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1980: Granola and Champagne
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Ed Webster documents some humorous, behind-the-scenes moments that occurred during the first ascent of the Hallucinogen Wall on the North Chasm View Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
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1972: The Excellent Adventure
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Jamie Logan revisits the 1972 first ascent of the Goss-Logan Route (now rated IV/V 5.11 R) on North Chasm View Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado.
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Local Hero: Anna Piunova
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Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz profiles Anna Piunova, editor-in-chief of Mountain.ru. Piunova was instrumental in coordinating the helicopter rescue of Alex Gukov from 6200 meters on Latok I (7145m) in July 2018.
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Catching Ludwig
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In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 65, Cameron M. Burns learns to belay from an eccentric mentor before braving his way up Castleton Tower with a couple of friends and a few hexes.
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The Ice Mirror
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In recognition of International Women’s Day, we’re now sharing this Sharp End story by Alpinist Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives that first appeared in Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Ives writes, “I became fascinated by recurring myths and images in the ways that climbers interpret fragments of existence. And as I looked for more examples, I grew absorbed by the sheer volume of alpine fiction written by and about women…. For authors [during the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries], alpine settings seemed to offer their heroines a level of empowerment…
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An Astonishing Plentitude
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This poem first appeared in Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Sarah Audsley is a climber and poet living in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. In January 2019, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. She has received support for her creative work from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. In this feature, we asked her to tell us a little about the inspiration for “An Astonishing Plentitude.”
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The End of the Beginning
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In this 2016 Full Value story from Alpinist 55, Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz peers into the dark side of the dirtbag dream.
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The Lost Times–Los Tiempos Perdidos
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In this Full Value story from Alpinist 64, Quentin Lindfield Roberts confronts the long journey home and the occasionally even-greater dangers of daily life after his climbing partner nearly dies in an accident on Cerro Torre.
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Raggedy Man
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After recovering from a severe illness in the wake of the Gulf War, veteran Scott Coldiron returns to his long-abandoned climbing dreams–exploring new ice in remote parts of Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 64, Coldiron traces the formative experiences of his hard-knock childhood, his discovery of what the mountains offered, and how he found his way back to the peaks that first stirred his imagination.
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Q&A with Alpinist Assistant Research Editor Anders Ax
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Every story in Alpinist is thoroughly fact-checked. “Fact checking” has become a more common term in today’s digital headlines, as accusations of “fake news” and “alternative facts” abound in our society. In this feature, Alpinist Associate Editor Paula Wright interviews Alpinist Research Editor Anders Ax about the strategy and nuance of exhaustive fact-checking and how he handles the most difficult questions that may not have definitive answers.
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Local Hero: Stacy Bare
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In this Local Hero profile from Alpinist 64, Teresa Baker writes about Iraq War veteran Stacy Bare and how climbing introduced him to new perspectives, helped him recover and inspired him to seek out ways that nature could help others cope with trauma. “Being able to get outside is a gift,” he says.
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To Father from Daughter
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In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 64, Alexandra Lev delves into the past of her father who was already a highly accomplished mountaineer by the time she was born. She writes, “I’d meet climbers and skiers who would say to me with excitement, ‘Your dad is Peter Lev?’ They called him a legend. To me, he was just my dad. I was aware that he’d gone on some expeditions in the Himalaya and that he’d skied extensively in Canada, but I knew none of the details.” Now a grown woman, Alexandra Lev rediscovers her roots with new eyes and…
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Latok I: Impossible Is Not Forever
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In this story that first appeared in Alpinist 64, Alexander Gukov shares his experience of surviving alone for a week at 6200 meters on Latok I (7145m) after his partner Sergey Glazunov fell to his death on the descent with most of their equipment. Gukov was ultimately rescued by a dramatic helicopter operation flown by Pakistani pilots Major Qazi Muhammad Mazhar-ud-Din, Major Abid Rafique, Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Anjum Rafique and Major Fakhar-e-Abbas. Prior to the accident, Gukov and Glazunov reached a historic high point on the legendary North Ridge, which has thwarted the previous four decades of attempts.
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Ride the Wind; Wind River Range, Wyoming
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In this On Belay story from Alpinist 63, Szu-ting Yi recounts an attempt she made with her husband Dave Anderson to traverse 100-plus miles of the Wind River Range while climbing all 43 of its peaks that rise along the Continental Divide (and that are named in 2015 USGS maps). What started as a whimsical project for Yi soon transformed into a deeper search for independence as a woman and a climber.
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“As Above, So Below” uses fiction to explore the realities of risk and relationships
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About four years ago, Chris Kalman found himself struggling with heavy emotions while living with his girlfriend and her father who was dying of cancer. Kalman started writing what became a 103-page novella titled “As Above, So Below.” The fictional story weighs on matters of death, grief, risk and family relationships.
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The Giri-Giri Boys
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Ten years ago, in May 2008, an unassuming group of five Japanese climbers who jokingly dubbed themselves the Giri-Giri Boys caught the world’s attention for their bold and visionary enchainments in the Alaska Range. This story by Katsutaka Yokoyama about that expedition originally appeared in Alpinist 26 (Spring 2009), simply titled “The Giri-Giri Boys.”
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Silences at Dawn
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In this Sharp End essay from Alpinist 63, Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives contemplates the varying meanings of awe as she delves into mountain darkness and solitude in search of peace.
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“Honouring High Places”: A Lifetime of Exploring “Unforgiving Terrain”
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“Honouring High Places”–the final book authored by Junko Tabei, who died in 2016 at age 77 and was the first woman to summit Chomolungma (Everest)–is now available and is a finalist for a Banff Book award. Alpinist Assistant Editor Katherine Indermaur writes of the book: “Though there are many lessons to take away from Tabei’s life, perhaps the most important is not just how and what she climbed, but also how and what she accomplished as a mountaineer when she wasn’t climbing….”
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An interview with Suman Dubey about his memories of the 1961 Indian expedition to Nanda Devi
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With Alpinist 63 and Part II of the Nanda Devi Mountain Profile now on newsstands, we bring you this interview with Suman Dubey, who became a member of the 1961 Indian expedition to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in India’s Garhwal Himalaya when he was an undergraduate student in Delhi. Nanda Devi is a sacred peak significant to locals for embodying Hindu Goddess Nanda, and a difficult one for mountaineers due to its being surrounded by a ring of high peaks that make up the Sanctuary’s border.
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Out from the Shadows: Sexual Harassment and Assault in Climbing Communities
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From April 16 to July 4, in collaboration with other national climbing organizations and magazines, we undertook a survey on the topic of sexual harassment and assault in the climbing world. In this article we share some of the results.
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Safety Means More than a Good Belay
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American Alpine Club President Deanne Buck and Club CEO Phil Powers share their perspective as to why the results of a recent survey about sexual harassment and sexual assault within climbing communities should be taken seriously by everyone.
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Remembering Tim Auger
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Tim Auger died on August 9, 2018, in Banff, Alberta, at age 72. The following story is an excerpt from a feature by Brandon Pullan titled “Homage” that appeared in Alpinist 42. Auger was an influential Canadian climber who served Parks Canada for approximately three decades. One of his most famous first ascents was the University Wall on the Chief at Squamish with Dan Tate, Glenn Woodsworth and Hamish Mutch in 1965-66.
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A2: The Highest Mountain in the World (1819)
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 62, Stewart Weaver documents the early mapping of Nanda Devi and the initial belief that it was the highest mountain in the world.
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A retrospective on the second winter ascent of Nanga Parbat, the heroic rescue and the logistical and financial challenges of helicopter operations in Pakistan
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Elisabeth Revol and Tomek Mackiewicz completed the second winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in alpine style on January 25, but they got into trouble on the descent as a storm was building. What unfolded over the next several days became a demonstration of heroism and solidarity in the international mountain community, as people from different nations worked together to try to help the stranded climbers. It also raised questions about modern rescues in remote mountains–about the limits of possibilities; about best practices in a digital and increasingly technological age; and about disparities between which groups of people receive the most…
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‘End of the Rope’: Courage and Humor on the Cliffs and on the Ground
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Jan Redford’s new memoir, “End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood,” takes the reader on her journey of rebelling against her family and society’s expectations, navigating relationships and loss on her own terms and pursuing the potential she knows she has despite obstacles. It’s the work of a vulnerable and hard-earned courage, open to trial and error on a climb as well as on the ground.
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Responsibility is a Gift: OR trade show provides a glimpse of outdoor industry’s impacts and influence
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As the Summer Outdoor Retailer trade show heats up in Denver, Emma Murray and Sara Aranda take a look back at the winter trade show that was held in January and some of the events since then to consider how the outdoor industry is addressing environmental, social and political issues.
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1939: The Eye of the Storm
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In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 62, Julia Pulwicki translates Janusz Klarner’s account of the first ascent of Nanda Devi East in 1939 by Klarner’s Polish team. This essay is part of an extensive two-part feature by Pete Takeda that includes other essays by various authors as well as this one.
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Sentinels of the Alpine
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Katherine Indermaur considers her connection to alpine environments and the history represented by the lodgepole pine.
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To Look the Bear in the Eye; The Life of Yasushi Yamanoi
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In this story from Alpinist 62, Sartaj Ghuman chronicles the adventures of Yasushi Yamanoi. At 53 years old, Yamanoi has survived multiple epics in the mountains. He remains a talented climber despite lost fingers and toes, broken teeth and bones and other severe injuries. He is on the long list for the 2018 Piolets d’Or for a first ascent he did last year with Takaaki Furuhata of a 5970-meter peak in India’s Zanskar Range. Ghuman was their liaison officer and, after meeting Yamanoi, he wanted to write about the low-key man who has been making significant high-altitude first ascents for…
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Full Circle: how and why Sunny Stroeer became the first woman (and third person) to finish Aconcagua’s 360 Route in a solo push
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Sunny Stroeer became the first woman (and third person) to complete Aconcagua’s 360 Route in a solo push last February. For this story, Emma Murray asked Stroeer how she went from being a student who rarely ventured outside town–even when Stroeer lived in Switzerland’s “outdoor capital of the world”–to an ambitious outdoor athlete, and what motivates her to keep pushing her limits.