British climbers Geoff Cohen, Steve Kennedy and Bob Hamilton, along with American Paul Swienton, found solid snow with occasional rock moves and belays on the west face of Lama Lamani North. Twice over the course of the climb--once near the base and once near the summit--the team split into two parties, with Kennedy and Hamilton climbing slightly more technical mixed terrain "just for the fun of it," Cohen said in an email.

Reunited at the top, the four descended via the northwest face--the mountain's first ascent route taken in 2005--which required a mixture of downclimbing and rappelling.

The unnamed peak they climbed is located near a col formed by Lama Lamani and Jopuno. The latter peak was the expedition's original objective, but unsuitable approach conditions deferred their interest to Lama Lamani North.

Despite the large number of trekkers who come to the region, there is still potential for first ascents there, said Roger Payne, who along with Julie-Ann Clyma, Kunzang Bhutia and Sagar Rai made Lama Lamani North's first ascent in 2005. Payne, who has traveled to the region three times, believes that the south summits of Lama Lamani and Jopuno remain unclimbed.

In 2008, Americans Jason Halladay and Josh Smith climbed the West Ridge of Jopuno at AD+, negotiating rotten black shale and a difficult final snow slope to what they believed was the summit. After examining photos and route topos, Halladay, Smith and Payne determined that the team reached one of two high points on the ridge, though it remains unknown which is the true summit of the mountain. A 2001 climb, undertaken by Bhutia and Rai, may also have reached that same west summit.

It is clear that western Sikkim contains a wealth of unclimbed lines, including Jopuno's south ridge. "There is great potential for alpine-style first ascents to be made on many other peaks of around 5500m at grades of PD to D, and harder on some of the rock walls," Payne said.

Payne noted the opening of several Sikkim peaks to climbers in a September 7, 2008 Readers' Blog.

Sources: Roger Payne, Jason Halladay, Geoff Cohen, thebmc.co.uk

The sixth pitch climbs the corner (5.11-) to a semi-hanging stance where we added one bolt and one pin at the belay. The crux seventh pitch comes next: steep face (one new pin, 5.10R), then endurance crack climbing from fingers to fists for 90 feet (5.12a). Pitch 8 is 100 feet of steep crack climbing (5.11c) ending with a spectacular hold-studded roof. The second half of this pitch is new climbing in between Jack of Diamonds and Enos Mills Wall, including the 5.10+ roof. The final pitch traverses right for 10 feet into the Enos Mills Wall for 100 feet of 5.10 offwidth and another 60 feet of easier terrain to the top of the Diamond.

The aid cruxes from the first ascents proved some of the easiest free climbing. For example, the 5.10R start of the crux pitch was A4 on the first ascent of Jack of Diamonds, back in 1963.

Bruce and I rapped in from the top six different days, spending many hours finding the best, driest cracks and cleaning them of loose rock. Some days we were stormed off by 11 a.m., having hiked four hours to the summit just to get two or three hours on the Diamond (then another three hours down). We attempted to send the route August 21, but the crux pitch was inexplicably dripping with water (it had been dry even on wetter days). We freed all but 30 feet.

We came back on August 26 and left the car at 1:45 a.m. We began climbing off Broadway at about 6:15 a.m. The crux was dry, and we redpointed the route with no falls. We topped out at 5:15 p.m. after 11 hours of climbing, then hiked about 10 more minutes to the summit of Longs Peak. Our car-to-car time was 19:40.

Our new free route is safe and relatively solid--very high quality for the middle of the Diamond. It goes at V 5.12a, 9 pitches. We placed three bolts and three pins, in both cases two for lead protection and one at belays.

In 1985 Gian Carlo Grassi, Renzo Luzi and Mauro Rossi set out to climb the cleft after an unusually cold June. They found the chimney impassable and traversed into a side couloir to the right, establishing Phantom Direct (ED2/3: VI/5, ca. 1100m), the face's fourth ascent.

After watching the face for years, De Leo determined that the cleft could go and set out with his three partners when the right conditions developed. Climbing as two rope teams, the four set out in the mid afternoon on May 21 from chalets di Tronchey, reaching the base of the face around 7 p.m. Initially worried about the bergschrund crossing, the team found this obstacle easy, but the gullies they planned on climbing were veritable waterfalls. Still determined, the group bivied at the bergschrund and set out at 2 a.m. in colder conditions. Following the first 450m of the Phantom Direct, the climbers reached the base of the "monster" cleft around 7 a.m. Departing from the Phantom Direct they climbed into unknown terrain on ice too thin for stubbies. When they reached a wider snow bowl the four were ecstatic to see that the line of snowy weakness continued on higher, cutting through overhanging and difficult rock. The pitches varied between excellent ice, heady dry tooling and loose rock; at times the climbers were forced to clear the snow "bouchons" that crowded them in the narrow runnel. More than six hours after starting the monster, the four reached the top of the gullies, roughly a pitch below the Tronchey ridge.

The team had chosen not to bring a bolt kit and found the slabs separating them from the ridge impossible to protect without drilling. Instead, happy to have nearly finished the feature that had stymied Grassi, they began rappelling to the Pra Sec glacier. The descent took six hours.

De Leo told Up Climbing "Even more than the beauty and technicality of the pitches, this face amazed us, and this feeling overcome our initial repulsion. A person who knows how to be amazed, I have always said to myself, is someone who's incredibly alive."

Sources: Marcello Sanguineti, planetmountain.com, up-climbing.com, thebmc.co.uk

A committed all-around climber, Graftiaux greatly enjoyed alpinism and made annual trips to the Mont Blanc Range to climb classic routes, such as Voie Contamine on Aiguille du Moine (3412m) and the Gervasutti Pillar on Mont Blanc du Tacul (4248m). Rounding out her talents, Graftiaux had also mixed climbed M11 and ice climbed WI6. The French Alpine Club selected her for the 2008-2009 Groupe Excellence Alpinisme.

Originally from Belgium, Graftiaux moved to Grenoble, France, four years ago with the goal of becoming a qualified mountain guide at Ecole Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme (ENSA) in Chamonix.

On her profile on her website, Graftiaux said she was simply "born to climb."

Sources: Menno Boermans, chloegraftiaux.com, thebmc.co.uk, planetmountain.com, kairn.com

After trekking across Ruth Glacier, Ozturk, Smith and Wilkinson established base camp below the southwest face of the Mooses Tooth (10,335'), hoping to climb a new route before trying the traverse. They waited out a day of stormy weather before starting up the spire's fractured south face, navigating the bergschrund and scaling the col between Bears Tooth (10,070') and Mooses Tooth. Two hours of soloing and simulclimbing brought them to the foot of Mooses Tooth's south face. Here, Smith took the sharp end on the first section of runout climbing on loose rock. The subsequent pitch demanded five hours of hard aid climbing to complete, followed by challenging routefinding on more loose rock and some easy mixed climbing. The three climbers reached the summit of Mooses Tooth around 8 p.m. and rappelled to base camp via Ham and Eggs.

This foray is notable as the first ascent of the south face of Mooses Tooth. They named the outing Swamp Donkey Express (5.9+ A2+ plus some mixed climbing, 750m).

On May 28, Ozturk, Smith and Wilkinson began their attempt of the full Mooses Tooth traverse. But warm weather and isothermic snow "made for frequent and frustrating transitions between rock and mountain boots," Wilkinson said. While climbing the south ridge of the Sugar Tooth (8,000'), a route established last year by Ozturk and Smith while also attempting the Tooth Traverse, Ozturk took an "unexpected" fall, dragging their only lead rope over a sharp rock and cutting it to the core. Soon after, they dropped an ice tool. After bivouacking below the summit of the Sugar Tooth, the team was "somewhat disheartened by these setbacks and our generally slow progress in the sub-par conditions," and made the decision to bail, Wilkinson said. They rappelled back to base camp via the couloir dividing the Sugar Tooth and the Eye Tooth.

The climbers idled in base camp for a few days, considering another attempt on the traverse, but warm weather persisted. On June 2, the trio left Ruth Glacier and flew back to Talkeetna.

Sources: Renan Ozturk, Freddie Wilkinson, thenamelesscreature.com, neverstopexploring.com

The traverse was attempted in 2004 by Jon Walsh and Andre Ike, who became the first to traverse all four spires of the Witches Tits and Cat's Ears (making the first ascent of the East Witches Tit in the process), but were stopped at the base of The Thumb by a chopped rope. In 2006, Jed Brown and I applied for a Fellowship Fund Grant to try the traverse. The rejection of our grant application was actually a blessing in disguise, because we switched plans to a less expensive trip, and ended up climbing The Entropy Wall on Mt. Moffit, still one of my best climbs ever.

Inspired by our friends Dave Burdick and John Frieh's execution of such a plan last summer on Burkett Needle, Mikey and I planned our trip in the "smash and grab" style: Rather than sit on a glacier in the rain for weeks, we would watch the weather forecast from Seattle. When it looked good, we'd buy a last-minute ticket to Petersburg, "smash" into the range (with the assistance of a helicopter), and "grab" a summit (or five) before the weather gods even realized they let us slip by...

So, on the evening of Tuesday, August 10, we bought tickets for Petersburg departing Seattle the following morning. We spent the remainder of Wednesday organizing ourselves in Petersburg with the generous help of Dieter Klose, and buying food and fuel (be warned: isobutane canisters in Petersburg cost 12 dollars apiece). On the 12th we flew with Temsco Helicopters from Petersburg to a little basecamp below Devil's Thumb's southeast face.

On Friday morning (August 13) we departed our basecamp at the leisurely hour of 8 a.m., and made a descending, traversing approach to the base of the Witches Tits. We climbed to the notch between the two Witches Tits by the Edwards-Millar route, with the Walsh-Ike "Witches Cleavage" variation. The climbing on the upper headwall was absolutely outstanding, and certainly some of the highest-quality alpine rock I've ever touched. The unrepeated Edwards-Millar route looks amazing, as does the unrepeated Belcourt-Rackliffe route. We left our packs in the notch between the Tits, and quickly tagged the summit of the West Witches Tit. We then picked our packs back up, climbed up to the summit of the East Witches Tit for its second ascent, and rappelled the east ridge of the East Tit to a tight bivy in the Tits-Ears col. This col had the last snow or ice we encountered before the summit of Devil's Thumb, so we had to leave with the weight of 8 liters of water in our packs.

On Saturday morning we again left our bivy at a leisurely hour, and made one rappel to the north side of the ridge, to gain the Elias-McMullen route on the Cat's Ears. We climbed the Elias-McMullen route to the Cat's Brow (the notch between the ears), and then tagged each of the spectacular Cat's Ears summits in single pitches from the Cat's Brow. We knew that Walsh and Ike had rappelled to the south from the Cat's Brow, and chopped their rope regaining the ridgecrest in the extremely chossy Ears-Thumb gully. Hoping to avoid a similar fate, we decided to instead rappel the east face of the East Cat's Ear, directly into the Ears-Thumb notch. Our plan worked to avoid the chossy gully, although it was very intimidating to rappel the dead-vertical to slightly overhanging east face of the East Ear. From the Ears-Thumb notch, we climbed two pitches up Devil's Thumb's West Buttress to a five-star bivy ledge.

On Sunday we finally got an earlier start, and continued up the West Buttress of The Thumb. There was one tricky roof that Mikey surmounted with a mix of free and aid climbing, but the majority of the West Buttress was moderate climbing, in the 5.6-5.9 range, on fantastic rock. I think it is a route worthy of classic status. The West Buttress had been almost climbed in 1990 by Jim Haberl, Mike Down, and Alastair Foreman, who retreated one pitch below the summit ridge in a storm. We found their rappel anchors all the way up, and their last anchor indeed looked like it had been made in haste: a sketchy-looking block, backed up with a friend.

We continued up the summit ridge, tagged the summit, and kept traversing to the descent of the southeast face. The descent, down a variation of the Beckey Route, was long and tedious (particularly because it was so melted out, and there were lots and lots of loose blocks), but we eventually made it into our camp at 10:30 p.m.

It was a fantastic climb, in a beautiful area. It was higher in quality than difficulty, and is certainly a traverse that I'd recommend to others. We're calling it the Diablo Traverse, and the grade we climbed it at is I think 5.10 A2. Thanks to Jon Walsh and Andre Ike for laying the groundwork, and thanks a ton to Dieter Klose for the original inspiration and logistical help in Petersburg.

Please visit colinhaley.blogspot.com and mikeylikesrocks.com

Going light, with just one rope and no bivy gear, Kellogg and Johnson rappelled to the base of the west face on the morning of August 11 and began climbing. More than 1,000' of excellent 5.10-5.11 dihedrals were tempered by the need to aid through waterlogged rock, moss and the occasional loose block or expanding flake. Pitch 3 was the superlative, Johnson said: "excellent 5.10+ fingers in a corner on perfect white granite."

Their first chance to rest was 2 a.m., at the end of Pitch 10, where they found "grim wet ledges in the back of a shallow chimney." Here they brewed and recharged for four hours, the weather deteriorating as the sun rose. After two pitches they escaped the dark chimney. Wind, thunder and a snow squall did not turn the pair around but convinced them to follow the Southwest Face route rather than continue their independent line.

At 7 p.m. they crested the summit ridge, topping out soon after. Almost.

"On the way home, looking at photos we realized that in the complete white out we had been standing on the wrong side of the summit gendarme (some 20 feet shy)," Johnson said. "So I suppose it was merely an attempt!"

They left no fixed gear aside from a bit of tat on Pitch 11, used to lower out. The pair returned to their car around 1 a.m. on August 13.

This September, Kellogg and Johnson are hoping to make the first ascent of Seerdengpu (5592m), in China's Sichuan Province. Since neither partner had climbed North Howser Tower previously, and with this upcoming expedition on their minds, Johnson explained: "We thought attempting a new line would be more appropriate than reading a topo."

Sources: Dylan Johnson, Chad Kellogg

On July 27, Arnold, Senf, Siegrist and Austrian Mario Walder arrived in El Chalten, where they found a deep layer of new snow (the team waded up to their waists) and bitter cold (temperatures down to -25 degrees C). They ferried loads to the base of the wall on the last day of July as a weather window began to open. The climbers minus Walder, who was experiencing knee problems, started climbing the next morning, August 1. They bivied on the remains of an ice avalanche between Torre Egger and Cerro Standhardt that night, woke up at 5:30 a.m. and pushed up icy cracks for 22 hours to reach the base of the summit mushroom, where they chopped out an ice seat. Siegrist said the team got four hours of poor sleep there, waiting for daylight: "All three of us dozed and entertained dark thoughts about what it would be like, so close to the summit, to find ourselves in a full-blown Patagonian storm." The next morning, August 3, they reached the summit.

Siegrist had experience winter climbing in Patagonia previously. In 1999--with Thomas Ulrich, David Fasel and Greg Crouch--he made the first winter ascent of Cerro Torre's West Face. But it was his summer ascent of the Torre Egger route Titanic that proved most advantageous. Siegrist recalled an ice canal on the south side of the summit mushroom; the team rediscovered the passage, which led them up three pitches to the top.

Sources: Stephan Siegrist, Hans Ambuhl, 2000 AAJ, planetmountain.com

Mountain.ru recently reported that Gleb Sokolov and Alexander Kirikov have climbed a new route on Khan Tengri (7010m), the second highest peak in the Tien Shan. The Russians reached the summit on August 8 after six days on the wall.

Sokolov, with countryman Vitaly Gorelik, was nominated for the 2010 Piolet d'Or for their climb (ED, 2400m) on Peak Pobeda (7439m), Kyrgyzstan.

Alpinist will post more information about the new route on Khan Tengri as it becomes available.

It wasn't until the climbers succeeded and returned to New Zealand that they discovered their ascent was not, in fact, Dogonomba's first summit. Research revealed that an American guide had soloed the peak in late 2008 via a similar route up the west ridge.

While Pfluger described the ill-fated coincidence as a "disappointment," the New Zealanders were pleased to reach the summit after a string of logistical challenges. When heavy snowfall prevented Church and Pfluger from reaching the base, they decided to attempt the neighboring Little Konka (5928m); that climb proved unsuccessful. Pfluger explained, however, that this eight-day detour contributed to feeling "really well acclimatized and fit" to return to their main objective.

Pfluger and Church approached Dogonomba and established advanced base camp at 4400 meters. For the next two days they made several load carries to a high camp at 5300 meters, then went for the summit along a "glaciated ridge line with some steep snow sections and several big crevasses," the team wrote.

The summit ridge proved the technical crux of the route, with two pitches of "mixed rock/loose snow on an ice base" separating the low and high peaks. During this part of the climb, the weather deteriorated. As a result, only Church completed the final pitch. The team descended after a night at their high camp.

The ascent is not the first notable climb by New Zealanders in the range. Pat Deavoll has climbed various other peaks in the area, her most impressive achievement there being the first ascent of Haizi Shan (aka Ja-ra or Yala--the King of the Mountains--5833m) in 2006; the year before, Kiwis Sean Waters and Joe Kipax established the first routes up Daddomain (6380m) and Longemain (6294m), to the south, and noted the unclimbed Dogonomba as "worthy of attention." It was this report and conversations with Tamotsu Nakamura and the Sichuan Mountaineering Association that led Church and Yvonne to Dogonomba.

Sources: Tim Church, Yvonne Pfluger, Kester Brown