Weekly Feature Archives

Wyoming's Range of Light

Posted August 24, 2016

Royal Robbins recounts a sojourn to the Winds in 1964: "Two things that you don't usually find in the Sierra, but that you can expect in the Wind Rivers, are a thick population of mosquitoes and bad weather in the summer. Also, in certain areas you may encounter enormous herds of sheep."

Alpinist 55 Mountain Profile Essays | Wind River Range

Posted August 23, 2016

Read all seven essays by Royal Robbins, Doug Robinson, Jeff Lowe, Raymond G. Jacquot, Sibylle Hechtel, Joe Kelsey and Dick Dorworth from the Mountain Profile of the Wind River Range. —Ed.

Typologies of Silence

Posted August 5, 2016

In "Typologies of Silence," the Sharp End article for Alpinist 55, Editor-in-chief Katie Ives discusses some of the muted stories in accounts of early American mountaineering—as well as the efforts to create a more inclusive history today.

Between the Earth and the Sky

Posted August 4, 2016

For our Climbing Life department in Alpinist 55, high school student Kai Lightner writes about his first multipitch traditional climb on Stone Mountain, with Yosemite pioneer Doug Robinson. For more, wide-ranging stories from our print magazine contributors, pick up a copy of Alpinist 55.

Poetry Feature: Three Poems by David Wilson

Posted July 31, 2016

"Tell me again about being single-minded, / about couloirs bulging with fat blue ice / and dawn arriving high in the Alps; / how a slope exists at a perfect angle / where it all might kick in again." Read three poems from David Wilson.

Home: an Index

Posted July 21, 2016

"There is glacial power in language, in naming things. I am here because my mother gave me a vocabulary for motion," poet Devi Lockwood writes about her experiences growing up as the daughter of a mountaineer—in this essay for Alpinist 55. Subscribe today or preorder at the Alpinist.com store.

Local Hero: Clint Helander on Mark Westman

Posted June 22, 2016

Why Mark Westman should be famous (A postscript to Alpinist 19). May's everlasting sun hovered in a low, lateral arc over the Alaska Range, bathing the massive peaks in fiery light. Waves of clouds washed up the Kahiltna Glacier and flooded the lower mountains in an ever-darkening fog.

The Path

Posted June 13, 2016

It's 3 a.m., July 2015. We walk through the darkness, headlamps illuminating our path. A cool breeze awakens the trees, and the creek bubbles to life as we switchback up the trail. Our movement becomes rhythmic. Three hours pass rapidly. Faint light paints the horizon, and the mountains are stirred awake...

Glen Denny Remembers Valley Walls in the 1960s

Posted June 10, 2016

Valley Walls: A Memoir of Climbing and Living in Yosemite by Glen Denny. Published by Yosemite Conservancy, May 2016. 210 pages. Paperback. $18.95. During the 1960s, Glen Denny, a young college dropout and budding photographer, was part of the famous crew of riff-raff climbers who spent their days in Yosemite Valley, honing skills...

Poetry Feature: "Kalymnos"

Posted June 7, 2016

This poem was inspired by climbing in Kalymnos for the first time a few years ago and thinking about that point in the day when you feel as if you've climbed out of your own skin.