Table of Contents

features

42 Mountain Profile: The Picket Range

The Ark of the Wild

70 Sendero Luminoso

In January 2014, Alex Honnold free soloed El Sendero Luminoso, a big wall in Mexico's El Potrero Chico. Today, he looks beyond the momentary purity of ascent at the complex impacts of professional climbing.

departments

11 The Sharp End: A Wild of One's Own

Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives searches for "A Wild of One's Own" in the annals of women's mountaineering history in Western Canada and the writings of Mary Schaeffer Warren, who urges, "...leave your world, your recognized world, and plunge into the vast unknown."

15 Letters

A reader reminds us of his ascent on Mitre Peak. Another suggests a more pleasant version of saying "#@%!" And Alpinist's history guru recalls a meeting with Sun-woo Nam.

17 On Belay

The Painter in the Cave.

27 Tool Users: Wart Hog

Matt Samet peels back the history of the Wart Hog from tusk to tail.

29 The Climbing Life

89 Wired

Everest Interrupted.

97 Off Belay

The Last American Dirtbag (TLAD Industries) seeks a qualified assistant dirtbag.