Fresh new stories from the American Alpine Journal.
Above: The 19-pitch route called The Ritual of Hardship on Anafi in the Cyclades Islands. Photo by Kyriakos Rossidis. Below: Rossidis climbing the crux pitch (5.12b) of The Ritual of Hardship. Photo by Jenny Schauroth.
A BIG WALL ABOVE THE AEGEAN SEA
The stunning photo above shows the nearly 500-meter southeast face of Mt. Kalamos on the Greek island of Anafi. The route is The Ritual of Hardship, and it climbs 19 pitches straight out of the sea. Completed in May by an international crew, the route goes all free at 7b (5.12b) or at 6c+ (5.11c) with a smattering of easy aid; a full rack is required to supplement the bolts on the climb. Two earlier routes climbed the buttresses partially in view at far left, but this was the first ascent of the proud southeast face. The full report by Kyriakos Rossidis from Cyprus, along with a pitch-by-pitch route description, are available now at the AAJ website.
HIDDEN MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL ASIA
The western side of unclimbed Pik 5,253m. Photo by Paul Knott.
The Western Kokshaal-too mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan are among the most beautiful peaks of Central Asia, and it’s an open secret that some of the most enticing faces in this range are just over the border in China. (The incredible and often-attempted southeast face of 5,842-meter Kyzyl Asker, for one.) This summer, Paul Knott and Sam Spector took a peek over Kotur Pass at the unclimbed faces above the Rudnev Glacier basin, finding yet more ice-draped granite on alpine faces 600 to 700 meters high. See Knott’s enticing report and photos at the AAJ website.
JP Preuss carefully traversing into the Right Leg Couloir during the first ski descent of Mt. Breitenbach’s north face. Photo by Marc Hanselman
WILD SKI DESCENT IN IDAHO
Idaho guide Marc Hanselman, along with Paddy McIlvoy, put up the only new route on the north face of Mt. Breitenbach in the past two decades: Cowboy Poetry, climbed in 2019. That ascent and other exploration convinced Hanselman that a ski descent of the very steep face might be possible in just the right conditions. Late in April, the stars aligned and Hanselman and Jon “JP” Preuss managed the first descent of Breitenbach’s imposing face, a 2,500-vertical-foot line that took an hour and a half to piece together, with no rappels or belays. Read all about it at our website.
HARDEST FREE ROUTE IN THE HIGH SIERRA?
In September, Connor Herson and Fan Yang free climbed Hairline on the east face of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the Lower 48. Hairline is a very steep, 13-pitch route originally climbed in 1987. The 55-meter crux pitch went at 5.13+ (8b), at over 13,000 feet in elevation; two other hard pitches go at 5.12 and 5.13-. Hairline is now probably the most difficult free climb in the High Sierra. Connor and Fan, who had never climbed together before their climb on Mt. Whitney, talked about their impromptu long-weekend mission to free Hairline for the latest Cutting Edge podcast.
TOOLS FOR THE WILD VERTICAL
Wondering what to get the climbing history buff in your life for the holidays? John Middendorf’s Mechanical Advantage: Tools for the Wild Vertical is a passionately researched and heavily illustrated history of early gear for climbing and alpinism. One sample of Middendorf’s work appeared in AAJ 2022, for which he wrote the fascinating biography of Tito Piaz, the ground-breaking Italian climber of the early 20th century—just a smattering of the fascinating material he has uncovered. The two-volume Mechanical Advantate is available in several print and digital formats.
The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: aaj@americanalpineclub.org.