Delicate climbing on the new route Juegos de los Reyes in Peru. Courtesy of Marcus Donaldson.

Marcus Donaldson from Portland, Oregon, reports on a new route in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, climbed with Nate Farr. The two men received a 2009 McNeill-Nott Award for their trip.

In July, Nate Farr and I visited the Cordillera Blanca with the support of the AAC and Mountain Hardwear’s McNeill-Nott climbing grant. We began our journey with a trip into the beautiful Paron Valley to attempt our planned new line on Caraz II (6,020m). We were unsuccessful—stopped by a long section of loose, overhanging rock down low—and after 12 long days we found ourselves once again back in Huaraz, somewhat disheartened and now without a mission to strive for.

Adam French came into town and renewed our spirits with some recent pictures of the gorgeous southwest face of Pucaraju (5,320m), located in the Yanamara sub-range of the southern Cordillera Blanca. We soon hopped a ride to Lake Queracocha, and in half a day’s hike were positioned in a cave bivy below the southwest face. Hiking up on July 26, it appeared that much of the face was still covered in unconsolidated snow from an unusually wet winter season. However, a thin, white line seemed to snake nearly unbroken all the way up the sunnier right side of the face…game on!

Donaldson and Farr's new route is marked in red; their descent followed the blue line. Courtesy of Marcus Donaldson.

The first pitch was a full 60 meters of sustained thin ice and mixed climbing on a one-meter-wide ribbon of ice. Protection was often uncertain in the friable rock, so we took belays whenever they presented themselves on the succeeding pitches of névé, ice, and rock. The upper couloir presented steeper and more delicate mixed climbing, up to M6, culminating in a narrow chute filled with classic Andean sugar snow.

We downclimbed and rapped the south ridge, reaching a snow couloir to climber’s right of our line, which took us back to the base with seven more raps. Our new route Juegos de los Reyes (300m, 5.8 WI4 M6) ascends the first corner system to the right of a major slab bisecting the southwest face.

Big thanks to the AAC and Mountain Hardwear for supporting our trip with the McNeill-Nott grant. It definitely made it possible for us to get away and try some cool new stuff down south.

Several McNeill-Nott Awards are granted each year to amateur climbing teams exploring new routes or unclimbed peaks with small and lightweight teams. Click here to learn more or apply.

Jens Holsten on the three-star new route Gorillas in the Mist on Mt. Stuart. Photo by Blake Herrington.

The Internet has done a lot to help climbers find good new routes between the publication of guidebooks, but it’s tough for even fanatic climbers to keep track of all the blog and forum posts covering their local areas. Climber Blake Herrington has tackled this issue for alpine routes in Washington and southern British Columbia by collecting and collating a list of more than 100 recent “unpublished or under-published routes,” with links to online information for most of them and star ratings for the routes he has done (which is a lot).

“The mountains between Seattle, Spokane, and Vancouver have seen prodigious activity in the last few years, and many of the new routes are amazing,” Herrington wrote on his blog. “The question is: Will anyone climb them, or will they fade into obscurity?…. If or when some of these routes get traffic, they could become the modern classics of the range, and some of the hardest or best alpine climbs in the contiguous U.S.!”

This is an amazing community service, and it would be great if climbers around the country (or around the world) would adopt the same mission for their own local crags and peaks. Do you know of similar lists? Let us know and we’ll publish the links at Inclined.

When will a Pakistani woman climb K2? That day may have gotten a bit closer with a recently completed women's climbing camp organized by the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

In 2007, a group of American Alpine Club women planned to travel to Pakistan to help organize and teach a Pakistani Women’s Climbing Camp, in conjunction with the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP). That plan was postponed in the wake of the violent siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July 2007. This year, however, the ACP followed through on the original inspiration and organized a training expedition for 22 young women in the mountains of Hunza. ACP president and AAC honorary member Nazir Sabir describes the event:

The Alpine Club of Pakistan organized a Women’s Alpine Mountaineering Training expedition to the Passu Glacier in Hunza from July 10 to 24. Twenty-two female students from Punjab University in Lahore, Fatima Jinnah University in Rawalpindi, and Karakoram University in Gilgit took part. The training was aimed at preparing these girls in rock, ice, and snow climbing techniques that are essential for high-altitude climbing.

The trainees were taken to a 2,800-meter base camp at Borit Lake in Hunza, where they learned rock and ice climbing skills, belaying, and rappelling, and also were equipped with the necessary theoretical knowledge about ecology, geology, geomorphology, navigation, mountain weather and hazards, high-altitude sickness, cure and prevention, waste management, and other mountain-related issues. Apart from this, they were also trained in crevasse rescue techniques and assembling and dismantling fixed ropes. The ACP instructional team was comprised of Afzel Sherazi, Prof. Mehmood Pervaiz, Farid Ahmad, Attaulah Khan, and Muhammad Tauqeer.

After completion of their training, the women climbed Borit Sar (5,640m), did few high-altitude walks, and traversed glacial terrain before returning to Islamabad on July 23. The Alpine Club of Pakistan organized a reception on their return, and a ceremony was held at Sports Complex Islamabad at which Brig. (Retd.) Mir Gulistan Janjua, former governor of the Northwest Frontier Province and a past president of the ACP, distributed certificates among all the participants. Speaking on the occasion, Brig. Janjua applauded the efforts by the Alpine Club and reiterated the need for similar youth training programs in future. Nazir Sabir, president of the ACP, apprised the audience about the scope of the training, thanked the participants for completing such an extensive program, and offered his hope that this effort by the ACP will help shape the future of women’s mountaineering in Pakistan.

It’s not always what the pros are doing that inspires the rest of us. Last weekend, AAC member Adam McFarren (also a valued volunteer in the AAC library) sent a recap of his ascent of the north ridge of  Spearhead, a classic route in Rocky Mountain National Park that sits below the west face of Long’s Peak. Check out his brief recap, below, then visit his personal blog for the full report and pictures. Thanks Adam!

Pete Krzanowsky, Adam's climbing partner, on the approach to Spearhead (in the background). Photo courtesy of Adam McFarren.

Fun day on Spearhead yesterday. It’s a great climb. I thought the 1st and 6th pitches contained the two 5.6 “cruxes”, the other pitches all seemed easier. Pro was good, just a little thin on the initial slabs and higher up depending on the exact line taken (the easiest way probably tends left through some shallow, vegetated seams that didn’t offer as much pro, but the climbing was still easy). Even on a Wednesday, we had 3 other parties on the route. Thankfully, we left early (4:30am from the trailhead) and the only party ahead of us let me climb beside them then scoot past on the easier terrain in the middle of the face. We found we could easily run the rope out to full 60m pitches without rope drag. That also let us get out of the way of the other team more quickly after they let us pass.

I found the best beta for the route on guide Eli Helmuth’s site. Still, I didn’t stick with his route exactly (I started left of where he indicates and belayed from higher up on a sloping ledge).  That allowed me to go past his belay point at the top of his pitch 2, and made my pitch 3 almost totally 3rd-4th class. Largest gear I carried was a #3 camalot, placed it twice. Otherwise, I carried doubles from .5-#2, all but the smallest size TCU, .5 and 1 tricam, #4-10 nuts, #5 & 6 wildcountry hexes. I placed most all that gear at one point or another.

Rock was solid (but some of the ledges had some loose stones on them) and the climbing was a lot of fun.

My own photos and such from the day are on my blog.

Good luck if you give this one a shot,

-Adam

What did you climb last weekend? Share it with the rest of us. Details are here.

Matt Hage climbing the east ridge of Mt. Chamberlin to make the first ski descent of the highest peak in the Brooks Range, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Joe Stock.

Earlier this summer, AAC member Joe Stock and Matt Hage made the likely first ski descent of Mt. Chamberlin, the highest peak in Alaska’s Brooks Range. When the two were dropped off at base camp at 1,500 feet, 12 miles from the foot of the peak, they saw no snow, and inconsistent snow and crevasses on the upper mountain made for an “interesting” descent from the 9,020-foot peak. But ski alpinism is about more than hero turns, as Stock ably describes in an illustrated trip report at the G3 website. Stock and Hage’s trip was partially funded by a grant from the Hans Saari Memorial Fund.

Over the past few years, Stock and various partners have completed several impressive ski adventures in Alaska, including big traverses in the Chugach, Neacola, Talkeetna, and Tordrillo mountains. Read more at his website. If you live in the Denver-Boulder area of Colorado, Stock will be doing a show about this year’s Mt. Chamberlin descent at Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder on Thursday, August 20.

Finalized details for Craig Luebben’s memorial service are as follows:

Memorial Service (reserved for family and close friends of the Luebbens):

The memorial will be held in the Foss Auditorium of the American Mountaineering Center on Sunday, August 16 at 4:00pm.  Doors will open at 3:00pm.  Seating is limited, so please go here to reserve a ticket. Bring your confirmation email to the service.

Need directions?  710 10th St, Golden, CO 80401. There is also a map here.

Parking:  AMC parking lot is located on the north side of the building.  Additional parking is available at Coorstek located across the street on the east side of the AMC. Parking may be limited after 6pm due to other events in the area.  Please carpool or bike if you can.

Donate to the Craig Luebben Memorial Fund:

To donate, click on the orange “donate” button located on the Northern Colorado Climbing Coalition website. Many of you have inquired how you can help at the moment. Rather than sending flowers, please consider making a donation. Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated and will be dedicated to helping his wife Silvia and 6-year old daughter Giulia.

Thank you for your love and support of Craig and his family.

Researcher Andrew Luks writes:

About a year and a half ago, the AAC assisted our efforts to recruit subjects for a study of Raynaud’s phenomenon at high altitude by placing a post in the club’s online newsletter. I am writing to thank you for this assistance and to let you know that the results of the study have been published in the June 2009 issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

For those who are interested, here is a brief synopsis of our results. Due to the design of the study, we were unable to determine whether the hypoxic environment at high altitude leads to more frequent or severe attacks of Raynaud’s phenomenon, but the study did show that motivated, prepared individuals with primary Raynaud’s phenomenon (i.e. not associated with scleroderma, lupus, or other forms of collagen vascular disease) can travel to elevations above 8,000 feet (2,440m) and successfully engage in a wide variety of activities. Forty-six percent of the survey respondents have been above 15,000 feet (4,570m), and 11 percent have traveled above 20,000 feet (6,100m). This pattern of activity runs counter to the advice that is sometimes imparted to people with Raynaud’s that they should avoid travel to high-elevation areas for fear of provoking worsening symptoms of their disorder.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, Chris Weidner posted this entry, his first reaction to the Ergaki International Climbing Festival in Siberia.  He and Alex Honnold, sponsored by the AAC,  represented the U.S. at the event.

Last week, Chris recapped their experience in an article posted by the Boulder Daily Camera.  Partial text is below, and please use the link to view the rest of the article.

Chris Weidner in Siberia, photo courtesy of Alex Honnold

“My father often told me that travel is the best education. And for me, climbing is the best excuse to travel.

I’ve always been particularly interested in the way different cultures approach, practice and enjoy our sport. It was with that mindset that I participated in the third annual Ergaki International Climbing Festival in Siberia during the month of July.

Alex Honnold and I, generously sponsored by the American Alpine Club and the Russian Mountaineering Federation, were the token Americans among six other nationalities represented. All 11 of us non-Russian climbers anticipated a fun, laid-back climbing festival.

Instead, we were told to strap hefty packs on our backs and hike several hours in the rain behind our translator Nikolai (our only English-Russian liaison) through mud and vicious mosquitoes to a boggy base camp in the mountains, a two-hour walk from the nearest climbing. We spent 10 days at this sodden camp which, on the rare occasion when the sun pierced the clouds, was picturesque yet far from pristine…”  Please click here to view the full article text at www.dailycamera.com.

For your Wednesday morning viewing pleasure: Black Diamond recently posted a video of Renan Ozturk and Zack Smith’s trip to Alaska in June 2009.  The trip was funded in part by an AAC McNeill-Nott Grant, and the footage was filmed by Zack and Renan during their ascents. Enjoy!

For the full report and pictures, revisit this post.

Renan Ozturk and Zack Smith in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.