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Shomi Suzuki atop Kumbhakarna in 1976. [Photo] Naoe Sakashita

1976-2016: Jannu Remembrances

The great Japanese mountaineer Naoe Sakashita looks back on the first complete ascent of the north face of Jannu / Kumbhakarna to the summit of the 7710-meter Himalayan peak, and on his friendship with teammate Nobu-yuki Ogawa.

Kiwi climbers Lynn Crawford and Ian Jowett below the high camp in 1975.

1975: New Zealand Expedition Jannu North Face

In 1975 New Zealand climber Graeme Dingle joined an expedition to the legendary Wall of Shadows on Jannu / Kumbhakarna, a 7710-meter peak in Nepal. High on the mountain, he looked up at an immense ice formation that seemed about to collapse. “You can’t tell me those cliffs are safe,” he said. “This is as far as I’m going.”

David Roberts on south ridge of the Angel, Revelation Mountains, Alaska, 1967. Roberts wrote about the eventful expedition in the 1968 American Alpine Journal. [Photo] Matt Hale

An Interview with David Roberts

Now facing Stage IV throat cancer, David Roberts reflects on his climbing and writing careers in this interview with Michael Wejchert. Roberts is one of the most prolific American climbing authors and has a climbing resume to match his list of titles.

On the Nose by Hans Florine and Jayme Moye. Falcon Books, 2016. 203 pages. Hardcover, $25. [Photo] Paula Wright

On the Nose with Hans Florine and Jayme Moye

On the Nose chronicles Hans Florine’s “lifelong obsession” with the most iconic route on El Capitan. Herein, we interview Florine and co-author Jayme Moye about their new book documenting Florine’s pursuit of the Nose speed record.

Illustration by Alex Nabaum

Our Eiger Drama

In a letter to the editor, longtime Alpinist reader Tad Welch examines our looming environmental crisis from the perspective of a roped team braving the odds on the Eiger Nordwand. He writes, “As we enter what may be one of the darkest times of our country’s history, I feel an obligation to subject my most basic values to the utmost scrutiny…. I must never put my rope mates in harm’s way because I expect the mountain to become benign–when history proves otherwise–simply because I think it will. Off the hill, I am roped to more than a close friend or two. A rope of seemingly infinite length connects me to strangers of all ethnicities, languages, and beliefs–and to generations yet unborn.”

[Photo] Alberto Cafferata/Wikipedia Commons

The Glass Mountain: A Fable

During the nineteenth century, Jim Bridger was well known for tall tales about the ranges of the American West. Herein, the modern climbing writer Jeff Long retells Bridger’s attempt on “Glass Mountain,” examining the aspirations and consequences of frontier mythology.

The Black Dike, Cannon Cliff, New Hampshire, 1970s. Laura Waterman was the first woman to climb the route, four years after John Bouchard's 1971 first ascent. [Photo] Ed Webster

The Precarious World–The Sharp End, Alpinist 57

At a time when the word precarious is used increasingly to describe many aspects of our current existence, Katie Ives reflects on the differences between confronting risk in the mountains and responding to much vaster political and ecological uncertainties in the US and the world. “I think now, especially with climate change, we are without a doubt living in a precarious world,” climber and environmental advocate Laura Waterman tells her. “We have to make the right decisions, ethically, as best we can.”