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[Photo] Eliza Earle

The Accidental Mountaineer

As a single mom living in California, Ana Beatriz Cholo never imagined she would become a mountaineer. But she began climbing peaks in her state, and she eventually earned a spot on a Denali climbing team organized for female military veterans like her. Cholo shares how the experience helped her in this Climbing Life Story from Alpinist 59.

From right to left: Joe Hamilton, May Ang and Charles Futoran pitch in to help the Bay Area Climbers Coalition maintain and clean up Indian Rock Park, in Berkeley, California. [Photo] Andrea Laue/andrealaue.com

Through local stewardship and civic engagement, climbers protect places for all

Land managers and climbers have been known to have conflicting interests at times, but local climbing coalitions across the country—such as the Bay Area Climbers Coalition and Salt Lake Climber Alliance, among others—have helped organize climbers into a group of allies who can make a great difference when it comes to advocating for public land, from the grass-roots, to the national level. Laura Booth and Andrea Laue take a closer look at how we can work together as local stewards or our natural resources.

William Coolidge with his aunt, Meta Brevoort, their guides Christian Almer (far left) and Ulrich Almer (Christian's son, second left,) and dog Tschingel, circa 1874. [Photo] Courtesy of the Alpine Club

Marguerite ‘Meta’ Claudia Brevoort: 1825-1876

In 1870, Marguerite ‘Meta’ Claudia Brevoort attempted to become the first climber, male or female, to stand atop the highest point of la Meije, one of the last great unclimbed Alps in the Massif des Ecrins in France. In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 59, Associate Editor Paula Wright relates the adventurous life of Brevoort, her nephew William Coolidge, and their dog, Tschingel, whose list of Alpine summits earned her an honorary membership in the exclusive Alpine Club.

[Photo] Derek Franz

The Moth

In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 59, Marc-Andre Leclerc considers a dead moth in the snow as he begins a risky ascent below looming cornices.

Ki Gompa (monastery) in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. In Buddhist Monasteries of Himachal, historian O.C. Handa speculates that construction on the monastery began in the fourteenth century. [Photo] Abhijeet Singh

Shunyata

In this On Belay feature for Alpinist 59, Indian Alpinist Karn Kowshik describes a journey of self-discovery during his time in the mountains of Spiti Valley, India, where he first dreamed of becoming a climber. After gaining experience in other ranges, he then returns to Spiti in search of unclimbed waterfall ice.

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.