Skip to content

Home » Weekly Feature » Page 24

Weekly Feature

El Hermano (ca. 4,500), Chile. In 2014 Libby Sauter's team mostly followed the sun-shadow line, and then cut to the right a few hundred feet from the top. [Photo] Doug Tompkins

Beyond the Dusk: El Hermano, Andes, Chile

After the death of her brother Michael in June 2012, Suzanne Ybarra noticed a reference to a mysterious “El Hermano” amid his files, along with photos of a massive unclimbed wall. In 2014 one of Michael’s friends, Libby Sauter, organized an expedition to make the first ascent and complete his dream.

Ines Papert, Jarmila Tyrill, Jewell Lund, Pat Deavoll, Natalia Martinez, Kei Taniguchi, Silvia Vidal, Han Mi-sun (front) and Chae Mi-sun.

Freedom in the Hills

For decades, female alpinists have made extraordinary ascents from remote big walls to storm-swept peaks. In an article from Alpinist 52 (Winter 2015), Charlotte Austin explored some of the lingering barriers of the past and the growing potential for the future.

Andrew Boyd climbs Flight of the Challenger (5.12c) in Squamish, British Columbia, circa mid-1990s. [Photo] Rich Wheater

The Vision of Andrew Boyd

Drew Copeland considers how Andrew Boyd has quietly influenced the Squamish climbing scene in the last twenty years with his bold first free ascents and visionary lines.

Don Frache's mural Chamber of Jewels (acrylic on canvas, 1984)

The Shining Mountains

Popular books recount the early days of Canadian mountaineering as a story of epic discoveries. In this story from Alpinist 50, historians Zac Robinson and Stephen Slemon examine what often gets left out: the extent to which the “explorers” relied on the prior geographic knowledge of Indigenous guides.

Lauret Savoy's Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape (2015). [Photo] Katie Ives

Lauret Savoy’s Trace: Exploring Landscapes of Exclusion and Inclusion in American History

Alpinist Editor-in-chief Katie Ives describes some of the reasons Lauret Savoy’s 2015 book, Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape has become deeply relevant today: “Much of prior mountain literature, all too often, has been solipsistic and exclusionary. More than ever, we need writers like Lauret Savoy, who can help us see our shared land for it has been, what it is, and the many possible futures of what it can be. In a world in which so much seems starkly uncertain, there are much greater risks to all peoples than the individual and self-chosen ones that climbers face. There are also greater responsibilities that we all share.”

Paul Bonnell crosses Dewar Creek on the approach to The Leaning Towers, Purcell Wilderness, British Columbia. [Photo] Aaron Hanson

A Backyard Big Wall Expedition

A group of Idaho climbers venture into the Canadian wilderness to complete the first ascent of a route on Wall Tower (9,560′) that was abandoned by Fred Beckey Carl Dietrich and Bill Ruch. They called their line The White Tiger (VI 5.11 A3, 1,600′).

Stephen Shobe, during Expedition Denali in 2013. [Photo] Hudson Henry

Local Hero: Stephen Shobe

James Edward Mills writes about one of his climbing heroes, Stephen Shobe, a mountain guide and member of Expedition Denali, a group that continues to promote diversity in outdoor education.