Weekly Feature Archives

Remembering Sir Edmund Hillary

Posted February 13, 2008

Forty Kiwi mountaineers raised their axes as one to form the New Zealand Alpine Club's honor guard when Sir Edmund Hillary's coffin emerged...

Inspirations, Part III: Gervasutti's Climbs

Posted February 6, 2008

Simon Richardson shares his inspiration: Giusto Gervasutti. "As a teenager, consumed by a newfound passion for mountaineering, I had a voracious appetite for climbing books. I read my way through the school library and then the local town library, seeking out more adventures and experiences on the written page, so that I could gauge my own faltering beginnings in the sport."

Inspirations, Part II: High Alaska

Posted January 30, 2008

Kelly Cordes and Masatoshi Kuriaki share their inspiration. "High Alaska, the classic from Jonathan Waterman, started it all for me. But different writings have influenced me in different ways at different times. For me, influence has come from photos, words and people."

The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival

Posted January 23, 2008

Four nights. Twenty-two films. Eight premieres. One Grand Prize winner. $7,000+ raised for Surf Aid International. One bag of trash.

Ouray 2008: A Video Story

Posted January 16, 2008

There are over a hundred lines in the Ouray Ice Park, but—if you're actually looking to climb—any veteran's recommendation is: "Wake up at 6 a.m., claim a line, and lap it all day. Best of luck." Yet competition morning, January 12th, was different, if only for a few minutes.

Soloing the Diamond: A Photo Essay

Posted January 9, 2008

"It may sound strange, but it was as though a period of my life was ending this spring. At first I was grieving for the past and very lost, but eventually I had to learn how to let go, and I entered a new life."

Inspirations, Part I: Vince Anderson

Posted January 2, 2008

We asked fellow alpinists to reflect on literature that most inspires their climbing. Vince Anderson and Mark Twight share the darkness in this first installment.

Little Mother Up the Morderberg

Posted December 26, 2007

"I don't find the solemn joy in fussing you do. The old-style mountaineers went up with alpenstocks and ladders and light hearts. That's my idea of mountaineering."

Interview: Mike Robertson on His Eiffel Tower Protest Solo

Posted December 19, 2007

There are a multitude of reasons we climb—more often than not they are expressed in pithy, sound-bite phrases like Mallory's "Because it's there." Within, Mike Robertson offers a reason more satisfying.

Destination: Croatia

Posted December 12, 2007

When contemplating a climbing trip from a US mountain town, several important factors come to mind: blue—even turquoise—water, cultural experiences and a European location where the dollar isn't drowned by the Euro.