Climbing
ArchiveOne of lifes simple pleasures is undoubtedly snow falling on a tent while youre dozing inside, enveloped in a cozy, warm, down cocoon. And, oh, how quickly that pleasure turns to pain when the tent is perched at 6,300 meters (20,669 feet) and the snow is being…
Late June 2010, I teamed up with my regular 14er partners, Patrick and Robert to complete some unfinished business. The 14er combination of Castle, 14265', and Conundrum, 14060', stand outside of Aspen at the end of a long mining dirt road. I had completed both in 2009, (see the…
After the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong is scheduled to compete again in this year's Leadville 100, according to Denver's 9news.com. Past champions Dave Wiens and Lance Armstrong will…
We awoke to the sound of driving wind and blowing snow battering the walls of the tent. It wasnt the kind of storm that made you start scratching out a will on the side of your water bottle, but unzipping the tent door a crack and getting…
A preliminary report has Alex Honnold breaking at least one speed record after solo climbing the Regular Northwest Face on Half Dome and The Nose, according to alpinist.com. For more on the story, check out Honnold Flies Up The…
Im just about to fall asleep when I hear a sharp crack from the ice directly beneath me. Im not a huge fan of crevasses, and something like this would normally send me flying from the tent like I was shot from a cannon, but tonight Im…
窪蹋勛圖厙 in Aspen: Catching Up With Melissa Arnot from 窪蹋勛圖厙 Magazine on Vimeo. Climber Melissa Arnot recently became the first American woman to summit Everest three times. (She's bagged Mount Rainier 73 times.) We caught up with her at…
8:30 a.m. The pit, in and of itself, was inconclusive. When pressured with the kind of force that would represent a skier executing a silky smooth jump turn, a layer did, in fact, release, but it wasnt the kind of sheer that shrinks your cojones and sends you tiptoeing…
Climbers on the lower slopes of Hvannadalshn繳kur (Photo by Stephen Regenold) By Stephen Regenold From the summit ridge on Hvannadalshn繳kur, Iceland’s highest peak, the world dropped away to a blanket of clouds. It was late May, and I’d come from far below,…
The courtship has begun. Yesterday we made a reconnaissance mission up the Gondogoro glacier to catch a glimpse of the lovely face of Laila Peak. It was a perfect day–blazing sun, not a breath of wind, not a cloud in the sky. Frippe and I were the…
There are 54 'official' Colorado 14ers mountains rising above 14,000 feet and at least 300' from an adjacent saddle. An estimated 500,000 people climb on 53 of the 14ers each year without fees or permits, today. One, Culbera, is on private property and the owners charge $100 per climber.
Base camp. It seemed as though it took us forever but were finally here. Two days ago, we followed a line of 23 porters as they left the terraced fields of Hushe behind and headed into the magnificent Karakorum mountains. Smiling children followed us out of town…
With the controversial summit from the Tibet side by 13 year oldJordan Romero, China seems to feel enough is enough. Starting thisfall, 2010, climbers must be between 18 and 60 to be issued a permit. This was announced by the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) who manages mountaineering in…
Pemba Dorje Sherpa, a Nepalese Sherpa who holds the record for the fastest ascent ofEverest (eight hours and ten minutesin 2004) is hoping to take a local child to the summit after 13-year-old American Jordan Romero became the youngest person to climb the mountain last…
A climber who went missing Saturday on Mount Rainier is now presumed dead, according to the Seattle Times.On Saturday, 11 climbers were overtaken by an avalanche, and all were pulled out by fellow climbers but one. The climber is believed to be a 27-year-old man from Olympia,…
In the mountains, flexibility goes a long, long way. We expected to be in Askole about now, but, hey, things change, right? Our original plan was to go from Skardu to the tiny village of Askole via a long and harrowing 4×4 trail. Its a narrow road–steep…
In the blink of an eye there was a razor to my neck. I had committed the ultimate rookie tourist error, suckered into compliance by a few friendly encounters that lulled me into dropping my guard. I was on the outskirts of a remote village in northern…
By recent standards, Everest 2010 was a safe and successful year.There were nearly 500 summits with 4 reported deaths, all on the north,and several injuries and rescues. The total Everest summits broke thetotal 5,000 (includes multiple summits by Sherpas and guides so perhaps 2500 individual summits) level since the…
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. Not sure how much of a fiesta were going to be able to drum up in this town, but my birthday wishes are all in place and Im super stoked to be here. A few days ago we flew…
Five hundred dollars can buy you a lot of things: an iPad, a mediocre bike, a lawn mower—or three days of glorious summertime freedom (transportation excluded). Here are our picks for the best do-it-yourself budget escapes in North America, plus outfitted adventures you can't afford to miss.
As-Salamu alaykum, or “peace be upon you” in Arabic. After months of preparation and one long day of traveling, Fredrik Ericsson and I have finally arrived in the capital of Pakistan on the first leg of our adventure. What adventure, you…
MountainFilm in Telluride, a 32-year-old festival, is a little meeting of big minds in a beautiful place. Granted, I'm not being particularly objective. 窪蹋勛圖厙 sponsors the festival and a group of editors from the magazine and producers from our new television channel spoke on a panel Sunday.
Jamie Clarke, Scott Simper, and the five climbing Sherpas–Kami Tsering, Arita, Ang Namgal, Pemba Dorje, and Sonam–of Expedition Hanesbrands, reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 17, the early side of…
Award-winning director Michael Brownof Serac 窪蹋勛圖厙 Films and the 窪蹋勛圖厙 窪蹋勛圖厙 Film Schoolkeeps sending advice down from the top of the world. If you’re an aspiring adventure filmmaker, you should pay attention. The latest installment, embedded above, offers…
The weekend saw perhaps 300 summits on both sides of Everest. The weather was mixed throughout, with blizzard conditions at times. The climbers had to work hard for their summits. There have been three deaths this season: two on the north side and one on nearby Lhotse. Taking most…
May 22nd, 2010 will be a day recorded in history: the youngestperson to summit Everest and the person with the most summits inhistory on the same same day yet from different sides. Apa Sherpa at age 47 made his 20th summit with the Eco Everest teamand on the other…
A huge wave of climbers on both sides of Everest have moved to theirrespective Advanced Base Camps and are on their summit bids starting Friday night, Nepal time.They are not only dealing with the extreme altitude of Everest but also an impending cyclone that could bring heavy snows and…
Dr. Peter Hackett is back. After a ten-year absence from the Khumbu Valley, a place hes either lived or visited consistently between 1974 and 2000, Hackett returned to Nepal this spring to work at Everest ER. In his ten-year absence, the Telluride-based doc who…
There were at least 60 summits on Monday morning, May 16th from thesouth side. And at least 6 on the north. Thewinds did pick up late Monday bringing a stop to this brief window. After a false start on Saturday night when the winds did notcooperate, teams huddled at…
Chad Kellogg, the 38-year-old Seattle-based climber attempting to break the speed ascent record on Mount Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen, stopped by Expedition Hanesbrands site at Base Camp last evening to check in on the…
We can summarize the week in one word: weather. After the excitementof summits on May 5th and 7th, teams on both sides watched this week asthe jet stream sat parked on the summit of Everest creating a hugeplume of ice crystals that provided second thoughts on going to thesummit.
Combine the total number of Mount Everest summits of all the seasoned mountaineers at Base Camp this season–Dave Hahn, Apa Sherpa, Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Dr. Peter Hackett, Russell…
More teams have made the decision for a summit bid this weekend. Thelatest include the Malta Everest team, half of Peak Freaks and a twoperson team from First Ascent. They are now at camp 2. Why are theseclimbers going to the top in marginal weather? Well maybe the weatherwill not…
With several teams targeting Sunday, May 16th as a summit window,the question of rescues often comes to mind; especially if the weatherlooks marginal as this one does. Followers of Everest know that rescues are difficult and sometimes impossible above base camp or 17,500'. In his book, Into…
Jamie Clarke and Scott Simper, Expedition Hanesbrands climbing team, have been planning their Everest expedition for more than two years. The day has finally come for the 42-year-old Calgary mountaineer and adventurer…
Most climbers get a little restless in Base Camp. Theres not a lot to do other than read the latest weather report, eat, sleep, sharpen crampons, take a Sherpa shower, and wait for a decent summit window. Cory Richards, on the other…
This was a busy week on Everest with the first summits for the 2010season along with a risky gamble. And several accidents and, sadly, areported death on nearby Lhotse. A team of nine Sherpas fixed the ropes to the summit on the southside. They included Sherpas from IMG, Alpine…
Leif Whittaker shows you Everest Base Camp in a film shot by Michael Brown of Serac 窪蹋勛圖厙 Films. Want to shoot your own…
Six a.m. at Everest Base Camp and I wake to the sound of a Nepali screaming into a cell phone. A few days ago a new cell tower was installed at Gorak Shep (translation: Dead Bird), the last Khumbu Valley outpost a thousand feet below us, and…
Eric Simonson's IMG Blog is noting the first summits of 2010 onEverest. As expected it came on the south side from the Sherpa teamfixing lines to the top. Sherpas from AAI and Himex were also on the team and I will report their names as soon as I receive…
Its Day Six of Expedition Hanesbrands trek to Everest Base Camp. Weve passed the14,000-foot mark and are spending a relaxing layover day in Pheriche. The view from the window of the Himalayan Hotel is a maze of stone walls, most of which enclose a very large yak.
Thereare good weeks and bad weeks on Everest, a bad week is when someonedies. On Monday, April 26, Hungarian climber Laszlo Varkonyi was sweptinto a crevasse by an avalanche on the North Col. A desperate searchensued, however, by Thursday, the search was called off. The entire north side was…
Oh Eun-sun of South Korea claimed a summit of Annapurna earlier this week, which would make her the first woman to summit all 14 of the world's tallest mountains–except for the fact that her total check list of achievements is in hot dispute within…
On one of my Everest climbs, I was told outright – “If you can't getto camp 3 in under 5 hours, you are out.” After a discussion with mygrim reaper on people skills, the logic of the statement made sense.Speed is your friend on any mountain, much less the…
You never know who youre going to run into in the lobby of the Hotel Yak & Yeti. The former royal palace, with its scarlet lobby chairs, baby grand piano, and bar that serves a cold Tuburg beer, is the…
The weather on both sides is proving difficult even stopping theSherpas from fixing the route above camp 3 on the Lhotse Face. So mostclimbers are resting in their -40F sleeping bags, reading or playingcards in the dining tents. The Sherpas continue to carry oxygen bottlesto camp 2 in anticipation of…
There was a large avalanche near the North Col on Monday, Tibettime. Before going further, remember that breaking news of accidentsfrom Everest, especially from the north side, in almost every case isinaccurate. However, many teams are posting updates on their websitesto inform family members of the status of their…
Prayer flags , worn by the wind, strung between trees just outside of Patagonia, Arizona (穢 Jay Graham / drr.net)Over the coming months, 窪蹋勛圖厙 will be posting interviews with adventurers, environmentalists, filmmakers, and others conducted by Mountainfilm. Many of the icons appearing at this year's…
For most Everest climbers this is week three or four away from home.They are making good on their acclimatization efforts with over 100climbers now having spent a night or two as high as camp 2 on the southhowever significantly fewer even touching the North Col on the north. The…
This season, among other dubious firsts, Mount Everest will see a summit bid by the youngest climber, 13-year-old Jordan Romero, and the first attempt by a climber with an artificial hip, 65-year-old Don Healy. One bright spot: Draper, Utah–based Apa Sherpa, who first summited the peak in 1990 with Rob…
In the age of social media, a group of celebrities demonstrate that "raising awareness" isn't always code for self-congratulation.
By Stephen Regenold For three weeks in April, I put my entire life on hold to trek in the Khumbu Region of Nepal. As a part of Expedition Hanesbrands, a major mountaineering initiative led bythe Canadian climber…
Climbers are making great progress with their acclimatizationrotations on both sides of Everest. The Sherpas are now starting to fixthe ropes to camp 3 high on the Lhotse Face – a great sign. On thenorth, 窪蹋勛圖厙 Peaks is looking to move to the North Col For some teams, the…
Love Acadia, the Tetons, and the Grand Canyon? Wait until you meet their crazy little cousins.
Right around the time I started working at 窪蹋勛圖厙, the editor Mark Bryant assigned Jon Krakauer a story that required climbing Mount Everest. The office was always supercharged, but in the weeks leading up to Krakauers May 1996 summit, the intensity at…
Another good week on Everest with teams settling into base camp onboth sides of the mountain. Alpine Ascents was the last large team toarrive at south BC on Wednesday. They spent their time adjusting to thehigh altitudes of over 17,000'. Teams conducted their Pujas and evenpracticed some ladder walking…
Right on schedule, the second week of April, camps 1 and 2 arealready in according to this email I revived from Phil Crampton ofAltitude Junkies: My Sherpas have already established camp one and camptwo so we plan to continue to stock camp two in anticipation of theclimbers sleeping there.
RMI and Peak Freaks have arrived in Everest Base Camp in Nepal. The first of many. It is critical to take your time getting to BC. Tim Rippel explainsthat two of his climbers are going lower, not higher, due to the impactof altitude. He does an excellent job of…
This spring Ill be at Everest Base Camp for a month as theexpedition journalist for Expedition Hanesbrands, a team led by Jamie Clarke, a Canadianmountaineer who will attempt his second summit of the worlds highestmountain. (You can follow the expedition…
Kathmandu ; photo by Wonderlane Jordan Romero, the 13-year-old attempting to become the youngest to summit Everest, landed in Kathmandu late Wednesday, around midnight local time. Team Romero is staying in the city to organize their gear and work with sherpas before…
Bruce Barcott profiled Jordan Romero in our April issue. Romero is 13 an attempting to become the youngest person to climb both Everest and the Seven Summits. While…
The 2010 Teva Mountain Games climbing events have been announced. The games will be held in Vail, CO from June 3-6 and feature climbing events such as the IFSC Bouldering World Cup (the only World Cup climbing event in the U.S.) and the Citizen…
This week, the majority of the 2010 expeditions are working theirway up the Khumbu towards Everest Base Camp on the south side. Permitsand visas have now been issued for north teams and they have leftKathmandu, crossed the boarder and are already in Tingri and otherTibetan villages. We can expect…
This past week saw Everest 2010 come alive; and real for theclimbers and families back home. Teams came and left Kathmandu asweather lifted enough for more flights to Lukla. Multiple dispatchesspoke of uneventful landings at the dangerous airstrip and then themore peaceful start to the trek to base camp.
One measure of climbing difficulty is the rating and climbing has aterminology of it's own. You read that she just redpointed a 5.12c andwonder if this was something from NASA, or Congress. I have seen Everest described as a simple “walk-up” meaning that noactual climbing is involved so I…
Chad Kellogg, 38, will attempt to set a speed record on Mt. Everest without oxygen.* Kellogg will spend five to six weeks preparing, learning the route, and establishing camps. For the journey, he plans to start going up through the…
And the season begins. This week, climbers started arriving inKathmandu. Some immediately tried to get to Lukla, without success, andothers tried to get into Tibet, without success. However, as we enter Sunday in Nepal, the clouds broke and flights to Luklastarted again. I am receiving notes from climbers…
Climbers continue to stream into Kathmandu from all around theworld. I updated the expedition count and can already identify over150 named climbers just on the south side and over 50 on the north. But the true number could easily exceed 350 total on both sides. Toput this in context,…
窪蹋勛圖厙 readers entered the Expedition of a Lifetime contest to win a five-day climbing expedition of Mt. Rainier with legendary guides, Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker plus First Ascent gear. Entrants were required…
On my first Himalayan expedition, I spent $1 per character to sendan email. “Hi, I’m back safely” costs $19! How times have changed. Twittering from the Top is not unheard of today. Expeditions sendemails, pictures and videos from trek to summit – all for pennies.Social media is a key…
Cruise ships and wildlife buses? The tourist staples miss the point of Alaska: It's the last real place to find an epic, crowd-free adventure on American soil. We've scoured the state for the best wilderness lodges, river trips, lonely highways, and DIY escapes. Bear mace not included.
These days, cutting-edge expeditions often happen because gear companies believe there's promotional gold in the combination of top outdoor athletes, dream adventures (like skiing first descents in the mountains of Antarctica), and cool Web images from the bottom of the world. Does it work? Heck if I know. But it sure was fun being a content provider.
Prayer flags , worn by the wind, strung between trees just outside of Patagonia, Arizona (穢 Jay Graham / drr.net) Over the coming months, 窪蹋勛圖厙 will be posting interviews with adventurers, environmentalists, filmmakers, and others conducted by Mountainfilm. Many of the icons appearing at this…
A scientific survey stated women find men who rock climb more attractive, according to ukclimbing.com. The report also stated men liked women who practice Yoga and cook. In a shocking revelation, men who enjoy Cheetos and Guitar Hero did…
Ina few weeks climbers will trade their warm homes and soft beds for twomonths of bitter cold, extreme heat and mind numbing oxygen deprivationas they seek to stand on the top of the world. I will be covering this season as I have for the past 8 years as…
It's not enough to be at the forefront. In an era when everything has supposedly been done, these adventure icons ignore convention, court risk, and let their passion lead the way.
Don't like our list? Tell us your picks for the 10 greatest adventurers.
The first ascent of a giant north face in northern China, completed last summer by Americans Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster with Scottish climber Bruce Normand, is one of five nominees for this years Piolets d'Or, states…
Lei Wang may be about to accomplish something by her calculations only nine other peoplehave done thus far: stand on top of the 7 Summits and ski the lastdegree to north and south poles assuming she summits Everest about 3months from now. Growing up in China, Lei spent…