News — American Alpine Club

Dougald MacDonald

The Line — June 2023

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

Vitaliy Musiyenko following pitch six (5.11), one of the cruxes of Against the Grain on Charlotte Dome. Photo by Brian Prince.

THE BEST 5.11 IN THE HIGH SIERRA?

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

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

Against the Grain has about 1,800 feet of climbing on the southeast face of Charlotte Dome. The “Fifty Classics” South Face route ascends the corrugated face to the left. Photo by Vitaliy Musiyenko.

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

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

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

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

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

The south side of Cerro Iorana at sunset. Photo by Andrew Opila.

THE WILDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO

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

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

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

THE CUTTING EDGE IS BACK!

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

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

The Line — May 2023

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

Bivouac on the southwest face of Ingolfsfjeld during the ’75 expedition. Photo by Jim Davenport.

GREENLAND’S GIANT MYSTERY WALL

The huge southwest face of Ingolfsfjeld, with 63 pitches of climbing, after a snowstorm. Photo by Steve Chadwick.

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

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

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

Introduction to Keith Myhill’s pitch-by-pitch description of the route, which totaled 6,640 feet of climbing. A link to the full description is in Steve Chadwick’s article at our website.

MINI-EPIC(S)

Mark Allen starts the team’s ascent of Chimaphila (470m, IV AI4) on Black Spire in the North Cascades. Photo by Jesse Charles.

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

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

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

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

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

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DENALI’S EAST BUTTRESS:
A 60-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

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

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

The Line — March 2023

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

ARRIGETCH ADVENTURES

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

WILD ALASKA

Red line shows the ascent and main descent route on Mt. Alice. Yellow line is a variation taken by one skier. Photo by Sarah Hermann.

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

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

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

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

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

‘ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER…’

Tackle on a new route near the Tokositna Glacier in 2009. Photo by Jay Smith.

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

OVERHEARD

“Standing on the hard snow, contemplating the idea of beginning a new route at the late hour of 11:30 a.m., we were struck with ambivalence. Launching now would almost surely bring future misery; not launching now would just as surely inspire future regret. Up we went.”
— Eric Wehrly

The north face of Holliway Mountain, about ten miles north of Washington Pass.

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

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

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The Line — February 2023

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

EIGHT-PITCH CLIMB IN…MISSOURI

Jarod Sickler leads pitch six of The Osage Party Barge (550’, 5.11b). Photo by Matt Nation.

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

The original party barge, a tourist vessel on the Osage River, in 1909. The photo appears in the book "Damming the Osage," by Leland Payton and Crystal Payton.

UNCLIMBED: EAST KARAKORAM

The peaks labeled A, B and C rise above the South Shukpa Kunchang glacier. They range from about 6,260 meters to 6,600 meters, and all are likely unclimbed. Photo by Steve Kempley.

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

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

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

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

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

AT THE MOVIES: MOROCCAN ICE

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

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AAJ PRO TIP

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

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

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The Line — January 2023

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

HARD ROCK IN IDAHO

Above: Zach Cook leads the ninth pitch of Milwaukee’s Best. Top: The northeast face of Storm Dome in the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho. Photos by Michal Matyjasik.

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

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

SLOVAKS ON THE SLOVAK

Richard Nemec onsighting the crux rock band (M8) of the variation most often climbed on the Slovak Direct route of Denali’s south face. Photo by Michal Sabovčík.

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

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

Join the Club—United We Climb.

Get the AAJ Sent to You Annually

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

Rescue & Medical Expense Coverage

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

NEVER TOO LATE

The Tani-Yamada route on the northwest face of Kangchung Nup. Photo by Takeshi Tani.

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

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

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A HARD WAY DOWN DENALI

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

LAST CALL FOR AAJ REPORTS

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

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

The Line—Buried Treasure

AAJ 2022—AN INSIDER’S GUIDE

This edition of The Line features our annual look at hidden gems in the new AAJ that readers might have overlooked. (See also the “Buried Treasure” guides to AAJs 2020 and 2021.) As the editor-in-chief of the AAJ, these stories, photos, and quotes made me smile as we were preparing the 2022 book, and they still brighten my day whenever I see them. I hope you feel the same. — Dougald MacDonald, Editor

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

Skiing the French Spur on the south face of Gasherbrum II. Photo by Tiphaine Duperier.

Snow Reports

Michael Gardner astride the Infinite Spur in Denali National Park in 2019. Photo by Sam Hennessey.

During the last few years, the AAJ has significantly increased its coverage of ski mountaineering. Sam Hennessey’s story about first ski descents, first ascents with skis on their backs, and extended climb-and-ski traverses in Denali National Park was perhaps the most eye-opening feature story of the 2022 AAJ. Unless you closely read the Climbs & Expeditions section, however, you might miss the incredible reports from Tiphaine Duperier: The Frenchwoman and her regular skiing partner, Boris Langenstein, are two of the leading high-altitude skiers in the world. In this edition alone, Tiphaine described five first descents on high peaks in Pakistan, including one on Gasherbrum II. And they’ll be back with more reports in the 2023 book, too: They skied a wild new descent route on Denali last spring.

The Expander

Everyone loves a clever route name, and the backstory on “The Expander” is superb: The name describes a link-up of four classic routes in the High Tatras of Poland that just recently was done for the first time in winter. In his AAJ story, Kacper Tekieli explains that the Expander is named after an old-fashioned “chest expander” exercise device, a contraption with two handles separated by three or four springy bands. Polish climber Maciej Gryczyński, who put up all four of the routes in the link-up during the 1960s, was nicknamed Sprężyna (“Spring”) because of his curly hair. Each of his four routes is also called Sprężyna. Connect the four springs, and what do you get? The Expander!

Home Field Advantage

In recent years the AAJ has expanded coverage of important climbs in the Alps, recognizing that some of these first ascents are at least as long and difficult as those in the Greater Ranges, minus only the altitude. (For similar reasons, we’ve also expanded the New Zealand section.) We’re keen to highlight the ways that creative climbers are finding worthy challenges close to their homes, thus avoiding carbon-spewing plane flights. Plus, many of these climbs are just beautiful. To see what we mean, check out the photo gallery above, highlighting a few Alpine routes documented in the 2022 AAJ.

Mysterious Mountain

Top: Traversing from Pico Norte (ca 5,300m) to Pico La Cresta (5,200m) on day one of the Nevado del Huila traverse. Above: Indigenous guide Luis Silva Pete descends loose rock bathed in eerie volcanic smoke. Photos by Thomas Palmer.

Among the highlights of every AAJ are reports from little-known mountains all over the world. A standout in 2022 was British mountaineer Thomas Palmer’s story about the first known traverse of the four summits of Volcán Nevado del Huila, the highest volcano in Colombia. The glacier-covered massif’s frequent eruptions, extreme isolation, and Colombia’s ongoing conflicts make it a challenging destination, to say the least. In 2021, Palmer and an international team of climbers from France, Colombia, and a nearby Indigenous community made the traverse over two long days, encountering green volcanic smoke, the weird sound of dogs barking in the distance, and other mysteries. Read his story here.

Duly Noted

“Luck is a generous gift one cannot count on receiving, yet we rely on it every time we start up a big mountain.”
— Brette Harrington

This superb quote comes from Brette Harrington’s report about a new route on Mt. Niblock in the Canadian Rockies, climbed with Dylan Cunningham. She was leading a low-angle slab, which became coated in verglas as she moved up, making it impossible to retreat. “I was quite afraid: unable to find a single placement of gear, knowing that the anchor below was an array of questionable pins. I angled toward the eastern skyline, where I landed a lucky strike and slung a frozen chockstone as my first piece of protection”—the generous gift in Harrington’s apt quote.

A Mini-Epic in the Sierra

Approaching the previously unnamed summit dubbed Marie Maynard Daly Peak, after the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. Photo by Cameron Smith.

Cameron Smith and partners put up three routes on a previously unnamed formation in the High Sierra—despite an unfortunate moment on the second climb, when “one of my approach shoes emancipated itself from my harness while I led through a squeeze, never to be seen again.” Smith wrote in the AAJ that he had to make the several-mile trek back to camp with one climbing shoe taped to the front of his foot. Undeterred, he returned to the face the next day, now wearing a pair of dollar-store flip-flops he’d brought for camp; Smith made the approach and descent off the peak, and then hiked all the way out to Lone Pine in those flip-flops.

Perhaps inspired by the lifelong perseverance shown by Marie Maynard Daly, the late researcher (1921–2003) who was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, the climbers proposed naming this summit Marie Maynard Daly Peak.

Olympic gold medalist Janja Garnbret from Slovenia during the first 8c (5.14b) onsight by a woman: Fish Eye in Oliana, Spain. Photo by Roman Krajnik.

Milestones

“The climbs featured in the American Alpine Journal don’t occur in a vacuum—they reflect the broader evolution of climbing styles and performance around the world.” That’s the introduction to our annual Milestones section, which we added to the AAJ a few years ago, in an effort to truly reflect “the world’s most significant climbs.” The AAJ’s historical mission has been to document mountaineering and long rock climbs, and we could never print enough pages to add in-depth coverage of sport climbing, bouldering, and achievements on other short routes. Nevertheless, in our view, a cutting-edge sport climb or boulder problem is just as “significant” as a high-altitude first ascent, and over the long term, shorter climbs have profoundly shaped the ability and interests of alpine and big-wall climbers. With the Milestones section, the AAJ celebrates this fact.

This year in review and the AAJ’s Cutting Edge podcast are both presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker. Visit Hilleberg’s website to order “The Tent Handbook,” their uniquely informative catalog.

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

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The Line—November 2022

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

FRESHIES

The editors of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ) are hard at work on the 2023 edition, and many new reports already are available online. Here’s a sampling of completed reports for next year’s book, from Nepal to New Hampshire to Greenland.

On the south ridge of Dolma Kang, just before the first bivouac. Photo by Tomeu Rubí.

Dolma Kang, Nepal Spanish climbers Pep Roig and Tomeu Rubí capped a visit to the Rolwaling Valley, west of the Khumbu, with a partial new route—and first alpine-style ascent—on the spectacular southeast face of Dolma Kang (6,332m). The ascent of their 1,400-meter route took two days, with part of another day to complete a safe descent.

Jon Nicolodi attempting the crux M10 pitch of The Resistance in Huntington Ravine, Mt. Washington, in February 2022. He finished the route a month later. Photo by Adam Bidwell.

The Resistance, Mt. Washington, New Hampshire In March, after attempts during two prior seasons, Jon Nicolodi redpointed the hardest route on the highest peak in the northeastern United States, freeing an old aid line on Pinnacle Buttress in Mt. Washington’s Huntington Ravine. The route includes three hard mixed pitches, with the crux roof (M10) spanning three body lengths, split by a crack that widens to offwidth near the lip.

Descending Peak 1,270m above Poulsen Fjord, with Umiak Peak in the background. Photo by Graham Tourell.

Poulsen Fjord, Greenland During July and August, a six-member team led by alpine guide Tim Blakemore (U.K./France), climbed in various locations along East Greenland’s rugged coast, based on the yacht Umiak. The highlight was their stay in Poulsen Fjord, where members of the team climbed four routes, likely all first ascents, including Umiak Peak, which rises nearly a mile above sea level at the head of the fjord.

The deadline for submissions to the 2023 AAJ is coming up fast. For more information or to send a report about your new route or mountain exploration, email us or visit this page.

PHOTO GALLERY: DROP THE MIC

Exactly a year ago, Noah McKelvin, Scott Turpin, and Phil Wortmann completed Drop the Mic (V 5.11- M8 R), a 1,400-foot route above Ouray, Colorado, near the popular short climbs along Camp Bird Mine Road. Efforts to establish the 10-pitch climb date back to 2018, with nine days of work in all. The result just might be the longest and most sustained mixed climb of this difficulty in the Lower 48. In his AAJ report, Turpin wrote, “We chose the difficult line at each turn, challenging ourselves to connect features the way we had envisioned from the ground. We bolted where necessary, placed lots of dubious gear, and punched it when there was no other option.” Special thanks to Jason Nelson (Visual Adventures) for sharing the great drone shot above; all other photos in this slide show are by the team.

Mini-Epic: The Bull River Prowler

Earl Lunceford climbed two long new routes up the north face of A Peak in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains last spring, the first of them solo. Alone on the summit without a rope, as he writes in his AAJ report, “I struggled to locate a safe path down…and opted to post-hole nine miles out to Highway 56, opposite from where I drove in. I emerged from the drainage of the North Fork of the Bull River at midnight and knocked on some doors to see if I could borrow a phone. A startled homeowner reported me to the police as a “prowler.” Soon afterward, a sheriff’s deputy responded and gave me a pleasant ride to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in Libby, where my girlfriend graciously picked me up at 4 a.m.” The new route is called The Bull River Prowler (2,200’, AI4 M4).

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Forgotten Mountaineer: Author’s Note

The 2022 American Alpine Journal published a short historical article about Dr. Cora Johnstone Best, an American mountaineer who was active in the Canadian Rockies and other ranges during the 1920s and gave popular lectures about her climbs and travels. In October, about six months after the 2022 AAJ went to press, the author of this article, Cheryl Jacklin-Piraino, discovered troubling quotes attributed to Best in newspaper accounts of her lectures.

Jacklin-Piraino explains below:

During her lectures, Dr. Best apparently made various statements supporting eugenics, a movement that began in the 19th century and aimed to “improve” the human race through selective breeding, and she spoke of the "survival of the white race." She also made derogatory statements about people with impairments. I regret these significant remarks were not known to me before my article went to press, since they are integral to a full understanding of Best's character. Her racist and ableist statements, which appear to have waned later in her career, stand in contradiction to her position on the council of the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies, a group with an explicit anti-racist bylaw. Her apparently contradictory nature is also evident in her support of Jewish youth and Japanese alpinists at a time when both ethnicities faced discrimination, and in her support of Russian Dukhobor immigrants who were the target of assimilation efforts by the Canadian government. It is my hope that future research by myself and others will reveal the full implications of Dr. Best’s feminist and social activism juxtaposed against her racist views, and how her rhetoric may have impacted those inside and outside the climbing community. 

Colin Haley on Cerro Chaltén

One of the Cutting Edge podcast’s most popular guests, Colin Haley, returned to the show to chat about his solo winter ascent of the Supercanaleta route on Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy) in Patagonia. Don’t miss it!

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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. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Suggestions? Email us: aaj@americanalpineclub.org.

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The Line — October 2022

THE RUBBERNECKER

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

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

CHILEAN GOLD

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

Grupo La Paz

Grupo La Paz from the north. The full traverse went from right to left. Photo by Hector Diaz.

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

Cuerno Este

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

Cerro San Luis

Bushwhacking through dense forest to reach Cerro San Luis; it took eight hours to travel five kilometers. Photo by Nicolás “Nico” Secul.

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

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

MINI-EPIC

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

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

The Line — September 2022

Last spring, Mike Dunn and Arthur Herlitzka made the second known traverse of the Towers of the Virgin (going left to right in the photo) in Zion National Park. Mike Dunn

BIG YEAR FOR ZION CLIMBING

The upcoming AAJ will include eight Climbs and Expeditions reports from Zion, one of the richest years in memory for noteworthy climbs in this southwest Utah national park. Below are a few teasers—just in time for autumn Zion season.

Nat Bailey about to whip off the 5.13a R third pitch of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. Jérôme St-Michel

The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, First Free Ascent: We loved Canadian Nat Bailey’s story about freeing this nearly 40-year-old route on the east face of Mt. Moroni. After many days of work last November, Bailey and partners went for the send, but Bailey struggled to redpoint the 5.13a R third pitch. He eventually turned over that lead to his friend Drew Marshall, giving up his dream of making a one-day free ascent. Two days later, Bailey returned and fired the pitch. “I didn’t feel euphoria so much as a sort of peaceful sadness,” he writes in the AAJ. “I’m learning that when you give something life, you inherently give it a death as well.”

Cowboy Killer, The Altar of Sacrifice: Mike Dunn, who traversed the Towers of the Virgin in the spring (see photo at top), returned in late November with Ky Hart to attempt the east face of one of the biggest towers: The Altar of Sacrifice. Their route, Cowboy Killer (VI 5.10 A4 X), was climbed over six days, with a crux headwall climbed by a “grotesque gash, with rock the consistency of a sugar cookie.”

Looking down the crux pitch of Cowboy Killer (VI 5.10 A4 X), the first route up the east face of the Altar of Sacrifice. Ky Hart

Forest Altherr on the bouldery crux of the Mo’ Splitter Pitch (5.12), the ninth pitch on Na-Gah’s Wall. Alex Parker

Na-Gah’s Wall, Oak Creek Drainage: When Forest Altherr spotted a striking splitter 1,000 feet above the ground on a wall south of Meridian Tower, he was smitten. During an attempt a week later, however, he discovered fixed gear atop the first pitch. The route had been climbed with aid in 1993 (Allen-Funsten-Rourke, 1993), he learned later, but a free ascent looked possible. After more than a year of attempts, alone and with half a dozen different partners, Altherr linked all 11 pitches free in a single day.

All eight Zion reports from the 2022 AAJ can be found by searching at publications.americanalpineclub.org.

BAFFIN KAYAKING AND CLIMBING

Over the last few years, Sarah McNair-Landry and Erik Boomer have been passing their summers with exploratory adventures around their home of Baffin Island, Canada, using skis, kayaks, and climbing gear. (McNair-Landry hails from Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut territory.) In 2021, the pair ventured south from the community of Clyde River to reach remote Inuksuit Fjord, rarely visited by climbers, and put up first ascents and first descents on nearby rivers. Their report for AAJ 2022 is available online, and some of their beautiful photos are highlighted below.

THE CUTTING EDGE: JIRISHANCA

In 2019, Vince Anderson and Josh Wharton turned back just below the summit of Jirishanca in Peru after an extremely difficult climb. In this clip from Episode 50 of the Cutting Edge podcast, Vince describes the decision to retreat. The pair returned this July to complete the route, and they tell the whole story for the podcast.

Josh Wharton (left) and Vince Anderson at base camp. Drew Smith

DOWNLOAD THE AAJ

The 2022 AAJ will be in the mail later this fall. In the meantime, AAC members can download the 336-page PDF of the book at the AAC website. Log in to your member profile, open the AAJ drop-down menu, and select “Download.”

DIRECT QUOTE

“This was a direttissima, but the kind where a drop of water would linger on its way down.”— Spencer Gray, channeling Emilio Comici while describing a new route on A Peak in Montana, climbed with Kate Mylan in late July of last year.

Kate Mylan leading the 11th pitch of Feefeyefoh (14 pitches, 5.11+) on A Peak. Spencer Gray

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 45,000 climbers each month. Interested in supporting this online publication? Contact Billy Dixon for opportunities. Content suggestions? Email us: aaj@americanalpineclub.org.

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The Prescription — August 2022

LOWERING ERROR | Unclipped from Directional Rope

Red River Gorge, Kentucky

The following report is a preview of the upcoming Accidents in North American Climbing. The 2022 edition is at the printer and will be mailed this autumn.

Logan Zhang, age 11 at the time, created this depiction of his own accident scene.

In March 2021, Logan Zhang (11) hit a boulder on the ground while cleaning a route in the Motherlode at Red River Gorge. Logan was using the cable car (a.k.a. tram) method to retrieve his draws, staying clipped to the belayer’s side of the rope, as is common when cleaning overhanging routes. The first draw on the route was a permadraw so the climber didn’t need to clean it. After he finished cleaning his own draws from the route, Zhang continued lowering with the belayer’s rope still running through the first draw. Before reaching the ground, he removed the tram draw from the belayer’s rope and fell, hitting a boulder below the climb. He suffered a minor head laceration.

ANALYSIS

It is common for climbers to use the cable car or tram method to clean their draws off steep routes. It is important to understand the system and the consequences of adjustments. This incident could have been avoided by keeping the tram draw connected until the climber had reached the ground. Removing the tram draw when the climber is out from an overhanging wall instantly introduces slack into the system and the climber will drop. Also, remember to knot the end of the rope to close the system; the tram method uses more rope than standard lowering.

Alternatively, Logan could have removed the tram draw when he cleaned the quickdraw at the second bolt and taken the swing from this location, if it was safe to do so. This situation is not uncommon. Many climbers choose to leave their own draw on the first bolt for safety or efficiency when cleaning overhanging routes. (Source: Ocean Zhang, father of Logan.)

Diagram by ANAC contributing editor Lindsay Auble

See “Know the Ropes: Cleaning Sport Routes” in Accidents 2021 for more great tips on cleaning steep climbs.

ANAC’s 75th ANNIVERSARY

The 2022 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing is the 75th annual educational publication of the American Alpine Club. Accidents debuted in 1948 as "Mountaineering Safety: Report of the Safety Committee of the American Alpine Club;” it evolved into “Accidents in American Mountaineering” in the 1950s.

The new publication originated as a result of “the startling increase in the number of mountaineering accidents which occurred during the summer of 1947,” according to the introduction. The report said “the number of persons interested in mountaineering, but lacking in climbing experience, has grown vastly,” citing the return to civilian life of thousands of World War II soldiers who received good but very brief training in mountaineering during their service.

Among the “factors of concern” cited in the report are several that ring true today:

• “Solo climbing appears to have spread alarmingly.”

• “So much spectacular publicity has been given to mountaineers and their climbs that many youngsters—and some older persons—see only the glamor, and fail to perceive that real success on a difficult climb connotes careful planning, hard work, proper technique and constant attention to the principles of safety.”

Other key takeaways in the 1948 edition now seem a bit archaic. For example: “Night climbing should be strictly avoided” or “Climbers should try to avoid placing a heavy man ahead of a very light man….careful consideration should be given to balance of weight on a rope.”

Nonetheless, few could argue with the 1948 report’s final words: “The most difficult climb done properly can be achieved more safely than an easy climb done carelessly.”

Three Accidents in 1947

Fred Beckey, courtesy of Dave O’Leske.

Wyoming, Teton Range: A rappeller on Mt. Owen was badly injured after his anchor failed: “A cut-and-dried case against using old rappel slings.”

British Columbia, Coast Mountains: In the Waddington Range, an avalanche killed one climber and injured three others, including Fred Beckey, who was already America’s most prolific climber of new routes in the mountains.

California, Yosemite Valley: A long fall on Higher Cathedral Spire broke the leader’s legs, but it could have been much worse, the report said, except for the belayer’s stalwart hip belay, the “resiliency and strength” of the party’s 7/16-inch nylon rope, and the fact that the leader had tied in with a bowline-on-a-coil with four wraps of the rope around his waist, potentially sparing him internal injuries.

Even 75 years ago, proper use of the best available gear saved lives!

The Prescription is published monthly by the American Alpine Club.

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The Prescription — July 2022

FALLING ROCK | Severed Rope

New York, Shawangunks

The following report will appear in the upcoming 2022 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing.

On April 18, 2021, Gabe Schwartz (39) and Kile Simpson (33) were climbing Wrist, a two-pitch 5.6 in the Trapps area of the Gunks. Simpson, a climber with four years of experience, was leading the first pitch. Schwartz, who had been climbing for over ten years, wrote, “He (Kile) was nearing the top of the first pitch when he let out a yell.” Schwartz assumed his partner had fallen. He “...took a step back to prepare for a big catch and looked up to see a large rock falling down the wall.”

The rock landed at the bottom of the cliff and obliterated a dead tree before joining a scree field. At this point, Schwartz saw the lead rope lying limp on the ground. It had been severed about 40 feet below Simpson.

Schwartz recounts, “Once I notified him of the situation, he placed two cams and anchored off of them. He was at a hands-free stance. I happened to have my [own] rope with me, so I had a climber in the area belay me as I led up to the top of the first pitch. I set an anchor and tossed my partner the end of the rope so that he could tie in [and climb to my stance]. We finished the second pitch and retrieved all of our gear as we rappelled. We found the rock after the fact and estimated it to be 80 to 90 pounds.

ANALYSIS

Simpson wrote, “I was on an obvious line, but apparently off route. The rock that sheared seemed stable. I used it as a handhold. Having four points of contact and a large ledge was why I did not fall. I was not aware of the loose rock until after the incident.” He was 100 feet up when the rope was severed, and he was fortunate that the weight of the block impacting his rope did not pull him off.

This accident resulted in a combination of the leader taking a less frequented line and possibly the presence of loose rock in the early spring due to the freeze/thaw cycle. Simpson was wearing a helmet. Schwartz cannot recall if he had his helmet on while belaying, but his rule was to wear a helmet 100 percent of the time while climbing and perhaps 50 percent of the time on the ground. Now, he always wears a helmet while belaying. (Source: Gabe Schwartz.)

ROPES DON’T BREAK…RIGHT?!

Undamaged climbing ropes rarely if ever break in use, but they can be cut quite easily when loaded over a sharp edge of rock—or when impacted by a falling block. The incident described above is one of two separate cases reported in 2021 in which a falling rock cut the leader’s rope. In the second incident, near the top of a previously unclimbed route in Zion National Park, the rockfall sliced the lead rope and then impacted the belayer, badly breaking his leg. This incident will be analyzed in ANAC 2022 and was covered in Episode 71 of the Sharp End podcast (see the link below).

Leading with two half ropes or twin ropes can offer an additional margin of safety in loose terrain, but the best way to prevent rope-cutting accidents like these is to avoid knocking off rocks in the first place: Stay on route, test all suspicious holds or blocks, and use directional pieces to prevent the rope from dragging across ledges or tugging on loose blocks.

EXPERTS ONLY

There’s a misperception that climbing accidents most frequently involve novice climbers. In fact, according to the data collected by Accidents since the 1950s, only about 30 percent of reported technical climbing accidents involved beginners, in cases where the victim’s experience level was recorded. By contrast, more than 40 percent of accidents involved experienced climbers (more than three years of experience) or experts. In some cases, these experts have been among the most talented and high-profile climbers in America. Consider these three recent examples from the Accidents archives:

Molly Mitchell attempting Crank It in Boulder Canyon. The pieces that pulled out are marked. Photo by Tory Powers

Molly Mitchell, Boulder Canyon, Colorado Mitchell was attempting a no-bolts ascent of Crank It (5.13c/d) at Castle Rock. After a fall pulled out all four pieces of protection she had placed, she hit the ground and suffered a broken back. In her report in ANAC 2021, Mitchell wrote, “The crack is very polished, shallow, and flaring. The pieces are incredibly specific, and sometimes even when they look OK, they will not hold a dynamic fall. The bottom piece that pulled out (the medium nut) was a solid piece of gear, but what happened is the tension in the rope from ripping the upper pieces actually lifted this nut up and out of the crack. Had that nut held, I would not have hit the ground.” Almost 18 months after her ground fall—and after more rehearsal and preparation—Mitchell sent Crank It in June without clipping the bolts.

Hans Florine, El Capitan, California The man who repeatedly held the speed record for the Nose of El Cap and has climbed the route more than 100 times took a serious fall near the top of the route in May 2018. As Florine led the thin crack above Triangle Ledge, a piece popped and sent him for a 20-foot fall; he clipped the ledge and injured both legs, necessitating a rescue. Florine and his partner had dropped a gear sling with their small cams low on the climb, and one of the takeaways outlined in ANAC 2019 was the need to reassess one’s goals during a big climb if the circumstances change.

Alex Honnold, Index, Washington Honnold planned to run up a short 5.9 route to hang a top-rope for a relatively inexperienced partner and her family. At the last minute they switched to a shorter rope, and when he lowered off from the anchor, the end of the rope slipped through the belay device and he fell to the ground, suffering a back injury. In ANAC 2016, he explained, “Lots of things should have been done better—we should have thought about how long the rope was, we should have been paying more attention, we should have had a knot in the end of the rope. I wasn't wearing a helmet and was lucky to not injure my head…. Basically, things were all just a bit too lax.”

We’re grateful to all climbers—whether professionals or rookies—who choose to share these lessons and help educate others. Find our how to share your story—write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org.

The Prescription newsletter is published monthly by the American Alpine Club.

The Prescription — June 2022

CRITTER DANGER

Colorado, Clear Creek Canyon

istock.com/SWKrullImaging

On December 4, a male climber (28) was struck by a falling rock while waiting at the base of the first pitch of Tortoise Scute (5.6), a three-pitch bolted climb. The block was reportedly microwave-sized. Although he survived the initial impact (he was wearing a helmet), he was later taken off life support at the hospital.

The rockfall initially was believed to have been generated by climbers above. However, it is improbable that a falling object dropped by climbers would have intersected the base of Tortoise Scute, as most of this crag’s climbs and the walk-off descent route are far to the west of Tortoise Scute, and no climbers are believed to have been directly above the route at the time of the accident.   

Other Critters is one of several crags spanning a hillside above Clear Creek Canyon. The arrow marks the first pitch of Tortoise Scute. Most of the routes end well below the rugged top of the cliff, where sheep and other wildlife frequently are present. Photo by Alan Prehmus

Evidence points to a natural event, quite possibly wildlife-generated rockfall. Climber Scott Turpin, who established highlines and climbs at a crag west of Other Critters and built a trail used to access these areas, said he frequently saw bighorn sheep in the area. “Especially in the winter and spring, bighorns would use the trail frequently, but were more often on the opposite side, directly above Safari and Other Critters. I saw lambs with them on multiple occasions. Though I was impressed by how agile the sheep were, I definitely saw them trundle rocks.”

Colorado Parks and Wildlife senior wildlife biologist Shannon Schaller said, “Bighorns frequent Clear Creek Canyon. It’s a lambing area, and they very possibly could have dislodged a rock above the climbing cliff.” She notes, “Rocks triggered by bighorns are a potential hazard to climbers, though it’s extremely rare as the sheep are very shy and tend to avoid people.” Nonetheless, she said, “I personally have seen falling rock caused by wildlife. For the same reasons people like to climb in an area, it’s also good for a bighorn habitat.”

It’s easy to be lulled into a sense of security at a very popular crag. The moderate grades, easy access, and sun-drenched aspect make this particular cliff a busy year-round destination. However, this is not a gym, and natural rockfall should be expected at any crag in a mountainous or canyon environment. (This is especially true after heavy rain or snow or during wind storms, all of which can dislodge rocks.) Adopting an alpinist’s sense of mountain awareness can help prevent such accidents. Watch and listen for rockfall, try to choose protected belay areas, and wear helmets while climbing, belaying, or waiting your turn to climb. (Sources: Mountain Project, Scott Turpin, and Shannon Schaller.)

MORE TRUNDLING BY ANIMALS

Although rockfall incidents are frequently reported in Accidents, few are directly attributed to wildlife. Here are two cases where animals were the suspected culprits:

The Golf Course, Canmore, Alberta: Mountain goats have been known to knock rocks off the top of this very popular sport climbing area. Two climbers were injured here in 2015.

Red Mountain, Cascades, Washington: Rockfall sprayed a group partway up the mountain in 1963, injuring one of the climbers. The climbers believed it must have been caused by animals, either goats or marmots.

DOCTOR BANNED FROM DENALI 

The “Autobahn,” the traverse from 17,200-foot camp to Denali Pass on the West Buttress Route. The fall in this incident started near Denali Pass at top left. NPS Photo

A doctor from Utah has been sentenced following an incident on Denali last season that led to charges of interfering with a rescue, violating a lawful order, and making a false report.

On May 24, 2021, after teaming up at 14,200-foot camp, Dr. Jason Lance, 48, and Adam Rawski began a long summit attempt. Above Denali Pass at 18,200 feet, Rawski slowed notably and showed signs of altitude sickness. Lance left Rawski and continued up; the ill climber was aided by two other climbers in the area. Lance eventually turned back and rejoined the others to descend, but as they prepared to start down from Denali Pass to the 17,200-foot camp—a traversing descent that sees more deadly falls than any other location on the mountain—Rawski suddenly tumbled more than 1,000 feet. Denali rangers quickly responded by helicopter and rescued Rawski, who survived the fall but with serious injuries.

Lance and the two other climbers were still at Denali Pass, and one of the climbers later testified that Lance used Rawski’s inReach device, which he’d taken before heading toward the summit, to message the National Park Service and request a helicopter lift from the pass. According to the Justice Department, he claimed the group did not have proper equipment to descend and then misleadingly claimed the two other climbers were suffering from shock. (One of those climbers testified that he and the other climber were at no time suffering from medical shock, though they were distressed by witnessing Rawski’s fall.) Eventually the three made their way down to the high camp on their own.

According to the Justice Department’s news release, Denali mountaineering ranger Chris Erickson “instructed Dr. Lance to turn over the inReach device so the National Park Service could return it to Rawski or his family.” Lance initially refused to return the device, and subsequently it was discovered that several messages had been deleted from the inReach.

In November 2021, Lance was charged with three misdemeanors, and in March of this year he pleaded guilty to a single charge of violating a lawful order. The other charges were dismissed. The federal magistrate’s sentence included a $5,000 fine, a $5,000 donation to Denali Rescue Volunteers, and a five-year ban from climbing on Denali.

“Impeding the investigation of a near-fatal accident and attempting to secure helicopter rescue under misleading premises evinces a selfishness and indifference to the scarcity of public safety and rescue resources that is unacceptable anywhere, let alone on the tallest peak in North America,” said U.S. Attorney John E. Kuhn Jr.

In a story published in the Anchorage Daily News shortly after the sentencing, Lance denied deleting any messages from the inReach and said he had requested the rescue from Denali Pass because Rawski had been carrying their snow pickets, all three of the climbers were experiencing “psychological shock,” and in his judgment they were showing early signs of hypothermia. Quoted in the newspaper story, Lance said he was relieved that prosecutors “reviewed the information and found I didn’t make any false statements about requesting rescue.”

WITNESSING A SOLOIST FALL

It can be scary stuff to watch a free soloist doing her thing. Or to watch Free Solo, for that matter. Now imagine being at the crag when a soloist falls off a climb, less than 50 feet away. That was the experience of Ashley Saupe’s guest for the latest Sharp End podcast. Fortunately, the soloist survived, but the experience was profoundly affecting for everyone at the crag that day.

The Prescription newsletter is published monthly by the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org.

The Prescription — May 2022

A DEVASTATING HIGHBALL

British Columbia, East Kootenay, Bootleg Boulders

Scene of the accident, with the star marking the spot where a hold broke, causing a leg-breaking fall. The ladder was carried up earlier to help with cleaning new problems.

On June 16, rock season was in full swing in the East Kootenay region. The sport climbers were sending at Lakit Lake, alpine climbers were planning for the Bugaboos, and the small community of boulderers were finding new rocks to climb. 

I’m Drew Leiterman (age 31), and I’ve been climbing for 13 years. I had just met overstoker Steve on Facebook. He’d been scrubbing a bunch of boulders on Bootleg Mountain and was going to show me the work he’d been doing. We decided to pack only one pad each because this was mainly a recon mission and there was a lot of scrambling on the hillside. After a couple of hours of exploring, we ended up at a nice sector about a half hour uphill from the parking area. We chucked our pads down and warmed up on some easy problems. 

We found a nice unclimbed highball with good holds. It started with 15 feet of incuts on vertical rock, then went into a slight overhang for the last five feet. I climbed with ease to the top (V1-ish) only to get stumped on the final mantel. Above the lip, the rock was void of holds and was still pretty dirty. After trying unsuccessfully to figure it out, I decided to downclimb (it was well within my ability) and check it out from above.

After reversing two moves, as I moved my left hand down, my right handhold broke. I fell and somehow landed a foot away from the crash pads. Steve had been spotting me, but the combination of the height and the sudden fall made things tricky, to say the least. I actually landed partly on him, throwing him back, and he ended up with some pretty bad bruising on his torso. 

Graphic Image Alert

At Accidents in North American Climbing we refrain from publishing gratuitous images of injury. However, to convey the real risks of an activity that many people consider relatively risk-free, we are providing a link to Drew’s Instagram account. Content warning: This page contains very graphic images of injury. We STRONGLY advise discretion.

It felt like I’d sprained my left ankle, so I lifted up my leg to check it out. It was the worst-case scenario—my talus bone had exploded out of the side of my foot. My foot was detached from my lower leg and held on by a bit of skin.    

Like any true millennial, my first reaction was to take a selfie. I made sure the exposed white bone and freshly snapped tendons and ligaments were framed with my (trying to smile) face. We put on a tourniquet. We had no cell service and hadn’t brought a satellite phone on our “casual” day of bouldering. We’d also scrambled up a lot of loose talus, so getting a piggyback from Steve seemed dangerous. It was close to 6:30 p.m., and we decided the best action was for Steve to run to his vehicle and drive to where he could get a cell signal. His car was parked near my van.

Almost a year prior, a friend had severed his finger in a rappelling accident in the mountains. We had called SAR to get him to a hospital to get it reattached, but it took several hours for the helicopter to arrive. With that in mind and it being close to dark, I wasn’t excited to wait around. I waited five minutes (which felt like hours) and then started crawling down the talus toward my van. For the most part it went fine, switching between scooting on my butt and downclimbing using my knees and good foot. My bad foot would flop uncontrollably, and the bone would move in and out of place.

Five weeks after the accident, following two surgeries to repair damage from the fall.

At one point I had to overcome an oven-size boulder. Just as I was getting to the bottom of it, the whole thing started to shift. I got out of the way, but in my haste, I touched my bloody stump on the ground. I sat there for five minutes, feeling lucky I wasn’t pinned, but also looking at all the dirt I had accumulated on my wound. I was mindful that I was probably in shock and could pass out at any moment. I continued to push on. After about 45 minutes to an hour, I made it back to my van.

Steve had gone to call help, and there was no way to communicate with him, as I still didn’t have cell signal. My brain was in full survival mode. Nothing could stop me from getting to the hospital. I started driving. (Thankfully my van is an automatic.) I drove for 15 to 20 minutes toward town when I saw an ambulance coming toward me. I pulled over and waved them down. They were surprised, to say the least, that I was driving in my condition. Steve drove up a little after I waved down the ambulance.

In the hospital I found out that when my foot impacted the ground, my talus bone had dislocated from my calcaneus (heel bone) and broken through the skin; the impact snapped two tendons, blood vessels, nerves, and most of the ligaments on the inside of my ankle. I had two surgeries in seven days. 

ANALYSIS 

Fast-forward ten months and I have 80 percent mobility back. I’m climbing and working, and very optimistic for a full recovery.

Thinking back, I believe Steve and I made the right decision to get me to the hospital as quickly as possible. The doctor later told me that the sooner they can operate, the better their chances for saving a foot after an accident like mine. But I don’t think they would promote “hiking” or driving in that condition. I also knew that a tourniquet could cause serious complications, but I wanted to keep the blood flow to a minimum so I opted to keep it on.

I think bouldering can be more dangerous than most people think. I fell maybe 15 feet and missed my pads by a foot or less. What would I do in the future? Bring more pads and scope the top-out before going for anything that’s too tall for a fall. (Source: Drew Leiterman.)

The author, getting after it.

A Note From The Editor: We don’t publish a lot of bouldering reports in Accidents in North American Climbing, but not because such accidents are rare. With the lower-leg injuries that most boulderers suffer, they usually are able to self-rescue, so no official report is generated. I’m grateful to climbers like Drew who send us their stories, and I encourage other boulderers to do the same, particularly when an important lesson can be shared.

In my first six months on the job, I’ve been very impressed by our contributors and volunteer editors. Without them, the Accidents book would not exist. I also appreciate the courage it takes for accident victims to speak up. To do so might risk criticism or embarrassment, yet reports like these make a real difference to our community, and you might just save a life. Want to share a story? Write to me at accidents@americanalpineclub.org. — Pete Takeda, Editor

SPRING AND SUMMER AVALANCHES

It’s peak season for snow climbs in many parts of North America, which means it’s time for heightened awareness of avalanche hazards. Many people consider only backcountry skiing and snowboarding when they think about avalanche danger, but in spring and summer, it’s climbers who face the highest risk. More than 70 percent of U.S. avalanche fatalities in the month of May have involved climbers, and nearly 90 percent in June. Brush up on your knowledge base with guide Matt Schonwald’s in-depth “Know the Ropes” article from our 2020 edition: “Avalanches: Spring and Summer Hazards for Mountaineers.”

Beacon Safety Check

A small number of PIEPS and Black Diamond avalanche beacons have been found with malfunctioning electronic components that may prevent the transceiver from switching between “Send” and “Search” modes. In April, Black Diamond published a list of transceiver models that should be inspected, along with instructions for a home safety check . If you own a PIEPS or Black Diamond beacon, be sure to follow the instructions here and learn what to do if your beacon fails the test.

THE SHARP END: LIVE AT THE AAC BENEFIT WEEKEND

Ashley Saupe and Adam Campbell

The latest Sharp End podcast, an interview with Canadian athlete Adam Campbell, was recorded live at the AAC’s annual benefit weekend in Denver on March 26. Adam and his wife, Laura Kosakoski, were backcountry skiing with a friend in Banff National Park, Alberta, on January 10, 2020. As they began their descent, Laura went first. When Adam approached the slope, he triggered an avalanche that pushed Laura into a terrain trap and buried her with more than 12 feet of snow. Adam has had to live with the grief and trauma of triggering the slide and losing his wife ever since. His emotional story and candor made for a powerful show in Denver, and now you can hear the full interview at home.

The Prescription newsletter is published monthly by the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org.


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The Prescription — April 2022

Ground Fall | Rappel Failure

The Apron, Squamish, British Columbia

On the afternoon of September 3, 2021, Dany Dalpe (29) suffered a 200-foot ground fall from several pitches up on The Apron in Squamish. At the time, Dalpe was a climber with five years of experience. Though he consistently climbed 5.13 sport routes, his multi-pitch experience was limited to two years, mainly on bolted routes around Squamish. His partner (female, 29) was a beginner climber using borrowed gear. This was her first multi-pitch outing.

Around 12:30 p.m. the pair started up Born Again, a link-up combining sections of established routes with new pitches to create “the best protected 5.10 on the Apron.” Its copious protection, bolted belays, and generally forgiving angle made it a fine choice given the team’s limited experience.

Red line shows the first two pitches of Born Again. Instead of continuing up this route (red arrow), the climbers traversed left and climbed the second pitch of Dream On (yellow line). When their attempt to rappel (yellow arrow) failed, the leader tumbled to the ground. Photo by Kris Wild

To avoid a party climbing above, Dalpe decided to traverse left near the end of the second pitch. After joining Dream On, he found the climbing changed character. The next pitch was less forgiving and had only one protection bolt. At the top of his third lead, Dalpe recalls thinking, “This was not the day I had in mind.” The climbing above appeared even more demanding. “I looked up the next pitch and decided it was not worth it.”

At 1:30 p.m., his climbing partner arrived at the belay, and Dalpe told her they would be descending from there. The partner carried a traditional belay/rappel device, though she was not experienced enough to rappel. Dalpe planned to use his Grigri to lower her and then make a single-line rappel, using her weight at the opposite end of the rope as a counterweight anchor. He untied his partner, threaded the rope end through the rappel rings, retied her, and then used his Grigri to lower her to a prominent ledge. Once there, she traversed to a tree anchor and connected to it with a personal anchor system (PAS). Before lowering her, Dalpe said to his partner, “Go to the tree anchor, clip in, and do nothing.”

Dalpe set his Grigri up to rappel and started down the single strand. Halfway to the tree anchor, the rope became suddenly unweighted and Dalpe fell. He recalls, “I was tumbling and everything went black. Then I hit something…and went black. I hit something again…black. I hit another thing…black. I was probably screaming for five seconds.”

While falling, the rope through Dalpe’s Grigri went slack and, “I saw the rope swirling orange and I kept asking, ‘When am I gonna stop?’ ”

Dalpe hit the ground, rolled a distance, and came to rest at a tree. Climbers approaching the cliff rushed up to help. One called for an ambulance at 1:45 p.m. Another team that was on Born Again rappelled to Dalpe’s partner and lowered her to the ground. At 3:45 p.m., Dalpe was transported by ambulance to the hospital.

He escaped with relatively minor injuries considering his 200-foot tumble (He was not wearing a helmet.) He suffered a broken sternum, two broken bones in the right foot, plus multiple abrasions to his scapula and back of his head.  He spent one month on a couch, and four months later he was climbing 5.13 again. (Sources: Interview with Dany Dalpe and report from British Columbia Emergency Health Services.)

Analysis

It appears the rappel failed when Dalpe’s partner somehow managed to untie her knot as he rappelled the single strand. Later, her half-tied figure-8 was discovered to be cinched tight; her end of the rope with the half-tied knot had pulled through the rappel rings—no doubt slowing Dalpe as he tumbled toward the ground. It seems likely she began to untie as soon as she clipped into the anchor, and that some element of the system temporarily held Dalpe’s weight until he had already committed to the rappel.

Dany Dalpe, on the road to recovery.

Counterweight systems—simul-rappelling, counter-ascending, or the descent method chosen by Dalpe in this incident—are for experts only. (In fact, accidents involving such systems have claimed even very experienced climbers.) The entire team needs to understand the necessity and process of maintaining a closed system until both parties are on the ground or securely anchored. Given his partner’s limited experience, Dalpe could have made better choices involving the route, equipment, and rappel method.

The transition from single-pitch sport to multi-pitch—even on a mostly bolted climb with solid chain anchors—presents many challenges. First was equipment. This pair was equipped with a single rope and only one belay/rappel device, which necessitated a complex counterweighted rappel when they decided to bail. Another issue was experience. Dalpe’s partner, through no fault of her own, was clearly in over her head.

Dalpe’s physical climbing ability might have contributed indirectly to the accident. Climbing 5.13 after only a few years is an empowering—and often misleading—experience. In a multi-pitch or trad environment, a metric like a sport climbing grade is an inadequate substitute for proper tools, training, and experience. To his credit, Dalpe chose to descend when he recognized they were over their head on this long route. It takes years of practice to develop the skills and judgment to safely lead an inexperienced partner up a multi-pitch climb. (Source: The Editors.)

Flying Cams

Ancient Art, Fisher Towers, Utah

Jeff Weinberg on top of Ancient Art. Photo by AAC staffer Robert Hakim

Mo Leuthauser, a climber from Colorado, was starting the last pitch of the Stolen Chimney route on Ancient Art, the spiraling sandstone formation in the Fisher Towers of Utah, when she noticed a soft spot on one of her harness gear loops. She mentioned it to her partner but kept climbing. As she was being lowered from the top of the tower, “I heard a pop and saw my cams and nuts fly off the left side of my harness and hurl hundreds of feet down the tower, toward hikers below. I screamed ‘rock’ as loud as I possibly could, and luckily the hikers were able to get out of the way in time.  No one was hit or injured.”

Leuthauser was using an all-around harness that was about four years old. Although harnesses generally are safe to use for considerably longer (depending on the amount and style of climbing you do), this is a good reminder to inspect all the components of critical gear regularly for wear or damage. Dropping cams this way not only creates a hazard for anyone below, it also could be very expensive! 

The Sharp End: Episode 75

It’s the diamond jubilee of Ashley Saupe’s Sharp End podcast, which the AAC helped launch back in 2016, after Ashley approached the club about transforming stories in Accidents in North American Climbing into an interview format. In this month’s show, Ashley interviews climber Joe Lovin about a nasty tumble he took while leaving a Colorado crag, just after sending his first 5.12! As always, it’s an educational and entertaining look at the type of accident that could happen to any of us.

The monthly Prescription newsletter is supported by the members of the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org. 

The Prescription – March 2022

Surviving El Gigante

Mark Hudon and Jordan Cannon

Jordan Cannon and Mark Hudon are headlining the AAC’s Annual Benefit Gala in Denver on March 26, sharing stories of their unique and productive climbing partnership. (Tickets are still available for both the in-person and streamed events—get them here!) We asked these big-wall experts and close friends to share stories of near misses they’ve experienced, and Jordan shared a wild tale from El Gigante, a huge wall in Chihuahua, Mexico.

In January 2019, Jordan and Hayden Jamieson attempted Logical Progression, a 28-pitch 5.13 on El Gigante that’s typically approached from above, by rappelling in and climbing out. Jordan and Hayden stashed gear for two bivouacs on their way down the wall and then started climbing back out. The first two days went well, as they worked on the crux pitches and bivouacked eight pitches up….

Photo by Hayden Jamieson

“Day 3 was where things took a turn for the worse,” Hayden wrote in a story at the Gnarly Nutrition website. “I was woken at sunrise to the unwelcome sensation of light rain on my face.” The two continued up the wall, aiming for their next bivy cache at the top of pitch 17. But the rain kept getting stronger, and by pitch 14, they were in trouble. “We had nearly no food, very little water, we were still 200 to 300 feet below our next stash of food, the rain was getting heavier, and our clothes were saturated with water down to our underwear… Several microwave-sized blocks were blown off the wall from above and narrowly missed both of us.” The two 5.13 climbers found it impossible to climb run-out 5.11. They were stuck.

In pounding rain, they set up their portaledge and rigged their haul bag on bolts above them to guard against rockfall. But they were already soaked. “That night was certainly the longest, coldest, and most terrifying night of either of our lives,” Hayden wrote. “We shivered uncontrollably and spooned each other for warmth as the storm raged all around us.” Luckily, the clouds cleared in the morning, and they made their way up the rock by any means necessary, refueled at their food cache, and pushed to the top, 16 hours after leaving their bivouac.

Happy to be alive. Photo by Hayden Jamieson

LESSONS LEARNED

Says Jordan: “I think we were very close to dying of hypothermia, waiting it out in a poor position with inadequate gear. All of which could have easily been avoided if I had taken a note out of Mark Hudon’s book on big wall preparedness! Thankfully, I learned my lesson and even picked up some more wall tips from Mark during our time climbing together after that trip.”

Here are some of the things Jordan has learned about preparing for storms on big walls:

1. Never bring down sleeping bags (or down jackets, if you can help it). Always synthetic, because it will keep you warm even when it’s wet.

2. Always bring a bivy sack. Even when you think you won’t need it. (We, stupidly, decided to leave ours on the summit before we rapped the wall.)

3. Make sure your rain fly is in good condition. Ours was old and had holes in it, so it leaked.

4. Always bring some sort of emergency kit consisting of a rain jacket, rain pants, base layers (top and bottoms), hat, gloves, and warm socks. You likely won’t use any of it, but if you do, you'll be glad to have it!

5. Bring an inReach or some kind of satellite phone, especially if the wall is remote.

6. In the face of bad weather, it’s better to hunker down before a storm rather than waiting for it to hit and getting wetter than necessary in the process.

Mark Hudon (top) and Jordan Cannon in Zion National Park. Photo by Samuel Crossley

“Don't underestimate the seriousness of big wall climbing and the threat of inclement weather, especially on a remote big wall in Mexico in the dead of winter. (But in Yosemite, too!) Even if it is just ‘big wall sport climbing,’ that doesn't mean it’s will be casual. Always be prepared for the worst!”

Mark Hudon has been climbing big walls since the late 1970s and has compiled some of his expertise into excellent downloadable PDFs at his website. And remember, you can see Mark and Jordan together at the AAC’s Annual Benefit Gala on March 26. Don’t miss it!

El Cap Stories

As Jordan Cannon says, you don’t have to be in a remote canyon in Mexico to get into serious trouble when a storm hits a wall. The pages of ANAC have reported many such incidents from El Capitan over the years. Here are two examples:

• In September 1991, “the first winter storm of the season moved into the Central Sierra, dropping 4.5 inches of rain at lower elevations with snow level reaching 4,000 feet.” Two pairs of very experienced climbers ended up getting rescued from hard El Cap routes: One had been trapped in a run-off waterfall on the Sea of Dreams route, and the other was nearing the top of Native Son when one of the climbers got hypothermia.

 • In late May 1993, two climbers were trapped at Camp 5 on The Nose after heavy rain fell all day, causing mild hypothermia. Rescuers were able to lower about 800 feet from the rim to their position, give them dry clothes, and help them jumar out.  

A survey of 41 years of ANAC reports on The Nose (from 1974 to 2014) found that about one-quarter of all accidents involved weather and stranding. The “Danger Zones” article from ANAC 2015 focused on the major accident causes on the Nose: Read it here!

The Sharp End: Deadly Avalanche

In the latest Sharp End, Ken Wylie, author of the book Buried, recounts a horrific accident near Revelstoke, British Columbia, in January 2003.

If you’re a Sharp End fan, don’t miss the AAC’s Annual Benefit Gala on March 26. Ashley Saupe will be hosting a live interview for an upcoming show. In-person and streaming tickets are available here!

The monthly Prescription newsletter is supported by the members of the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org.

 

The Prescription - February 2022

FALL FROM ANCHOR | TETHER CLIPPED INCORRECTLY

Arizona, Cochise Stronghold, Owl Rock

On the afternoon of January 31, 2021, Tim Parker (35) suffered a ground fall from the anchor above Naked Prey (5.12a) in Cochise Stronghold. Parker is a climber with over 15 years of experience. His partner, Darcy Mullen (32), is a climber of over 10 years. They are both mountaineering instructors for an international outdoor education organization.

The pair had decided to finish their day with several pitches on Owl Rock, a pinnacle with several high-quality one-pitch routes. Mullen led Nightstalker (5.9), a classic mixed gear/bolt route on the lower-angle front side of Owl Rock. She built an anchor and belayed Parker to the top.

Mullen rappelled the overhanging backside of the pinnacle, passing over the line of Naked Prey. Parker then rigged the two-bolt anchor with a quad cordelette in order to top-rope Naked Prey, and Mullen lowered him to the base of the climb. He then top-roped the route. Back on top, Parker decided it made more sense to rappel than be lowered due to the location of the anchor bolts.

Quad cordelette rigged at the rappel anchor on Owl Rock, as found the day after the accident. The carabiner on the shelf of the cordelette is still in place and locked.

For an anchor tether, he used a double-length sewn nylon runner girth-hitched around both hard points on his harness. Parker had pre-rigged the tether with two overhand knots, dividing the sling into three segments, to allow for various clip-in points and for extending his rappel device. He used a locking carabiner to clip the tether into the shelf of the cordelette anchor. Unbeknownst to him, the carabiner was not properly clipped to his tether, but this fact would not be revealed for several minutes. Parker did a visual double-check of his connection, asked for slack, and weighted the new system. With nearly full body weight on the tether and the carabiner locked, he told Mullen to take him off belay. After doing so, she walked around the formation to Nightstalker’s base, where she began packing their gear.

Meanwhile, Parker untied from the rope and threaded it through the rappel anchors, then pulled the rope through the rings until both ends were on the ground. Approximately five minutes after taking her partner off belay, Mullen heard a yell and watched Parker fall from the top of the climb. He free-fell approximately 60 feet, then fell another 30 feet down lower-angled rock (70–80°) before hitting the ground.

Mullen found him lying on his back. His head was approximately one foot away from a small boulder. A trained Wilderness First Responder, Mullen stabilized Parker until a nearby climbing party arrived to help. The other climbers dialed 911. The time was 5 p.m. Mullen then directed the other climbers to help take vital signs and stabilize Parker until paramedics arrived at about 5:30 p.m. He was airlifted to Banner University Medical Center in Tucson.

Parker spent about three and a half weeks in the hospital and rehab center, with many broken bones, extensive abrasions, a mild traumatic brain injury, a nearly severed left ear, and nerve damage. After being discharged, Parker spent about two and a half months in a wheelchair and another month on crutches. Though still recovering, he was able to return to working on expedition and climbing courses in November 2021.

ANALYSIS

Reconstruction of the Owl Rock anchor showing how an overhand knot in the tether sling likely jammed on the locking carabiner and held the climber’s weight temporarily. From the climber’s perspective, the sling appeared to be properly clipped.

Due to some memory loss from the accident, the precise cause of the fall—and the five to ten minutes leading up to it—can only be hypothesized. Parker believes he initially clipped the end of his tether into the cordelette but that this connection was too long to give him easy access to the anchor. He must have tried to shorten his tether by clipping the second knotted loop of the sling.

After the accident, his locking carabiner remained clipped to the cordelette and locked shut. The tether was not compromised in any way. Parker assumes that when he tried to clip in, he pushed the knot through the opening of the locking carabiner but did not clip the actual loop of webbing. When he weighted the system, it is believed the knot jammed against the edge of the carabiner just enough to hold his weight. Parker’s rappel device was still clipped to a gear loop on his harness after the fall. Likely the knot in the tether popped through the carabiner when his body weight shifted as he reached for the device.

Parker and Mullen recreated this scenario at home. They noted that while it was difficult to fully weight a knot placed in the carabiner this way, when it was set in a particular spot the knot could hold weight (especially when lodged in a smaller D-shaped locking carabiner). Once loaded, the jammed knot appeared similar to a properly clipped and loaded tether.

Many aspects of this accident line up with themes in other descending accidents. Since this was the last climb of the day, they felt pressure to depart for the two-hour drive back to Tucson. The couple were also about to start a three-week outdoor education course. Such transitions can be stressful and distracting. Parker reflected that the accident’s primary cause was complacency, as he ultimately failed to catch his own mistake.

Other aspects are important as well. Parker had used his tether system many times, but more often for rappelling multi-pitch climbs. Using a new system—or an old system in a new context—raises a yellow flag that should be recognized. Perhaps the better option would have been to rig the system he used more commonly for cleaning bolted anchors on sport climbs. The only reason he used the system in question was because it was already rigged from his previous climb on Nightstalker.

Lastly, Parker was not wearing a helmet. This was a conscious decision. Before this accident, he regularly wore a helmet while leading and/or when concerned about overhead hazards. But since Naked Prey is a short, steep pitch on small pinnacle of rock, rockfall was not an issue. As he was top-roping, there was little to no chance of hitting his head in a fall. Of all of the miracles herein, the greatest might be his avoidance of serious brain damage and/or death. Parker now wears his helmet in all outdoor roped climbing contexts. (Sources: Tim Parker and Darcy Mullen.)

EDITOR’S NOTES

Redundancy: Whether you clip an anchor with the rope, quickdraws, slings, or a commercial PAS, it usually takes little effort or extra gear to create a redundant connection. It’s true that climbers rely on equipment with zero redundancy all the time, including the belay loop on your harness or the rope while you’re climbing, lowering, or rappelling. But there’s seldom a good reason not to double up at an anchor.

Check It! Accidents and near misses with inadequate anchor connections occasionally involve outside forces (rockfall, for example). But most of the time they can be prevented by double- and triple-checking your connection.

Take it from Dougald MacDonald, past editor of ANAC: “One of my scariest moments in four-plus decades of climbing came during a long series of rappels with two partners in the French Alps. Midway through the descent, with all three of us perched on a sloping ice-covered ledge, one of the climbers hissed at me, “Do you know you’re not attached to anything?” In our rush to get down, I had unclipped from the ropes on the previous rappel without ever clipping the anchor. Fortunately, neither a nudge from my partners, a slip on my crampons, nor a gust of wind pushed me off the tiny ledge.”

Personal tether tied with a water knot that came undone at a rappel anchor on the Grand Teton in 2016, causing a tragic accident. NPS Photo

From the Archives: Here are two incidents from past ANACs indicating ways climbers can be disconnected from anchors. Tragically, both of these ended with fatal injuries.

PAS Disconnected on Half Dome’s Snake Dike (ANAC 2016)

Knotted Sling Comes Undone on Grand Teton (ANAC 2017)

In all of the cases discussed here, a closer look at the anchor connection might have prevented a disastrous accident. 

THE SHARP END: AN UNPLANNED BIVY

In Episode 73 of the Sharp End Podcast, Ashley and Christian Kiefer discuss a cold, uncomfortable, and unexpected night out at 13,000 feet on Mt. Emerson in California’s Sierra Nevada.

The monthly Prescription newsletter is supported by the members of the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org. 

The Prescription - January 2022

TRIGGERED SLAB | INCONSISTENT SNOW DEPTH

Montana, Absaroka Range, Republic Mountain

Three of the six skiers on this tour were avalanched into dangerous tree-covered slopes.

The following report analyzes an avalanche incident one year ago in Montana. This report was included in the new backcountry avalanche section in the 2021 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing. There are some great lessons here for backcountry travelers this winter.

On the morning of January 8, 2021, a group of six skiers (one female and five males) met in Cooke City, Montana, and decided to ski the Fin on Republic Mountain. None of them had been to this particular slope or mountain before. All members carried an avalanche transceiver, shovel, and probe, and three were wearing helmets. Two carried avalanche airbag packs. All had at least some avalanche education. They had read the local avalanche forecast the day before, but not the day of this incident (the danger had not changed).

On their ascent, visibility was poor and they could not see the entire slope or the ridge line they intended to climb. As they left the trees, they dug two pits and performed [stability] tests. One later wrote, “Though we identified potential weak layers at 60 cm and a deeper one…we got minimal failure and no propagation. What we saw in the pits was a nice right-side-up snowpack. However, we knew if we skinned along the ridge to the southwest, the snowpack would change due to wind exposure. We discussed mitigating this by skinning close to the ridge and skiing back down our skin track if we saw warning signs.”

As they continued and “when those in the skin track crossed over a wind lip into a slightly more southerly aspect,” they felt the slope collapse and watched a crack propagate 250 feet upslope. The avalanche broke 1.5 to two feet deep, 200 feet wide, and ran 700 feet vertically. Skiers 1 and 2 were carried the full distance to the base of the slope. Skier 3 was carried about midway downslope. Skier 4 was at the edge of the slide and able to hold their position, and Skiers 5 and 6 were further back in the skin track.

Skier 1 deployed his airbag and was partially buried. He freed himself from the debris and began a transceiver search. He followed the signal to Skier 2, whose head was buried more than two feet deep; the skier was unconscious and not breathing. Skier 1 cleared Skier 2’s airway, and Skier 2 began breathing and regained consciousness. Skier 2 sustained injuries to his leg, but later made it out under his own power.

Skiers 4, 5, and 6 quickly skied down to help Skier 3, who was partially buried about halfway down the slide path and sustained serious injuries to his ribs and lungs. Skiers 4 and 6 had two-way radios and called for help. (There is no cell service in this region.) They were able to contact someone with a radio in Cooke City, who reported it to Park County Search and Rescue. Because Skier 3 could not move, the group eventually congregated at Skier 3’s position, where they built a fire and waited for rescuers. Skier 3 was evacuated by helicopter at about 4 p.m., and the rest of the party was able to get out under their own power with the help of rescuers.

ANALYSIS

Investigating the Republic Mountain avalanche one day after the slide.

The avalanche occurred on an east aspect at 9,700 feet. The average slope angle was 37 degrees (33 degrees at the crown). The mountains near Cooke City had received heavy snow in October and November, which formed a dense, two- to four-foot-deep snowpack on many slopes. In late November to December, minimal snowfall and cold temperatures led to the formation of weak layers of sugary facets on some slopes, especially where the snowpack was relatively shallow. These layers were buried by subsequent heavy snowfall in late December, followed by small storms through the first week of January.

The skiers dug a six-foot-deep snow pit close to where the avalanche was triggered. They found good snow structure and good stability in their pit, which investigators confirmed the next day when they dug in the same spot. Approximately 100 feet away, with a slight change in aspect, the snowpack thinned from six feet to two to three feet deep. This thin area is where they initiated a fracture in the faceted grains.

In a video produced after the investigation at the accident scene (see video below) and in comments to viewers, Doug Chabot of Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center [and a former AAC board member] warned skiers to “be really careful and paying attention to if the snowpack is changing as you’re skinning along. As soon as [these skiers] wrapped around to a slightly different aspect, the depth and snow structure changed. A stability test is one of many pieces of info that goes into deciding whether to ski or not. A poor test result is enough to turn around, yet the absence of that is not a green light to move forward…. The bottom line is that you should know that the snow is very stable if you are considering entering large, highly consequential avalanche terrain like the Fin.” (Source: Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.)

AVALANCHE COVERAGE IN ANAC: WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The 2021 edition of Accidents in North American Climbing introduced a new section of reports on backcountry skiing and snowboarding avalanches. Accidents has always covered mountaineering avalanches (including some ski mountaineering incidents), but the new 15-page section expanded our coverage to backcountry ski touring and snowboarding terrain, with 10 detailed reports and photos from December 2020 to April 2021. We’d like to know what you think: Did you read the new avalanche section? Did you think it was helpful and educational? Do you think this section was an appropriate use of pages in ANAC, or should the book stick exclusively with its traditional subject matter? Please fill out the 2 minutes survey. Thank you!

BACKCOUNTRY MEDICINE ON YOUR PHONE

Wilderness Medicine Reference is an information-packed app with diagnosis and treatment recommendations for many backcountry medical situations, plus prevention and evacuation checklists and strategies. Created by Karen Lapides, a longtime Colorado-based paramedic, wilderness medicine instructor, and Outward Bound mountaineering course director, the app is aimed at backcountry travelers with little medical training up to those with wilderness EMT certification. Nothing can replace formal wilderness medical training and practice, but for just 99 cents, this app offers an inexpensive and convenient field reference or backup.

THE SHARP END: GROUND FALL NEAR LAKE TAHOE

In Episode 72 of the Sharp End Podcast, climber Kyle Broxterman describes a serious trad climbing accident near Lake Tahoe, California. His attempt on a 5.11 trad climb ended when he fell and pulled out three wired nuts he’d placed for protection. Hear why Kyle is taking a step back from letting his ego drive his climbing and how he is managing his recovery from a terrible fall.

The monthly Prescription newsletter is supported by adidas Outdoor and the members of the American Alpine Club. Questions? Suggestions? Write to us at accidents@americanalpineclub.org.

Buried Treasure

Symon Welfringer during acclimatization for the south face of Sani Pakkush in Pakistan. The view is over the Toltar Glacier and up the Baltar Glacier, looking into the heart of the Batura Muztagh and beyond. Photo by Pierrick Fine

11 Minute Read

A Personal Guide to the 2021 AAJ

By Dougald MacDonald, Editor

Even though COVID-19 forced an abridgment of the American Alpine Journal—about 150 pages shorter than normal—it’s still very unlikely anyone has read the 2021 edition cover to cover, except for the editor in chief. That’s me. Each year, while editing the AAJ, I see gems in these pages that many readers may miss. So, here’s my annual insider’s guide to some memorable pieces from the 2021 edition, plus bonus photos that appear exclusively online. (To see the Buried Treasure guide to the 2020 AAJ, click here.) I hope these notes inspire you to take a second look at that AAJ sitting on your bedside table or in the reading basket in your bathroom. You never know what you might find!

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

North Howser Tower, Canada

Enticing double cracks on Voodoo Chile, a new route in the Bugaboos. Photo by Alik Berg

If you judge by Instagram likes, the most popular AAJ story of 2021 was Uisdean Hawthorn’s report about a new route up North Howser Tower in the Bugaboos. Yet I’m betting most people didn’t even notice the short report in the AAJ, mainly because this cool photo of an alluring double-cracks pitch—which attracted all the Instagram attention—appeared only online. With 11 pitches and a short 5.11+ crux, Voodoo Chile is a relatively accessible route up North Howser’s daunting west face—at least compared with the huge routes farther left. Every AAJ is packed with enticing objectives, but nothing is more enticing than a route one might actually try someday!

Photo by Bradford McArthur

Call of the Sirens, Canada

The AAJ is filled with great writing, but unless you’re interested in a particular climb or region, you might never read many stand-out pieces. Lots of readers likely missed Jacob Cook’s saga about his three-year quest to climb a multi-pitch slab testpiece in Squamish, British Columbia, originally bolted by the late Marc-André Leclerc. In my opinion, no writer has done a better job of capturing the frustrating and occasionally magical intricacies of high-end slab climbing. Plus, the story has a cool surprise ending. If you didn’t see it, turn to page 103 of this year’s AAJ or read the full story here.

Sani Pakkush, Pakistan

Symon Welfringer during acclimatization for the south face of Sani Pakkush in Pakistan. The view is over the Toltar Glacier and up the Baltar Glacier, looking into the heart of the Batura Muztagh and beyond. Photo by Pierrick Fine

It’s difficult to publish panoramic photos effectively in the AAJ, especially when there’s a climber or other key element right in the middle of the photo, as is the case with the gorgeous image above. To make the most of a panorama in our 6-by-9-inch format, you’d have to run it across a full spread in the book, and in this case the climber would have disappeared into the “gutter” between the pages.

I always encourage readers to visit the online versions of stories like Symon Welfringer’s article about the south face of Sani Pakkush, because most of our stories have extra photos at the website. Pro tip: Drag photos of interesting peaks and walls to the desktop of your computer to blow them up for close examination.

 Pik Communism, Tajikistan

Iron-hard ice on the bitterly cold north face of Pik Communism in January 2020.

While editing the AAJ, I often think of the classic essay “Games Climbers Play,” by Lito Tejada-Flores, originally published in the 1967 Ascent. In a concept that seems obvious today but was novel at the time, Lito proposed that climbing was no longer one sport but instead “a collection of differing (though) related activities, each with its own adepts, distinctive terrain, problems and satisfactions, and perhaps most important, its own rules.” The games he outlined included bouldering, crag climbing, big walls, super-alpine, and more. Since then, the “games climbers play” have continued to expand in number and complexity, often providing new ways for climbers to enjoy mountains relatively close to home. 

All of which is a roundabout way to call attention to a report from Tajikistan in AAJ 2021, describing a new route up 7,495-meter Pik Communism, climbed by a Kyrgyz and Russian team in January 2020. The story also reveals a new “game” pursued by certain climbers in the former Soviet Union: the Winter Snow Leopard. Traditionally, Snow Leopards are mountaineers who have climbed the five great high-altitude mountains of the former USSR. Until 2020, this feat had never been completed in winter, though Kazakh climber Valery Khrishchaty climbed four of the five during the late 1980s and early ’90s. With his ascent of Pik Communism in January 2020, Sergey Seliverstov completed the quintet, followed shortly thereafter by Alexey Usatykh and Mikail Danichkin during the same expedition.

Mt. Logan, Canada

A long way from anywhere during the 2019 ski around Mt. Logan. Photo by Thomas Delfino

We used the COVID-19 travel hiatus to catch up on some expeditions in the AAJ that we had missed earlier. Among these reports, my personal favorite is one that I’d been chasing for a couple of years: an extraordinary French expedition to Mt. Logan in Canada in the spring of 2019. Thomas Delfino, Grégory Douillard, Alexandre Marchesseau, and Hélias Millerioux started from the village of Yakutat, Alaska, and over the next 48 days, team members walked, skied, and rafted more than 650 kilometers in a great arc around Mt. Logan. Along the way, three of the climbers summited Canada’s highest peak and made the most complete ski (and snowboard and monoski) descent of the enormous and technical east ridge. It was a tour de force, and as often happens in the AAJ, we had nowhere near enough pages to highlight their incredible story, but at the AAJ website you’ll find a map, lots of good photos, and a wonderful film of the expedition.

Oso Scary, Wyoming

The roped-solo first free ascent of the north face of Sundance Pinnacle in the Wind River Range was impressive. But it’s the subsequent bear story (and the brilliant route name) that’s most memorable in Kevin Heinrich's short report in AAJ 2021. His topo is pretty classy, too. Find Kevin’s Oso Scary story at publications.americanalpineclub.org.

Joe Brown, 1930 – 2020

Photo by John Cleare

In AAJ 2021 we published In Memoriam tributes to three great mountaineers from the United Kingdom: Joe Brown, Hamish MacInnes, and Doug Scott. The Joe Brown tribute was written by Ed Douglas, the leading mountaineering journalist in Great Britain in recent years. As with many of Ed’s articles, it is filled with insights and personal remembrances made possible by a long career of writing about (and climbing with) legends of the sport. I encourage you to read it at page 210 of this year’s book or at our website, or check out the longer version from which our piece was adapted, originally published at the British Mountaineering Council website. Ed serves as editor of The Alpine Journal, the annual publication of the Alpine Club in the U.K., which has been published since 1863—that’s more than 65 years older than the American Alpine Journal. Each year, Ed helps out the AAJ in many ways—it’s an honor to collaborate with him. 

Gros Morne National Park, Canada

Casey Shaw and Joe Terravechhia in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

Since the 1990s, successive editors of the AAJ have been hoping to publish a comprehensive article on the gigantic ice climbs of western Newfoundland. Joe Terravecchia and Casey Shaw, the leading protagonists of ice climbing in Gros Morne National Park, weren’t exactly opposed to publishing their climbs, but they did seem to stall for quite a long time—just long enough to climb all the plums. More recently, they’ve both been too busy with work and other pursuits to invest much time in writing an article. It took a third party—Alden Pellett from Vermont, himself one of the leading activists in Newfoundland ice climbing—to herd the cats and make this story happen.

I was especially happy to cajole Casey Shaw and Bernie Mailhot into writing personal accounts of some of their Newfoundland climbs. Both are delightful stories—Casey’s a loving account of the 1999 first ascent of  Captains Courageous, the tallest ice climb in eastern North America, and Bernie’s a very funny tale about a 2004 trip that epitomized the area’s difficult and rapidly changing conditions. Both pieces focused on the Newfoundlanders the two men befriended—a rich reminder that climbing expeditions are almost always as much about the people you meet as the routes you climb. 

This year in review and the AAJ’s Cutting Edge podcast are both presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker. 2021 was Hilleberg’s 50th year in business; it started as a forestry products company in Sweden and morphed into the tent maker we know today. Visit Hilleberg’s website to order “The Tent Handbook,” their uniquely informative catalog.