Derek Franz

When Hansjorg Auer and Alex Blumel couldn’t get a permit for their original objective last November they were pointed to Gimmigela East (7005m). It turned out to be a great choice, as they became the first people to approach the mountain from the northern side and climb its previously untouched North Face (M4, 85-degree ice, 1200m).

Americans Nik Mirhashemi and Mark Pugliese made three probable first ascents on three peaks in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley on their first trip to the Himalaya last autumn.

A team of five friends self-fund an expedition to a rarely visited area of Tibet and climb a previously unnamed 5678-meter peak they named Xialongrezha. They climbed the west face and called their route Standing Room Only (Russian Alpine Grade 5a, Scottish IV, M4, 650m).

Tom Ballard closes out the year in the Dolomites with a rope-solo first ascent of Dust in the Wind (M8, 100m) and a casual multiday rope solo of the Gogna Route (5.10, 800m) on Marmolada Punta Rocca (3309m), which he finished on New Years Eve.

Thomas Huber, Roger Schaeli and Stephan Siegrist complete the second ascent of Metanoia (VII 5.10 M6 A4, 1800m) on the Eiger North Face (3970m), more than 25 years after Jeff Lowe established the legendary route that became a turning point in his life.

Tom Ballard and Marcin Tomaszewksi have only climbed together three times, but all those climbs have been first ascents. They added another hard new route to the Eiger North Face in December –Titanic–and Ballard continued his legacy with the mountain that his mother, Alison Hargreaves, had climbed while she was pregnant with him.