Table of Contents

features

A Quartet for Silent Lands

A team of French and Argentinean alpinists—Lise Billon, Antoine Moineville, Diego Simari and Jerome Sullivan Sullivan—journey to the western edge of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. Climbing a new route on Cerro Riso Patron, they encounter a realm so vast and unfamiliar they need all four of their imaginations to tell even part of the tale.

Mountain Profile: Zion National Park

In 1904 the artist Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh wrote of the landscape that became Zion National Park: "Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered into our minds!... There is almost nothing to compare to it. Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon, of immensity; the Yellowstone, of singularity; the Yosemite, of altitude; the ocean, of power; this great temple, of eternity."

Through the Field

Ever since he started climbing, Graham Zimmerman imagined alpinism as a form of pilgrimage. When he gets a chance to visit the Karakoram Range with Steve Swenson, Scott Bennett and Hajji Ghulam Rasool, he realizes the goal might be different than he'd thought.

departments

Full Value

Hoping to make Nepali alpinists more visible—and to boost a struggling local economy—Mingma Gyalje Sherpa decides to solo a peak above his village in the Rolwaling Himal.

Letters: Fire in the Cascades

In which a reader, asking for replacement copy of Alpinist 43, shares a grim tale of how the original was lost.

Off Belay

Pat Ament pays tribute to Mort Hempel (1943-2015), bard of the Golden Age.

On Belay

Born in Taiwan, Szu-ting Yi first learned to climb in the States. Years later, establishing routes in the Qionglai Mountains, she explores the intersections of cultures that formed her vision of alpinism. Meanwhile, Derek Franz recounts the tricks behind an Indian Creek classic, and Andy Kirkpatrick finds a novel use for a hefty book.

Sharp End: The Ice World, Beyond

During the Victorian Age, an intrepid group of women helped pioneer winter mountaineering—only to have their contributions largely vanish from mainstream history.

The Climbing Life

Douglas Pope tries to make it work. Claire J. Carter finds solid ground. Bree Loewen goes on a rescue. Rachel Fixsen hears snakes in the wall.

Tool Users

Ross Taylor, studying the evolution of footwear, present a sticky topic.

Wired: The Bighorn Writers Convention

Mark Jenkins recounts a tale of three climbing writers discussing their craft while making probable first ascents in Wyoming's Cloud Peak Wilderness.