Table of Contents

profile

Howser Towers

Soaring splitters, glacial approaches and an alpine ambiance characterize the Bugaboos, where some of the great walls of the world reside. Topher Donahue recounts the history of climbing on one of the greatest, while Jim McCarthy, Yvon Chouinard, Chris Jones, Jerry Gore and Cedar Wright recall their adventures on the shimmering gray granite of the Canadian Rockies.

climbing notes

GRAND CAPUCIN, VOIE PETIT

TAGOUIMMT N'TSOUIANNT, FANTASIA

TRAPECIO, LOWE ROUTE

CHOMO LONZO

CHOGOLISA GLACIER

DEMIRKAZIK AND PARMAKKAYA

CAYESH

CHOLATSE, TAWOCHE

LA ESFINGE

SCHEIDEGGWETTERHORN

editors note

Rescued

letters

Letters

The trouble with Chongo.

faces

Naoe Sakashita

While Many of his peers died in the mountains, Naoe Sakashita keeps climbing, from K2 to Kanchenjunga. With any luck, his second life will be as fortunate as his first.

climbing life

The Climbing Life

Observations from the field.

first ascent

First Ascent

Today, Bonnie's Roof is one of the most popular routes in the Gunks, if not the country. But fifty years ago, the outcome was still very much uncertain.

off belay

Off Belay

Tidal Rhythmites, Big Cottonwood Canyon.

features content

Angel's Gold

The tepuis of Venezuela have drawn adventurers for more than 500 years. When a husband-and-wife team go prospecting for big-wall treasure, they find themselves part of a long-standing legacy.

A Climber's Tale

Inauspicious beginnings in the Himalaya have not dissuaded France's smallest alpinist from achieving the greatest things. For one climber, no more Annapurnas has finally taken on new meaning.

The Rat Diaries

The red book was, to a young climbing artist, a literal blank book of possibility. The genesis of the rat diaries—and of a cartoonist whose work has captured the absurdities of climbing for a generation.

The Revision of History

As mountains such as K2, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna and Broad Peak celebrate their fifty-year anniversaries, their histories are being revised, sometimes by pundits who had nothing to do with the first ascents. How valid is the revision of history when it comes to our climbing?