Derek Franz

This summer Cole Taylor made the second ascent of the North Pillar on Devils Thumb (Taalkhunaxhk’u Shaa) 40 years after its first ascent, entirely solo and self-supported after sailing from Washington to the toe of the Baird Glacier in Thomas Bay, Alaska. He completed his expedition in nine days and did not get a rest day until he returned to his boat, just as the fortuitous window of good weather broke.

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal obtained a copy of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s much-anticipated final review of 27 national monuments in which the Secretary recommends reductions to four national monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante (Utah), Gold Butte (Nevada) and Cascade-Siskiyou (Oregon).

The central west face of Xanadu in Alaska’s Arrigetch Peaks was untouched until this year when three parties established three routes in July and August. The first route to go in was a 5.13+ done by Zeb Engberg, David Bain, Gabe Boning and Billy Braasch, the second was an A4 aid route put up by soloist Silvia Vidal and the third was a 5.11+ established onsight in a day by Vitaliy Musiyenko, Brian Prince and Adam Ferro.

Two Alabamans, Ryan Little, 26, and Sam England, 30, received an American Alpine Club Live Your Dream Grant to attempt the unclimbed Chinese Wall in Baffin Island’s famous Sam Ford Fjord this past August–but the sea ice hadn’t broken up enough to allow boat access, as they’d planned. With no time to spare, they shifted their sights to a wall in the Clyde Inlet, an area that has been almost completely ignored by climbers, and they succeeded in establishing Marooned at Midnight (VI A3 5.11 R, 17 pitches, 700m) on a formation the Inuit call Umiguqjuaq.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke quietly submitted his recommendations to President Donald Trump today on whether to alter, reduce or rescind several national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Monuments in Utah. Zinke issued an interim report in June in which he recommended that Bears Ears should be reduced, but he wouldn’t say by how much. He emphasized that it was only an interim report that may be subject to change in his final report. No details on his final recommendations have been released so far, however.

Sasha DiGiulian and Edu Marin recently made the second free ascent of Mora Mora (8c or 5.14b, 700m) in Madagascar, which was first freed by Adam Ondra in 2010. DiGiulian said this route represents a recovery from a bad back injury that happened to her about a year ago and that this is the hardest big wall she has done so far.

Marek Holecek has returned to the southwest face of Gasherbrum I (8080) five times since 2009 in a bid to complete a route up the middle of the face through two rockbands. After enduring multiple epics–including the death of his longtime climbing partner in 2013, and a bad case of frostbite in 2016, in addition to other close calls and harrowing descents–Holecek, 43, finished the climb to the top of the mountain with fellow Czech climber Zdenek Hak, 37, at the end of July. From July 25 to August 1, they spent six days climbing and two on the descent. They named the route Satisfaction (ED+ M7 WI5+ 70°, 3000m).

Three Chilean climbers–Andres Bosch, 29, Armando Montero, 36, and Alejandro “Jimmy” Mora, 39–set out for the Karakoram Range in mid-June to explore some unclimbed peaks directly across the Godwin-Austen Glacier from Broad Peak. On their first trip to Pakistan, over a nine-day period, they made the first ascent of a 6270-meter peak, which they dubbed Mirchi (D+, IV, 45-70°, 1000m), after the Urdu word for “chili,” and Bosh and Mora then made the first ascent (TD+ M3, 50-90°, 1500m) of Praqpa Ri South (7046m).

Hazel Findlay recently made the first ascent of the hard trad route Tainted Love, aka Northern Soul (5.13d R)–a thin and powerful stem-corner that is accessed from the top of the Chief in Squamish, British Columbia.