TikTok and Instagram, this article launched a discussion of technology and its place in climbing. But once on the wall, the team's technology worries disappeared, and they became engrossed in the ethereal alpine world of the Karakoram.

Alex Lowe Cleaning Pitch 30. Photo by Jared Ogden.

The team faced challenges with group dynamics, fever, and "storm-ridden suffer-fests." Through hard-earned adventure, the team produced  Parallel Worlds (VII 5.11 A4, 6,000'). "Our…route combined all the elements of rock climbing: a long free climb up a 3,400-foot slab to a vertical and overhanging headwall that stretches over 2,000 feet, finishing on a knife-edge ridge for 1,000 feet to the West Summit," wrote Ogden. Read about this harrowing adventure and Ogden's tribute to Alex Lowe, who died in an avalanche just a few months after this climb.

Want to read more discourse about technology and its place in the mountains? Read Steve House's hot take on "business climbing" and media regarding the ascent of Parallel Worlds here. 

4. The Russian Way

Author: Yuri Koshelenko, Russia. Publication Year: 2000.

Parallel worlds: the American (left) and Russian teams hard at work on the headwall pitches on Great Trango's northwest face. Photo by Yuri Koshelenko.

While Jared Ogden, Mark Synnott, and Alex Lowe were putting up Parallel Worlds, Yuri Koshelenko, Alexander Odintsov, Ivan Samoilenko, and Igor Potankina climbed a line to the right of them—parallel up the Northwest Face of Great Trango Tower. The two groups worked hard next to each other for a time, developing genuine mutual assistance, "I was unexpectedly seized by the warm hospitality of the American team. I took huge gulps of piping hot tea from Alex's cup while thinking about the condition of the wet rock," writes Koshelenko. On July 24, after ascending shared fixed ropes, the two groups split apart, and so began the Russian team's arduous journey up dangerous 5.10 to 5.11 free climbing and difficult A3 and A4 sections. Two days later, while climbing a roof, Odintsov ripped off a huge block, tumbling down the face, caught by a well-placed cam but suffering hip and shoulder injuries. Odintsov's fall was just the beginning of their intense battle up the wall. The group faced unstable weather, including snowstorms, multiple uncomfortably close lightning strikes, a dropped haul bag, and dwindling food supplies. Read the epic tale of the ascent of The Russian Way (VII 5.11 A4, 2675m), written beautifully by Yuri Koshelenko, here. 

"The mountains always accept the tribute, though sometimes the price may seem excessive. But humanity cannot exist without extremes—such is the law of evolution." 

5. Epic Attempts on the Trango Towers

Great Trango Tower and Trango Nameless Tower, Attempts. Publication Year: 2001. Author: Timmy O'Neill 

Miles Smart on the last headwall on Great Trango Tower during the second attempt to climb the southwest ridge. Photo by Timmy O'Neill.

Funded by the American Alpine Club's Lyman Spitzer Climbing Grant, now the Cutting Edge Grant, this trip report chronicles two attempts of the southwest ridge of Great Trango, now the Azeem Ridge, by Timmy O'Neill and Miles Smart. O'Neill and Smart spent almost 50 days on the Trango Glacier waiting out bad weather. During one of their three brief weather windows, they attempted the southwest ridge of Great Trango, an effort "ended with a forced bivy at 18,000" after climbing for 12 hours through 4,000 feet of 4th class to 5.10. They tried again to no avail, despite climbing to within 300 meters of the summit, and moved on to a potential ascent of Eternal Flame on Nameless Tower. Their first attempt on Eternal Flame, "a one-day, single-push climb," ended with a difficult decision to descend six pitches from the summit. Three days later, they "blasted" from the col, ready to summit Eternal Flame. After eight hours of climbing, "the hand of Allah came to catch me and then subsequently thwack me into the wall," writes O'Neill. O'Neill had fallen 100 feet after he short-fixed his rope. Read about the epic attempts on the Trango Towers here. 

6. Triumph and Tragedy on Great Trango Tower

The Norwegian Buttress, 1984. 

Robert Caspersen, pitch 34. Photo by Per Ludvig Skjerven.

In 1984, a Norwegian team of four, Hans Christian Doseth, Finn Daehli, Stein P. Aasheim, and Dag Kolsrud, attempted the first ascent of the East Face of Great Trango. Due to a lack of food and slow progress up the wall, the team decided to split. Aasheim and Kolsrud rappelled off safely, reaching the Dunge Glacier, while Daehli and Doseth continued on. From the ground, Aasheim and Kolsrud watched via telephoto lenses as their friends reached the summit. Tragically, Daehli and Doseth fell to their deaths during the descent. Their bodies were later spotted at the foot of the climb, but soon after, an avalanche buried them. Their magnificent line was named the Norwegian Buttress. "The triumph had turned into a total tragedy." Read more about the Norwegian Buttress in an article in the 2000 AAJ, which also describes another new route on Great Trango, the Norwegian Trango Pulpit Direct (VII A4 5.11, ca. 2200m).

7. The Grand Voyage

Great Trango Tower, East Face, Swiss-American Expedition, Second Ascent To The East Summit. Publication Year: 1993. Author: John Middendorf. 

Xaver Bongard on Great Trango Tower. Photo by John Middendorf.

We picked this article because of the challenging climbing featured in it and because it was written by the one and only John Middendorf. The recent passing of John Middendorf deeply saddens us, and we invite you to read our tribute to him here.

The Grand Voyage (the Bongard-Middendorf route). This photo doesn’t show the 1984 Norwegian route, which climbed the same buttress, making the first ascent of Great Trango’s East Summit. Grand Voyage started far to the left of the Norwegian route, joined it for three pitches above the big midway ledge, and finished to the right of the Norwegian route. Photo by John Middendorf.

The Swiss-American Expedition, comprised of Swiss Xaver Bongard, Ueli Bühler, François Studiman, American photographer Ace Kvale, and John Middendorf, sought to establish a new line on the east face of Great Trango Tower: The Grand Voyage (Grade VII, 5.10, A4+), which started to the left of the original Norwegian Route and finished to the right. Bongard and Middendorf climbed capsule-style, moving their high camp upward and creating "safe havens" on the wall; they established five camps on the wall, four hanging and one at the snow ledge halfway up. This style of climbing resulted in almost a month on the wall. Ice, snow, and rock fall were high objective hazards for the group. In turn, this created belay stations that were "in suicidal positions." The group climbed the last five pitches below the snow ledge through vertical ice climbing, "rotten aid," and free climbing up a "dangerous steep corner system"—dubbed "Gollum's Gully"—at night due to high objective hazards. "Occasionally, huge sections would exfoliate off the wall and pound down around us." Continue reading about the legendary The Grand Voyage (Grade VII, 5.10, A4+) here. 

8. Pitch by Pitch, Move by Move: The Other Side of The Grand Voyage 

Great Trango Tower. Publication Year: 1995. Author: Xaver Bongard, Club Alpin Suisse.

John Middendorf and Xaver Bongard on Great Trango Tower. Photo by Ace Kvale.

If you're like us, you can't get enough of the epic story surrounding The Grand Voyage (Grade VII, 5.10, A4+). In 1995, the AAJ published Xaver Bongard's extensive trip report about the expedition, complementing Middendorf’s shorter report. If you love the nitty-gritty details and play-by-play of expeditions, this story is for you. "Pitch 23 was now behind us. To belay, I jammed into a narrow chimney. John, who was larger than I, had no chance of fitting in and continued up the outside. Hauling the sacks, I got up to his level and squeezed back into the crack, first removing my helmet, which was too big to fit in. John continued to climb on the exterior. I was resting from my efforts when I saw him fall and swing in an impressive pendulum." Read about The Grand Voyage from Bongard's perspective here. Tragically, Xaver Bongard was killed in April 1994 in a BASE-jumping accident. This story appeared in the 1995 AAJ as a tribute to him and to provide more information about the landmark Great Trango climb.

9. Stay Tuned: The First Ski Descent of Great Trango

The most recent news surrounding Great Trango Tower involves the first ski descent. On May 9, 2024, Chantel Astorga, Christina Lustenberger, and Jim Morrison skied down the west side of Great Trango Tower. The 2024 AAJ is already off to the printers, and we are eager to get the book into members' hands, so look out for the story in the 2025 AAJ!

Want to learn more about the history of Great Trango Tower and Trango Tower? Read John Middendorf's The Trango Towers in Review article from the 2000 AAJ. Stay on the lookout for our upcoming deep dive into the archives around Nameless Tower and more! 

Want to catch up your reading before the 2024 AAJ comes out?

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Protect: First Ascents, Ground Falls, and the AAC Rescue Benefit in Action

In this episode, we sit down with Jarod, a long-time AAC member, to discuss a crazy accident he had at his home crag in Missouri, and how he utilized the AAC’s rescue benefit to cover the cost of his medical expenses. If you’ve been wondering if the AAC’s rescue benefit is for you, Jarod’s story helps explain how it works. We dive into the quirky concept of “girdle traverses” or mulitpitches that go sideways, and analyze his accident— the decisions he made, how traversing complicates gear placements, and the close calls he had. Funnily enough, Jarod also did a FA on that same wall—putting up Missouri’s potentially longest rock climb with Jeremy Collins, and this FA made it into the American Alpine Journal! We discuss the vision behind this 8-pitch traverse, what went into making it happen, the silliness of climbing, the unique belay tactics for traversing, and more!

The Line — June 2024

FAMILY TIES

With Father’s Day just past, we’re sharing a few stories of multi-generational climbing families that are featured in the upcoming 2024 AAJ (plus one from the archives).

The Uriostes of Red Rock

Joanne and Jorge Urioste are legends of Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, having established many classic routes (Crimson Chrysalis, Epinephrine, Dream of Wild Turkeys, Levitation 29, and on and on). Their son Danny is also a climber, and in recent years he too has been putting up big new routes in the sandstone canyons west of Las Vegas, often in the company of prolific new-router and AAJ contributor Sam Boyce. In December 2023, the two teamed up with Kyle Willis for a new route on the Aeolian Wall: Salami Wand Kenobi (14 pitches, V 5.11- R C2).

Coincidentally, the new route incorporated three pitches of Woman of Mountain Dreams. That route, Urioste explains in his AAJ 2024 report, “was first climbed in 1997 by my parents, along with Dave Krulesky and Mike Morea, and then freed by my mother and Aitor Uson in 1998.”

Danny Urioste and Sam Boyce climbed another route on Aeolian Wall, a long direct start to the classic Resolution Arête, in November 2022. You can read about that climb, the Evolution Arête, on Mountain Project.

Watch the AAC Legacy Series interview with Joanne and Jorge Urioste!

The Millers of Juneau

Mt. Swineford (6,841’) from the northwest. The first ascent was by the west face, partially hidden in clouds. Photo by Dylan Miller.

Dylan Miller has been a frequent AAJ contributor in recent years, with many new routes and winter ascents in the mountains around Juneau, Alaska. He has three reports in the upcoming AAJ, including the story of the first known ascent of Mt. Swineford a few years back, which Dylan completed with his dad, Mike, along with Makaila Olson and Ben Still. Dylan says he owes his love of the mountains to his father: “He has definitely been a big inspiration in my life. He took me on my first adventures, and he has done so many first ascents in the area.”

In AAJ 2019, Dylan described a classic Alaska adventure with his dad: the first ascent of Endicott Tower, about 50 miles northwest of the capital city. “From Juneau we flew to Gustavus, jumped on a Glacier Bay tourist catamaran, cruised up the east arm of Glacier Bay, and got dropped off in a sandy cove at the base of Mt. Wright, near Adams Inlet,” Miller wrote. “We inflated our rafts and waited for the incoming tide to suck us into the 14-mile Adams Inlet. We waded and crisscrossed the Goddess River delta, sometimes crossing swift, waist-deep rivers, and made camp for the night. We then hiked a full day…to Endicott Lake, the headwaters for the Endicott River. Here we stashed our water gear and tromped 2,000’ up through the Tongass rainforest to a pristine hanging alpine valley, where we made our base camp.”

Mike Miller during yet another Southeast Alaska adventure: the first ascent of Snow Tower. See AAJ 2016. Photo by William Wacker.

A few days later, from a higher camp, the two climbed snow, mixed terrain, and rotten rock to complete the first ascent of the 5,805-foot peak. “From the top we looked southeast to Juneau and pointed out our home, which put into perspective how far out there we really were,” Dylan wrote. After a rest at base camp, during which a friend flew in to pick up their mountain gear, they packrafted down the Endicott River, bushwhacked past a deep gorge (climbing another peak along the way), and returned to the river to float out to the sea.

Huayna Illampu (5,940m) from the south, showing (1) the approximate line of the 1973 Mesili-Sanchez Route and (2) Via dei Nembresi (700m, ED AI4 M5). The climbers in 2023 continued up Illampu (6,368m), which is hidden behind Huayna Illampu. Photo by Daniele Assolari.

The Nembrinis of Nembro

“In 1973, an expedition led by Carlo Nembrini climbed Illampu (6,368m) in Bolivia and then moved to Illimani,” begins a report in AAJ 2024. “After climbing that peak, they joined a search for the bodies of Pierre Dedieu (France) and Ernesto “Coco” Sanchez (Bolivia), who had been killed on the mountain. Sanchez had been considered the best alpinist in Bolivia at the time…. The Italians located the body of Sanchez, but tragically, during the evacuation, Nembrini fell to his death.”

A book written about Carlo Nembrini, a leading Italian alpinist of his era, after his death. The book can be seen at the AAC Library but is not available for check-out.

In 2022, Rosa Morotti, a niece of Nembrini’s, wrote to the guide Daniele Assolari, an Italian who lives and works in Bolivia, “about her dream of opening a new route on Illampu, 50 years after the death of her uncle.” Assolari put together a trip with Morotti and Maria Teresa Llampa Vasquez (the first female IFMGA aspirant guide from Bolivia), and in late June of 2023, the trio climbed a new line up the south side of Huayna Illampu, a 5,940-meter peak on the southwest ridge of the main summit, then continued up the higher peak. “Rosa dedicated the route to…all the people of Nembro (immediately northeast of Bergamo), where her father and Carlo were born: Via dei Nembresi (700m, ED AI4 M5).”

Three George Lowes on the Grand

George Lowe III in Tanzania in 2015. Wikipedia Photo.

The 1981 AAJ carried one of the shortest stories in the journal’s history, a one-sentence report on a notable event in the Tetons. Here is the report, in its entirety: “In July three George Lowes, grandfather, father and son, all climbed the Exum route of the Grand Teton together, which may be some kind of a new record.”

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 publication? Contact Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

EDUCATE: The Climbing World's Best Books about Accidents and the Cutting Edge

This year’s editions of Accidents in North American Climbing and the American Alpine Journal are off to the printer! We had the editors of these world-renowned books, Dougald MacDonald and Pete Takeda, on the podcast to discuss all the details of what goes into making these books: including how stories get selected, the challenges of investigating how accidents happen, how these books fit into the larger climbing media landscape, and the long history of these books. Our editors also chat about what it’s like to edit over 100 stories about climbers hurting themselves and then still go climbing. We cover how these books have been translated and utilized across the globe, as well as trends in accidents this year. If you’re looking for more details about how the AAC produces such robust reporting on cutting edge climbing and accident analysis each year, you’ll have to hear from the editors themselves!

United We Climb? Or United We VIBE?—The June T-Shirt Is Here

Pack your boombox and rigid-stem cams, it's time to vibe out. This June, we're offering this bodacious limited edition t-shirt when you join the Club, renew your membership, donate $30 or more. If you’re obsessed with the climbing vibe, this 80’s inspired t-shirt is for you!

Use promo code VIBE24 during the month of June only.

The Line — May 2024

Most American Alpine Journal (AAJ) stories cover climbs from the prior year. But in some parts of the world, where January and February are prime for climbing—Patagonia, Antarctica, parts of Africa—we do our best to report the latest ascents. With that in mind, here are a few stories about recent climbs that will appear in the 2024 AAJ—plus one ski descent—from four different continents.

Fanny Schmutz follows the wild ice chimney just below the headwall on Cerro Torre’s Southeast Ridge. Photo by Lise Billon.

HISTORIC WOMEN’S CLIMB ON CERRO TORRE

On February 23, 2024, Lise Billon, Fanny Schmutz, and Maud Vanpoulle launched an attempt on the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre in southern Patagonia. This historic route avoids most of the bolts on the headwall placed by Cesare Maestri in 1970, and was completed in 2012 by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk, who then removed more than 100 of Maestri’s bolts. The Southeast Ridge was freed, with variations, the same year by David Lama and Peter Ortner. The 800-meter route goes at around 7a+ C2 WI5 (or free at 7c). All three women had spent many seasons in the massif, and this year they traveled to El Chaltén with no other goal besides the Southeast Ridge. After a month of waiting, a good window arrived.

Despite difficult, snowy conditions on the start of the climb, the three women topped out on Cerro Torre after three days, completing the 13th ascent of the route since the Maestri bolts were removed. (Americans Tyler Allen and Scott Bennett summited via the same route on the same day.) The French trio’s climb of the Southeast Ridge was the first by women and is highlighted in the 2024 AAJ as part of our initiative to elevate coverage of cutting-edge ascents by female teams. (See “State of the Art: Expanding the Coverage of Women’s Climbing in the AAJ” in the 2020 edition.) Lise Billon wrote the story of the 2024 climb, and you can read it at the AAJ website now.

Adam Fabrikant descending Third Ledge on the north face of the Grand Teton in March 2024. Photo by Sam Hennessey.

WILD TETON DESCENTS

Sometimes great stories take time—we started work over two years ago on a history of ski alpinism in the Tetons with ski writer and producer Jason Albert. For AAJ 2024, Albert paired with IFMGA guide and big-mountain skier Adam Fabrikant to complete our “Recon” feature on the Tetons, but not without some last-minute additions. One of these was Fabrikant’s second ski descent of the north face of the Grand Teton with Sam Hennessey; the two descended the face in March 2024, about a month before the AAJ headed to the printer. This roughly 2,500-foot face was first skied in 2013 by local guides Greg Collins and Brendan O’Neill. Although many rappels were required to negotiate the complex line, Hennessey said the ski route was far from contrived: “Honestly, the north face has some amazing skiing in an outrageous position. We thought it was an excellent day of skiing.”

The north face descent made it into the upcoming AAJ, but then, in April, Fabrikant, O’Neill, and Michael Gardner teamed up for a massive link-up that instantly put our story out of date: Their “Enduro Traverse” linked the full southern Tetons skyline on skis, from Buck Mountain to Teewinot. As Fabrikant presciently wrote about the Tetons at the end of the “Recon”: “‘Skied out’ isn’t part of the vocabulary here.” Stay tuned for his AAJ report on the Enduro Traverse.

By the way, if you’re a fan of ski alpinism, be sure to check out The High Route, an excellent website and podcast on backcountry skiing produced by Jason Albert, co-author of the “Recon” in AAJ 2024.

Above: Nathan Cahill working on the route Dez Mangas at Serra da Leba, Angola, later led free at 5.11c. Photo by Diogo Rebelo. Right: a sandstone headwall floating above the mist at Fenda da Tundavala. Photo by Nathan Cahill.

THE SANDSTONE OF SOUTHWEST AFRICA

American climber Nathan Cahill has spent recent years helping to develop the climbing of Angola, a nation in southwestern Africa that has spectacular granite, conglomerate, and sandstone cliffs. In February 2024, Cahill traveled to the Huíla Plateau, site of Angola’s second-largest city, Lubango, to explore sandstone walls that rim the plateau. A highlight, described in Cahill’s report for the upcoming AAJ, was Serra de Leba, a deep canyon west of Lubango, where he put up a few short routes and a six-pitch 5.10c. Many unclimbed routes await. In a few months, Serra de Leba will be the site of the first Angola Climbing Festival (August 16–25), hosted by Climb Angola.

FIRST FREE ASCENT OF PICAFLOR IN COCHAMÓ

Hayden Jamieson pulling the crux on “The Strenuous V4” pitch (5.13+). Photo by Ian Dzilenski.

Who doesn’t love a good story of perseverance? A last-minute addition to this year’s AAJ tells a great one. American climber Hayden Jamieson spent two seasons in the Cochamó Valley of Chile on a quest to free Picaflor, a 24-pitch route up Cerro Capicua, first climbed in 2017 at 5.10+ A1. In January 2022, Jamieson and friends freed all but a single crux of the 1,050-meter route: a desperate slab sequence on pitch 20. “I had invested around ten days of work into pitch 20 and deemed it possible, but just barely,” Jamieson wrote in his AAJ story. “I knew that I’d need to improve my climbing level if I wanted to stand a chance at freeing Picaflor, so for the next two years I trained with that specific intention.”

Jamieson returned in January of this year with Jacob Cook and Will Sharp, and for five weeks the trio worked the route. At some point, Sharp spotted a potential variation to the crux slab traverse that had shut down Jamieson in 2022. “Despite being ‘easier,’ this pitch still clocked in at around 5.13+, and we gave it the tongue-in-cheek name ‘The Strenuous V4,’ ” Jamieson wrote.

On February 23, the trio began a seven-day push: Each climber led the route’s two 5.13+ cruxes, and they split the other leads evenly, with everyone freeing every pitch. Jamieson’s inspiring story for AAJ 2024 is available now at our website.

FIRST ASCENT (AND SKI DESCENT) IN ANTARCTICA

In January 2024, Antarctica guide Phil Wickens led a team of six aboard the yacht Icebird to make ski ascents and descents on the Antarctic Peninsula. On January 14, the team landed on the east coast of Liard Island and traversed to the unnamed glacier that flows northeast from Mt. Bridgman, the highest point of the island (around 1,410 meters). The following day, they made the first known ascent of Bridgman, via an improbable-looking line up its east face, and then enjoyed the 4,500-foot ski descent back to sea level. Wickens’ report is at the AAJ website.

Descending Mt. Bridgman on Liard Island, along the Antarctic Peninsula, after the first ascent. Photo by Phil Wickens.

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. Got a potential story for the AAJ? Email us: [email protected].

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Artist Spotlight: Marty Schnure & The Art of Maps

By Sierra McGivney

Photo courtesy of Marty Schnure.

In this profile of cartographer Marty Schnure, we uncover the philosophy that has influenced her creation of several beautiful maps for the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), the world-renowned AAC publication that reports the cutting-edge ascents and descents of each year. For Schnure, map-making is about blending geographical information while also evoking and displaying the relationship between that geography and whatever is important about that place to the map user—aka climbing routes, or the animal corridors of that area. Dive into this article to learn about the art of map-making, and how Schure thinks about the responsibility of a cartographer, the power of maps to express an idea, and more.

The Line — April 2024

The 2024 AAJ has just gone to press, which means we’re on schedule to deliver AAC publications at the end of this summer. (It takes months to print and ship the thousands of copies of this 368-page book.) In the meantime, we plan to share stories from AAJ 2024 in “The Line” throughout this spring and summer.

Let’s start at the back.

The back cover of this year’s book features four photos from various stories that will appear inside AAJ 2024. Here’s a preview.

Daniel Joll on Adventure Tourism, a new 14-pitch line on the Airport Wall near Milford Sound. Photo by Llewellyn Murdoch.

NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND

Photo by Ben Dare

The photo above is from our yearly round-up of big-wall and alpine climbing in New Zealand. Our New Zealand report has been written for the past nine years by Ben Dare, one of that country’s top alpine climbers. In fact, one of Ben’s own climbs appears in this year’s summary: an 1,100-meter new route called Apparition on the east face of Flat Top Peak, climbed solo. Dare previously soloed the first winter-conditions ascent of this face, by a direct line called Soulfly, to the right of Apparition, reported in AAJ 2022.

Photo by Jasper Gibson

This year’s New Zealand report also covers the first ski descent of the big, steep east face of Malte Brun (3,199 meters), the sixth-highest peak in the country. Sam Smoothy has been on a quest to ski all 24 of New Zealand’s 3,000-meter peaks, and he ticked the east face of Malte Brun on October 20 with Will Rowntree and Jim Ryan. The 2024 AAJ includes a couple of spectacular photos from that day; here is Jasper Gibson’s photo of the three skiers looking back at Malte Brun after completing their line, which linked spines and chutes just to looker’s left of the big rock buttress above them.

Want more alpine news from New Zealand? Head to the AAJ website to read this year’s report.

Portaledge camp on the northeast face of Pico do Itabira in Brazil. Photo by Murilo Vargas / 100 Limite Filmes.

A SPECTACULAR SPIRE IN BRAZIL

The line of Ao Ao (9 pitches, 5.13c A12), established in June 2023. An earlier route to the right was climbed in 1999. Photo by Murilo Vargas / 100 Limite Filmes.

Pico do Itabira is a stunning granite tower about 1,000 feet high in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. It has a long climbing history—the first ascent, involving some crafty ironwork as well as traditional climbing techniques, was in 1947. In June 2023, British climber Gareth “Gaz” Leah teamed up with Neni Gabbardo from Brazil to establish a new nine-pitch line up the northeast face. Their route, Ao Ao, has a mix of bolts and traditional protection. The hardest pitch that was free climbed was 5.13a, and the eighth pitch is estimated to be at least 5.13c.  

Filmmaker Murilo Vargas (100 Limite Filmes) captured some spectacular photos of the spire and the climb. More of Vargas’ photos and a pitch-by-pitch description of the new route will be available soon at the AAJ website.

Ratmir Mukhametzyanov on day four of the first ascent of the southwest face of Pik Voennyh Topografov. Photo by Alexander Parfyonov.

AN ALPINE BIG WALL IN THE TIEN SHAN

Last summer, Russian climbers Ratmir Mukhametzyanov, Alexander Parfyonov, and Aleksei Sukharev climbed a huge wall on a 6,873-meter mountain near the Kyrgyzstan-China border, with the Soviet-style name of Pik Voennyh Topografov, the Peak of Military Topographers. The trio spent six days climbing the rock wall, and their round trip from base camp took ten days.

Not only was this an impressive ascent—it won the Russian Piolet d’Or for climbs in 2023—but it also yielded some remarkable photos, mostly by Parfyonov, who wrote our AAJ story, with help from Anna Piunova of Mountain.ru and Kat Tancock, an American translator. We used many of Parfyonov’s photos in the upcoming 2024 AAJ, and we’re happy to share a few additional photos or different crops here.

THERE’S MUCH MORE ONLINE…

Photo by Marc Hanselman

The fourth photo on the 2024 back cover is an image from the first ski descent of the north face of Mt. Breitenbach in Idaho, by Marc Hanselman and Jon Preuss. We highlighted this descent in the November Line, and you can read the full report at the AAJ website, so head to those pages for all the details.

Every AAJ report ever published gets posted online, and the web stories usually provide additional photos, topos, maps, and other bonus materials. Most of the new reports from the 2024 edition will be posted at publications.americanalpineclub.org by midsummer, even before most people receive their books.

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 — Kichatna Special

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).

Augustin Peak, North Buttress

On April 20, 2023, Nelson Neirinck, Kurt Ross, and Michael Telstad climbed a long route up the north buttress of Augustin Peak, a summit of about 8,600 feet above the Trident Glacier, on the east side of the Kichatnas. Backed by an AAC Mountaineering Fellowship Fund grant, the trio climbed and descended the 4,600-foot route in one long day—creating one of the longest routes in the Kichatna Mountains.

Kurt Ross and Michael Telstad navigate a mixed step low on the north buttress of Augustin Peak, as morning sunlight scrapes across the face. Photo by Nelson Neirinck.

Joseph Hobby takes a moment to enjoy the incredible view down to the Shelf Glacier and beyond after completing the first ascent of the Borealis Face on the Citadel. Photo by Zach Lovell.

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.

Silvia Loreggian cruising the opening of pitch three (5.12 A0) on Cemetery Spire, a “fantastic headwall with good rock quality,” writes climbing partner Stefano Ragazzo. Photo by Stefano Ragazzo.

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 — January 2024

In this month’s edition of The Line, we bring you two brand-new AAJ stories—plus a vintage report that’s had a fresh update.

Suraj Kushwaha leading the final corner on Fissure in Time. Photo: Nikhil Bhandari.

COOL CLIMBS IN NORTHERN INDIA

Rathan Thadi, near Manali, India. Photo: Suraj Kushwaha.

Supported by an AAC Live Your Dream Grant, Suraj Kushwaha from Vermont and Nikhil Bhandari from Hyderabad, India, explored a beautiful granite dome near Manali in northern India. Last spring, Kushwaha had attempted a route on the 4,600-meter formation, dubbed Rathan Thadi Dome, but melting snow soaked the rock and halted the effort. Armed with the lessons from that experience, he returned with Bhandari in October and climbed two beautiful rock routes: Rathan Thadi Direct (6 pitches, 5.11-) and Fissure in Time (6 pitches, 5.10 A2 M2). Kushwaha said the latter would go free at about 5.12-. The two also found some quality bouldering in the valley, the highlight of which was Tehelka (“Chaos,” V6).

In addition to winning an AAC grant, this expedition was the capstone project of Kushwaha’s participation in the Scarpa Athlete Mentorship Program (supported by Mountain Hardwear), which aims to help athletes from historically marginalized communities take their game to the next level. You can download Kushwaha’s complete report on the Rathan Thadi climbs at the AAJ website.

Working on Tehelka (V6). Photo: Kiran Kallur.

THE TRENCH CONNECTION

In early March 2023, Dylan Miller, Seth Classen, and Keagan Walker made a rare winter ascent of the Main Tower (6,910 feet) in the Mendenhall massif, via the standard route up the west ridge. A few weeks later, Dylan and Seth returned with Alex Burkhart and Cameron Jardell for an even more ambitious project: a new route up the south face.

Top: Seth Classen during the descent from the top of the Main Tower after making the first ascent of The Trench Connection. Bottom: The new line. The descent was to the left. Photos: Dylan Miller.

Starting in the afternoon of March 26, the quartet made the 10-mile, seven-hour approach on skis and reached the base of Main Tower at nightfall. Although the temperature soon plummeted, they had planned a nighttime ascent to minimize the solar effect on the deep snow they’d be climbing. Hours later they reached the top of Main Tower after completing The Trench Connection (1,600’, IV AI3 85°). They descended the normal route, using the anchors from their winter ascent three weeks earlier, and skied back toward town, reaching the cars by 10 a.m. on March 27 after a long, frosty night in the Alaskan wilderness. Read Dylan’s story at the AAJ website.

HISTORY: BAINTHA BRAKK II

Baintha Brakk II, the 6,960-meter neighbor of the famous Baintha Brakk (The Ogre) in the Karakoram, was first climbed in 1983 by a Korean team, by the northwest buttress. The AAJ report was scant and, it turns out, had some errors. These have now been corrected thanks to Kim Dong-soo from Korea, who also provided some historical photos from the climb. Two members of the 1983 expedition reached the summit: Lim Deok-yong and Yoo Han-gyu. During the final push above Camp 3, the two had to bivy in a snow cave at 6,800 meters without sleeping bags before carrying on to the top. Read the updated report here.

Climbing at 6,400 meters during the 1983 first ascent of Baintha Brakk II (a.k.a. Ogre II). Photo: Korean Ogre II Expedition.

Baintha Brakk II as seen from Baintha Brakk, showing the line up the northwest buttress attempted in 2015, very close to the 1983 first ascent of Baintha Brakk II by a Korean expedition. Photo: Kyle Dempster.

Many American climbers will remember Baintha Brakk II as the peak that Scott Adamson and Kyle Dempster from Utah attempted twice by the north face. Tragically, they disappeared during their second attempt, in 2016. One year earlier, Marcos Costa (Brazil) and Jesse Mease (USA) made a four-day, alpine-style attempt to repeat the Korean route on Baintha Brakk II, finding very difficult climbing before retreating at 6,700 meters. Although conditions undoubtedly were different three decades after the first ascent, the photos from 2015 are ample testimony to the difficulty of the ground the Korean team climbed in 1983.

Most reports older than 2010 in the AAJ online archive are not accompanied by any photos. If your climb was published in the AAJ before 2010, we invite you to submit photos to update our online stories and complete the historical record. Contact us at [email protected].

THE CUTTING EDGE PODCAST: WHITE SAPPHIRE

For the final episode of the Cutting Edge podcast’s 2023 season, we interviewed Christian Black, Vitaliy Musiyenko, and Hayden Wyatt about their new route on White Sapphire, a peak in northern India’s spectacular Kishtwar district. Supported by a Cutting Edge Grant from the AAC, the three climbers put up Brilliant Blue (850m, AI3 80°M7+), probably making the third ascent of the 6,040-meter peak. Two of the three climbers had never been to the Himalaya, and this interview captures their wide-eyed enthusiasm, as well as their ability to go with the flow—a critical element for success in the Greater Ranges. Listen here.

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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 — December 2023

Lots of rock: The gorgeous view from a beach campsite along Khor Ash-Sham. Photo: Marius Rølland | @unrealmarius 

THE NORWAY OF ARABIA

“From our campsite at the edge of the Khor Ash-Sham (Ash-Sham Fjord), on yet another deserted white-sand beach, we watched the sun sink low over the Strait of Hormuz. A single thought occupied our minds, and Aniek was the first to put it to words: ‘I don't want to leave tomorrow.’”

Alan Goldbetter, who wrote this passage for AAJ 2024, spent eight days last January with Aniek Lith and Marius Rølland exploring Khor Ash-Sham in the Musandam Peninsula of Oman: “kayaking with dolphins, wading shin-deep through bioluminescent algae, climbing multi-pitch routes on virgin limestone, and giggling the nights away under a shimmering, star-filled sky.” Their two new routes, each 5.10 and more than 1,000 feet long, were the first recorded roped climbs in the fjord. Read Goldbetter’s AAJ 2024 report to learn more.

Evening fun: After a day scrambling a ridge on Khor Ash-Sham fjord’s north side, the team prepares to bivy. Photo: Marius Rølland |@unrealmarius. 

CLIMBS IN CANADA’S ARJUNA SPIRES

Daniell Councell moving up easy ground near the start of the Quartz Arête, the first known route up Nakula Spire, whose summit towers high overhead. Photo: Andrew Councell.

Starting the upper buttress on Nakula Spire. Photo: Andrew Councell.

Heli-skiing guide Andrew Councell had ogled the rocky peaks around Bella Coola, British Columbia, for years while flying into the mountains to ski, but the few roads and desperately steep hillsides in the area severely limit summertime access. “Finally,” Councell writes in an AAJ 2024 report, “in a culmination of years of desire to climb these mountains, mixed with a fatalistic shrug toward my bank account, I planned an exploratory trip with my brother Daniel.” A 10-minute helicopter flight landed them at a luxurious base camp by the Arjuna Glacier.

The result was the probable first ascent of two formations in the Mt. Arjuna massif, along with a handful of shorter routes and a rare climb of Arjuna itself. The highlight was the Quartz Arête on the north side of Nakula Spire, a beautiful buttress with mostly moderate climbing and a crux of 5.9. “My hope,” Councell writes, “is that continued development of climbing in the Bella Coola backcountry will encourage fellow adventure seekers to discover this untapped arena.”

PUNCHING A ROUND TRIP TICKET

This month’s Cutting Edge podcast interview with Matt Cornell, Jackson Marvell, and Alan Rousseau, about their alpine-style new route up the north face of Jannu (Kumbhakarna) in Nepal, is understandably one of the show’s most popular episodes in years.

One thing we didn’t get to in the hour-long interview is the origin of the new route’s name, Round Trip Ticket, which has an interesting and telling backstory. In 2007, Valery Babanov and Sergey Kofanov climbed the west pillar of Jannu, a remarkable climb in its own right (also climbed alpine-style). A decade later, Kofanov wrote in an Alpinist magazine Mountain Profile about Jannu: “Perhaps someday, a pair will climb a direct route on the north face in alpine style, but they’ll need to accept the likelihood that they’re buying themselves a one-way ticket.” As you’ll hear in our interview, the three American climbers’ planned itinerary was round-trip all the way.

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 Heidi McDowell for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].

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New Route on White Sapphire

Cerro Kishtwar (center), White sapphire (right). Photo by Vitaliy Musiyenko.

A Story from the 2023 Cutting Edge Grant

By: Sierra McGivney

On October 6, 2023, Christian Black, Vitaliy Musiyenko, and Hayden Wyatt summited White Sapphire, a 6,040m peak in India's Kishtwar Himalaya. The new route was named Brilliant Blue (850m, AI3, M7+). To attempt this mountain, the team received $8,000 from the American Alpine Club's Cutting Edge Grant, made possible by Black Diamond. They climbed the route free and in alpine style. This is the third ascent of White Sapphire.

Pack mules descending the valley on our hike to basecamp. Photo by Vitaliy Musiyenko.

AAC: In 2022, you received the Live Your Dream Grant to attempt a line in British Columbia on Mt. Bute. How did you transition from a Live Your Dream–style expedition to a Cutting Edge–style expedition in just a year?

Christian Black: The funny thing was we just needed an idea. Expeditions are challenging to plan. It all came from our friend giving us the idea—something to dream about, on the other side of the world as opposed to in America or Canada.

AAC: White Sapphire has seen two first ascents previously, via the west face in 2012 and the south face in 2016; how did you choose this peak and, more specifically, the line?

CB: I've always struggled to plan what to do in an area I haven't been to. There's just too much information out there. The story is that I met a guy who had spent his whole life going on expeditions. He had a whole list of unclimbed things he never got around to. He was trying to find people to do them. And he approached me and said: You're a big-wall climber with alpine climbing experience. You should check out this peak. I've got photos of it, and it's pretty cool looking. So, the original intent was to climb the big-wall rock face on White Sapphire, knowing that we had to be flexible to the conditions. We ended up climbing more of an alpine route because we went later in the season, and it had snowed and gotten cold. But to answer your question, it was a gift from someone who has done a lot of cutting-edge expeditions and is out of the game now. He had said: I'm aged out and happy to pass on the torch of ideas if you're interested in going to the Himalayas. The Himalayas are such a large place; you'll never know what to do unless you go once, so you just need a reason to go.

Hayden starting a simul-block up midway up the steep snow and ice of the lower section of the route. Photo by Christian Black.

AAC: Who gave you the idea?

CB: It was Pete Takeda [the editor of Accidents in North American Climbing.] I'm like a bad historical knowledge climber, so I didn't know much about him until later. But, I mean, obviously, he's legendary.

AAC: What type of climbing did you encounter on White Sapphire?

CB: We first encountered 2,000 vertical feet of steep snow and ice with moderate mixed climbing toward the top, anywhere from 60 to 80 degrees snow, and AI3 climbing. Then, it was more like M4 and M5 climbing to the top of the snow part. The upper headwall that goes up the direct north face of White Sapphire Peak ended up being a little over 200 vertical meters of climbing and seven or eight pitches of fairly sustained, steep dry tooling. And so there were about two pitches of M7+, a few of M6 and M5, and some alpine ice and snow mixed in.

AAC: How was the quality of the ice and the rock?

CB: It was really good. The rock up there is not granite; it's a gneiss. I studied geology, so I noticed, but you can't tell from far away. It forms cracks differently. It climbed quite a bit differently, but the rock was very solid. Except for one pitch, all the rock was pretty good.

AAC: Can you walk me through from when you left advanced base camp on October 5 until you returned on October 7?

CB: Yeah, so I might back up a bit because we had two attempts on the peak, the first one thwarted by a broken stove when we were 100 meters from the summit. It adds to the lore of the story. The moral of the story is the fuel mix in India is a little different, so it didn't work well with our stove and caused it to overheat. We learned a hard lesson about not taking a backup stove. That was our first attempt, but I'll fast-forward to the successful second attempt.

Starting to rappel from the notch after first attempt. Photo by Vitaliy Musiyenko.

We came down on that first attempt and had a few days at base camp. The weather looked like it would be good again, so we packed our food and some stoves and hiked up there. We waited about six days of weather for a good window to appear at our high camp. We left around three or four in the morning on October 5 from our advanced base camp at 15,800 feet. Then, we had a two- or three-hour glacier approach to the base. After that, we started simul-climbing the lower, less steep section of steep ice and snow. We did about a 1,300-foot simul-climb pitch. Vitaliy led that, and then Hayden led the second half of the ice and mixed climbing to the notch that day. We camped there that evening in our little corner bivy.

The following day, October 6, we woke up and took our altitude med concoction that gave us superpowers. What we had initially climbed as four pitches of steep mixed climbing the first time—we aided a lot of that and left in some of the crucial pins—this time, I suggested we climb it free. We ended up free climbing all of that terrain and didn't aid climbing anything. We did it in two 50-meter pitches. And that got us to our high point. From there, we continued to the summit. There was no terrain harder than those first two pitches. The headwall pops out directly on the small summit. We ended up being on the summit around 7:45 p.m. It was dark by that time of year, so we spent about an hour up there, melted some water, took photos, and enjoyed our time. Then we rappelled in the dark back to our bivy. The next day, we had a slow morning and rappelled back down to our base camp. It was an uneventful third day, which was nice.

AAC: What do you think was your biggest emotional hurdle on the trip?

CB: Oh, man, there were a few of them. A big one for all three of us was definitely the stove breaking on our first attempt. At that point, we were only ten days into our 26-day expedition and were 100 meters from the top. We thought it would be unbelievable if we did this first try. That would leave us with two weeks to climb whatever else we wanted. Accepting the reality that it was unsafe to go up without water was hard for us. We had less than a liter of water to share between three people, which would have been our ration for the whole day. Especially knowing now what the upper terrain is like, I'm super glad we didn’t go that first time. The climbing was still hard and would have taken a long time. Being dehydrated up there is not a safe thing that any of us would be willing to do. So that was a hard truth to accept.

Excited to be at notch bivy before sunset! Photo by Christian Black.

Luckily, the saving grace is that Hayden, Vitaliy, and I are all close friends. Vitaliy and Hayden didn't know each other before the trip, but I'm close friends with both of them. We all have very similar approaches to safety-related decisions. We were all on the same page about flexing the bail muscle. Other than that, we each had our moments of need, which the other two were naturally able to step in and take care of, which was nice.

AAC: How did you end up picking your team?

CB: Hayden is one of my best friends. We worked on the Yosemite SAR team together for a few years. I met him there, and we climbed El Capitan several times together. We just got along energy-wise. Over the past couple of years, we've gotten to go on multiple, more extensive trips together. One of those trips was to Mt. Bute on the Live Your Dream grant. This summer, we went to the Cirque of the Unclimbables for a month. If you're going to be in gnarly places, you want to be with good people. I only climb with my friends in those scenarios—honestly, in most scenarios.

Vitaliy, I met through messaging online. When I worked in Kings Canyon as a park ranger, he had put up a bunch of routes in the Sierra that I kept seeing his name on and was interested in doing. I messaged him to gather information. We ended up linking up on a climb the following year. We had an epic time. We did The Nose in a day as our first climb, and he took a 100-foot whipper. It was really scary, but we both reacted in a way that felt right. It built a lot of trust between us. Even though we haven't always lived in the same place, we'd casually link up for outings. We know each other as solid partners who know their stuff and are easy to get along with.

Photo by Christian Black.

AAC: That's great it worked out so well. It sounds like you had a good team.

CB: Yeah, that was the best part, for sure. You can't compare any experience to doing this with your two best friends. It's just so fun!

AAC: Do you have any fun anecdotes or funny moments from the trip?

CB: The funniest moments were just like how horrible we felt at various times. That is how we each process hard experiences in the moment. You can't help but laugh at it. And that's why we like each other as climbing partners, because none of us take it seriously.

A funny moment for me was when we made it to the bivy notch on the first attempt. It was pretty late, and I had fallen asleep multiple times on the last two pitches. We got up there, and I was boiling the water. It was dark, I was in every puffy layer I owned, and I was ten times more tired than I'd ever been in my whole life at 19,000 feet. I'm holding the Jetboil upright, and my purpose in life has never been more apparent. I hold the Jetboil. If the Jetboil isn't held, the water spills, and we don't drink water. I had an internal moment of reflection, like, wow, life has never been simpler than it is right now. There are only so many times when your life boils down to doing an incredibly simple task. For 45 minutes, that was my whole life.

The first mixed pitch out of the notch bivy. I'm [Christian Black] contemplating how to navigate the unprotected slab to gain the cracks. Photo by Vitaliy Musiyenko.

AAC: Is there anything else you want to add about the trip?

CB: The only thing I have to add is I feel so appreciative of a good team and good friends to be out there with and make hard decisions with. That was our biggest takeaway. We had a two-part goal going into the trip: A) we obviously wanted to come back alive, and B) become better friends. We achieved those goals through the roof. We have a lot of trust in each other. It's a cool medium to experience friendship in.

*Christian Black is writing a feature article for the 2024 American Alpine Journal about this expedition.

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