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Dreams of Rising Waters
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In this science fiction story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 76–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Mailee Hung considers the conundrum of climate change in a short essay. Her narrator declares: “I don’t want to go back to the land. I grew up on frenetic cartoons and fake marshmallows in breakfast cereals; I built an academic career on movies and cyborgs. We look, guilty, at our well-heeled boots, wax poetic about the feeling of our hands in dirt, but I don’t want to till the soil. The digital is like dreaming, intangible yet inextricably…
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Interview with David Smart, author of the Mountain Profile for Alpinist 76 and winner of 2021 Boardman-Tasker Award
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David Smart’s book, Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites, received the Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in November. The biography was published in 2020 and provided some of the inspiration for Smart’s Mountain Profile on the Cima Grande in the Dolomites that was recently published in Alpinist 76. In this feature, an interview with Smart explores topics related to Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites, the Cima Grande profile and Smart’s writing and climbing career.
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An excerpt from Chris Kalman’s award winning book, “Dammed If You Don’t”
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Today we’re sharing an excerpt from an award-winning book written by a longtime Alpinist contributor and former intern Chris Kalman and illustrated by Craig Muderlak. “Dammed If You Don’t” is Kalman’s third book and recently won the Mountain Fiction and Poetry category at the annual Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. Book competition jury member Pete Takeda wrote: “Kalman’s third book asks a very topical question: Can we love a place to death? Kalman answers this question with a spare quality that evokes a bit of James Salter. His portrayal of a lush, pristine Chilean valley is immediate and profound.…
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In the Wake
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Alpinist 76 is now available on newsstands in our online store. In this Sharp End essay, our editor-in-chief follows in the footsteps of Harvey Manning up real mountains in the Cascades after years of research to write a book about his imaginary peaks. As she climbs the classic South Face of the Tooth, she recounts his descriptions of formative experiences in 1947 that helped inspire his efforts to preserve the land from threats of timber and mining development. Seventy-four years after Manning’s ascent, Ives strains her eyes through a haze of smoke to catch a glimpse of the range as…
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The Many Futures of Alpinism Essays from Alpinist 75
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The following eight essays are part of 18 published in Alpinist 75 (Autumn 2021) for “The Many Futures of Alpinism” feature.
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Living Maps of Patagonia: Toward a New Future of Exploration
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Natalia Martinez and Camilo Rada, titled “Living Maps of Patagonia: Toward a New Future of Exploration.” They write: “We decided…to create living maps. These are maps that do not adhere to official names. Instead, we follow a historical approach trying to help restore the heritage of Indigenous…
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Climbers of Color Come Full Circle: The Future of Expanded Representation
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by James Edward Mills, titled “Climbers of Color Come Full Circle: The Future of Expanded Representation.” He writes: “Through our personal initiative, skills and agency, people of color are affirming their roles as leaders in the climbing world. [Philip] Henderson is now organizing the first all-Black American team…
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Taking Time To Tell: The Future of Trip Reports
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Damien Gildea, titled “Taking Time To Tell: The Future of Trip Reports.” He writes: “Alpinism is always about choices, and new technologies keep giving us more avenues to talk about our climbs. The choice of expedition media, how we use it, but also when we use it,…
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Sharing Misadventures, not just Adventures: The Future of Climbing Accidentology
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Maud Vanpoulle, titled “Sharing Misadventures, not just Adventures: The Future of Climbing Accidentology.” She writes: “Alpinists are often reluctant to talk about their own accidents. There can be a sense of guilt that haunts survivors or a reluctance to admit mistakes…. A change of attitude seems to…
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Sounds of Ceremony: The Future of Sacred Landscapes
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Len Necefer, titled “Sounds of Ceremony: The Future of Sacred Landscapes.” He writes: “Alpinism has provided me with a means to grow deeper roots into my own personal identity and the long-standing bonds with mountains of my Navajo heritage…. Within cultures around the world, the existence of…
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Mountain As Metaphor: A Future of Multiple Worldviews
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, titled “Mountain As Metaphor: A Future of Multiple Worldviews.” She writes: “In the future, I hope alpinism is able to project multiple worldviews together at once–not as a competition to establish a hierarchy, but as a way to learn from each other and…
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Free and High: A Future of Cutting-Edge Alpinism
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, including this one by Tom Livingstone, titled “Free and High: A Future of Cutting-Edge Alpinism.”
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The Cresset and the Light: The Many Futures of Alpinism
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“The Future of Alpinism,” is the theme of Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store. This special issue includes 18 essays from authors around the globe, along with comments and quotes from many others on the topic. We are sharing eight of these essays online, starting with the introduction by Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives, titled “The Cresset and the Light: The Many Futures of Alpinism.” She observes that “the story of the future of alpinism will not be one story, but many stories…reflecting a wide range of values, perspectives and experiences. It became impossible for me to…
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Running Waters
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During the battles of World War I, British alpinist T. Graham Brown had vivid, recurring dreams of an alpine wall he’d first imagined after reading a route description in a climbing novel and trying to locate it on a map. Years later, Brown completed his famous routes on the real Brenva Face of Mont Blanc only to find, as he wrote in his memoir, that the vertical landscape of his fantasies still haunted him: “The dream and its country persist.” In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 75–which is now on newsstands and in our online store–Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives explores…
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The Climbing Life | Alpinist 75
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Alpinist 75 will be available on newsstands soon. In the meantime, we’re offering a preview of The Climbing Life section, with a story by Douglas Brockmeyer about a 1970s magazine photo that inspired him to become a climber (and thus changed the course of his existence), poems by Katherine Indermaur about the fourth-century pilgrim Egeria and her ascent of Mt. Sinai, and fiction by Erin Connery that explores some of the many ways people think about high cliffs and walls.
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Local Hero: Vasu Sojitra
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In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Dani Reyes-Acosta celebrates the community-building work and mountain adventures of ice climber and backcountry skier Vasu Sojitra, co-founder of the Inclusive Outdoors Project.
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Nejc Zaplotnik, Mountain Poet
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As one of the first ascensionists of the West Ridge Direct of Chomolungma (Everest), Slovenian alpinist Nejc Zaplotnik (1952-1983) was among the great climbers of the twentieth century. To many, however, he is best known for his lyrical memoir, The Way (“Pot” in Slovenian), which gave voice to the dreams of his generation and beyond. In this feature story from Alpinist 74, mountaineering historian Bernadette McDonald recounts some of the key moments and mysteries of his vibrant life and shares translated passages of his book that still reverberate today.
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1993: Picture on a Wall
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Greg Child recounts the first ascent of the East Pillar Direct on Slesse (Selisi) with Perry Beckham in 1993. To read more history about this 2429-meter peak in British Columbia, check out Tami Knight’s Mountain Profile in Issue 74.
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Years of Sunsets
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In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 74–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives ponders her obsession with mountaintop sunsets, and the question posed to her by a college professor years ago: “How many more sunsets will you see?”
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No Room for Hate: Building a Community to Help End Asian and AAPI Invisibility in the Outdoor Industry
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During the pandemic, as hate crimes have risen against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US, Marinel Malvar de Jesus examines ways to build a safer and more inclusive community in the climbing world, the outdoor industry, and beyond.
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Remembering Karen Stolz (1955-2021)
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A bright light in the Adirondacks went out on April 1 with the passing of Karen Stolz from pancreatic cancer. She was 65. Karen co-owned Adirondack Alpine Guides with her husband R.L., and she was one of the earliest and longest-serving female guides in the region. “All told, she guided 37 years and around 5,000 days,” said R.L.
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Call It Dreaming
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In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 73–which is now on newsstands and in our online store–Suzana EL Massri reexamines her dreams during years of conflict and pandemic. She writes: “A multitude of decisions, chaos and chance forms our existence. Any sense to it is created by us, and it requires a daring belief in the future. We don’t get to carry a map for every corridor we enter. Sometimes the close-up reality of attaining visions requires the repetition of simple tasks. Doing a lot of almost nothing until it becomes something. Until we make it into something more, something…
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Local Hero: Chevon Powell
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In this Local Hero story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Anaheed Saatchi celebrates the work of Chevon Powell, organizer of the Refuge Outdoor Festival, to create spaces for “healing and belonging” in nature and ” to advocate for a broader picture of who recreates outside.”
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Remembering Evelio A. Echevarria (1926-2020)
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One of the greatest South American mountain scholars has passed. Evelio Echevarria died in October 2020 of colon cancer. Echevarria stands out in the mountaineering world for the massive amount of exploration and research of the Andes he did over the course of his life. He wrote more than 90 reports for the American Alpine Journal and sent a similar amount of information to the British Alpine Journal. “He was one of a small, select handful of mountain writers who were worth their weight in gold, in terms of their depth of interest and rigorous approach,” said Alpine Journal editor…
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Make It Real
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In this story from The Climbing Life section of Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Lim Joel and his friends train for Himalayan peaks in their tropical Singapore home.
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Peter Zabrok and Fabio Elli’s “Hooking Up” big wall aid climbing manual is fun as well as informative
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Of Peter Zabrok and Fabio Elli’s recent book “Hooking Up: The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual,” John Climaco writes: “Until recently and despite 40 years of climbing, I knew almost nothing about big walls. Oh sure, I’ve managed to drag myself up Leaning Tower, Half Dome and even an El Cap route…. But my real big wall skills? By the standards of ‘Pass the Pitons’ Peter Zabrok, aka Dr. Piton…they might as well have been non-existent…. Like any good teachers, the authors go to great lengths throughout the book to break up what are often extremely technical (and…
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Remembering George Whitmore (1931-2021)
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George Whitmore, one of the first ascensionists of the Nose of El Capitan (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La) in 1958, passed away on New Year’s Day in Fresno, California, from complications of COVID-19 at age 89. Steve Grossman recounts his influential life.
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Running into the Shadows
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In this On Belay story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Uisdean Hawthorn writes about a new route that he and Ethan Berman climbed on the Emperor Face of Yexyexescen (Mt. Robson), which they named Running in the Shadows (VI AI5 M6 A0, 2000m). Hawthorn writes: “People will say, ‘They timed it perfectly and got perfect conditions.’ But in reality, we’d just stood there bleary-eyed in the dark, had a bit of confidence or perhaps a fear of failure, and we’d gone for it. It was only our curiosity that let us discover if…
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The End of One Beginning
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In this Sharp End story from Alpinist 73–which is now available on newsstands and in our online store–Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives writes, “By learning to see beyond one beginning [to histories of mountaineering], we might recall alternative ways to climb and to live.”
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Finding a new route on the Grand Teton: the North Buttress Direct (5.10+ R)
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Justin Bowen’s dream came true this past August when his research confirmed that a potential route he’d been eyeing for years on the Grand Teton’s north face had somehow remained overlooked by other climbers. He enlisted his friend Mark Jenkins to make the first ascent of the North Buttress Direct (5.10+ R, 14 pitches). Here is his story of their climb and the realization of a long-held fantasy.