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Mandi Franz explores the high country with Soleil the dog during an overnight trip on Independence Pass, Colorado. [Photo] Derek Franz

Good To-Go backcountry meals: Nutritious and as good as dehydrated recipes can get

Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz generally avoids the packaged, freeze-dried or dehydrated meals when he goes camping, but he sampled several Good To-Go meal varieties in the backcountry with his wife, and they agreed the recipes were the best they’d ever tried for this type of food. The meals were flavorful and nutritious, replenishing tired bodies after long days of playing in the mountains, but still had the usual drawbacks of dehydrated ingredients, such as texture and digestion. Five stars.

[Photo] John Climaco collection

#AlpinistCommunityProject Flashback: John Climaco

On October 2 through October 8, John Climaco of Park City, Utah, shared some photos and stories about his time traveling and climbing abroad with the #alpinistcommunityproject. The 47-year-old has been climbing for 37 years all over the world and now considers himself lucky to be taking his kids to the mountains. You can now see his photos consolidated into a single feature at Alpinist.com.

Chacraraju Este's east face with The Devil's Reach Around (M6 5.10, 90*) marked in red. [Photo] Quentin Lindfield Roberts

Canadians free climb Chacraraju’s east face headwall with ‘The Devil’s Reach Around’

Canadian climbers Alik Berg and Quentin Lindfield Roberts completed a new route they called The Devil’s Reach Around (M6 5.10, 90°) on the east face of Chacraraju Este (6001m) in Peru in mid-July. It is the first route on the face to be completed without aid, and the two men did it in just two days, with part of that time spent waiting out the hot midday temperatures. This is also only the second route to breach the headwall, as opposed to joining one of the ridges near the top.

Carsten Von Birckhahn in Patagonia. [Photo] Martin Kroussottsi collection

Carsten von Birckhahn is remembered for his kindness, passion and vision

Carsten Von Birckhahn–a respected member of the international climbing community and brand manager for Edelrid–died in a paragliding accident in northern Italy on July 15 while vacationing with his wife and kids. He was 49. His friends Martin Kroussottsi (with translation by Rolando Garibotti), Josh Huckaby and Malcolm Daly share their memories of the influential man.

The altered map from the May 1960 Summit article, An Unclimbed No Name Peak, showing the imaginary location of the mountain. As Ronald Peattie pointed out in Mountain Geography, surprisingly few people agree what a real mountain is, how high and steep it must be for that term: To a large extent, a mountain is a mountain because of the role it plays in popular imagination. [Image] Courtesy of the American Alpine Club

The World as It is Not

During the mid-twentieth century, an ardent conservationist and Cascades mountaineer planted a series of elaborate hoaxes in Summit magazine. He hoped to prod readers to see the mountains in fresh and unfamiliar ways–and to remember the value of wild lands. In this Sharp End from Alpinist 59, Editor-in-chief Katie Ives talks with some of the climbers involved in the story, as well as friends and family members, to learn more about the great imaginary mountains of Harvey Manning (1925-2006).

[Photo] John Easterling collection

Freedom Catalogue

In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 58, Spencer Gray tallies the amount of resources and human labor required to produce the gear that he used to enjoy a single excursion into the mountains. He explains: “I submit this catalogue as proof of something true of much of modern life: the social and environmental cost of reaching these out-of-reach places, and returning safely, is unsustainably high.”

One of the oldest eastern white cedars on the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. This tree germinated in the year 1134, making it 883 years old today. Climbers likely trimmed the branches on its northern side to make way for a climbing route in 1992. At the time of the photograph, two living branches on the south side of the tree were keeping it alive, though scientists haven't been back to survey whether it survives today. [Photo] Peter Kelly

Refuge

Early expeditions often combined the exploration of new heights with a search for rare botanical specimens. More than a century after both natural history and mountaineering fractured into subdisciplines, Associate Editor Paula Wright explores the impacts of climbing’s science gap and the need for a more unified focus on conservation in this Wired story from Alpinist 58.

This photo taken during the helicopter search on July 1 shows where Mariano Galvan and Alberto Zerain disappeared on Nanga Parbat's Mazeno Ridge. [Photo] Alex Gavan

Family organizes continued search efforts for Galvan and Zerain on Nanga Parbat

Mariano Galvan’s family organized a continued search effort after he and Alberto Zerain disappeared on Nanga Parbat (8125m) June 24. The men are presumed to have died in an avalanche at around 6000 meters while attempting the second ascent of the long, technical Mazeno Ridge. Alex Gavan, who knew the men and was climbing a different route on the mountain at the time of their disappearance, helped organize the primary helicopter search and shared his report and photos with Alpinist.