Between November 9 and 15, we posted Alpinist contributor Anna Pfaff’s photos and video to our social media pages as part of the Alpinist community project. Pfaff’s climbs are featured in multiple NewsWires, including Lopez, Pfaff Climb South Pillar of Ritacuba Blanco, Unattached: Pfaff, Spitzer and Van Sciver’s First Ascent in Zanskar, and Mayo and Pfaff Complete 720-foot Newfoundland Mixed Project.
Pfaff calls her collection “Mountains, Places and Partnerships.”
[Photo] Will Mayo
Pfaff following Will Mayo up Pitch 6 on Apocalypse Now (WI7 M9, 220 meters; traditional) on the Cholesterol Wall in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.
[Photo] Drew Smith
Climbing on Horsetail Falls (WI4-5) in Ouray, Colorado with Savannah Cummins. She was hit in the face with ice on this route and bleeding everywhere but would not bail.
[Photo] Lisa Van Sciver
Rachel Spitzer, Lisa Van Sciver and I on the summit of Tare Parvat (5577m) after completing our route Unattached (5.6 M4 WI3, 600 meters). It was the first ascent of the peak located in the Jammu and Kashmir region of the Zanskar Range, India.
[Photo] Lisa Van Sciver
[Photo] Camilo Lopez
Grant Simmons, Camilo Lopez and I climbing the Northwest Ridge on Cerro Fitz Roy (3405m), via Filo Noroeste (Afanassieff) (6a+, 1550m), in 2012. Shortly after this pitch, there was big rock fall that broke my heel and cut one of our ropes. Because of the traversing nature of the route, it is more efficient to keep going up than retreat. We kept climbing the next day, bivied on the summit, rappelled the Franco-Argentine and I limped back to town.
[Photo] Camilo Lopez
In 2007, Camilo Lopez and I climbed in this remote valley located in Northern India’s Himachal Pradesh. We established two new routes that year, Directisima, (5.9, 800m) on Toro Peak, and The Long Life Ridge, (5.9, 1400m) on Tamadonog Peak. We returned in 2010 for the FA of Dome Peak via Pfaff-Lopez Direct (5.10+), and the Southeast Ridge of Point James (5.10c, 600m).
[Photo] Anna Pfaff
It had been a dream of mine for many years to climb in the mighty Karakoram Range. The Khane Valley, located south of the Nagma, is in the Baltistan region of Pakistan. Here Camilo Lopez looks at the first rock pitches of Peak 25 after we simulclimbed a steep snow and ice gully to reach the base. We climbed approximately 500 meters of runout 5.8 to 5.11 slab before retreating because of bad rock and lack of good gear placements. It was hard to make the decision to go down after coming so far, but we listened to our inner voice of reason. We always climbed unsupported in these remote parts of the world.
The team on the summit of Tare Parvat’s Northeast Ridge after our first ascent of Unattached (5.6 M4 WI3 AI4, 600m).
To learn more about Anna Pfaff, follow her on Instagram.