Published
The 2000 ordeal of four kidnapped climbers in Kyrgyzstan was only the beginning.
Last summer, the headless corpse of Reinhold Messner's brother Günther emerged out of the snowmelt on Pakistan's Nanga Parbat. After 35 years of nasty arguments and accusations, would the discovery finally reveal who was to blame for his death and solve one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries?
In the red-rock high ground of South Africa, climbing still comes down to black and white. Greg Child goes on belay to explore the crags, boulder gardens, and post-Apartheid complications of the world's next climbing mecca.
It's climbing season again on Everest. And as hundreds of summit hopefuls converge at Base Camp, the great debate persists: Has the Big E become the Big Easy? Alpinists Greg Child and Dave Hahn take sides.
Three years after a notorious kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, new evidence and big changes emerge from Central Asia
Thirty years after losing his brother on a Himalayan peak, Reinhold Messner battles ugly accusations that he abandoned him at the top.
Meet the toughest wall rats ever. Some of them are still redpointing routes (fused ankles and broken backs notwithstanding). Or running their own companies. Or passing the torch to young acolytes. A portrait gallery of American climbing's greatest generation.