Alpinist 14, Winter 2005 – 2006

Language: English
Country: USA
Published 4 times per year
Web site: www.alpinist.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS
The trouble with Chongo

FACES: GIULIO MALFER
While many of his peers died in the mountains, Naoe Sakashita keeps climbing, from K2 to Kanchenjunga. With any luck, his second life will be as fortunate as his first.

THE CLIMBING LIFE
Observations from the field.

FEATURES

First Ascent: Bonnie Prudden
Today, Bonnie’s Roof is one of the most popular routes in the Gunks, if not the country. But fifty years ago, the outcome was still very much uncertain.

Mountain Profile: Howser Towers
Soaring splitters, glacial approaches and an alpine ambiance characterize the Bugaboos, where some of the great  walls of the world reside. Topher Donahue recounts the history of climbing on one of the greatest, while Jim McCarthy, Yvon Chouinard, Chris Jones, Jerry Gore and Cedar Wright recall their adventures on the shimmering grey granite of the Canadian Rockies.
by Topher Donahue

Angel’s Gold
The tepuis of Venezuela have drawn adventurers for more than 500 years. When a husband-and-wife team go prospecting for big wall treasure, they find themselves part of a long-standing legacy. by John Arran

Free Solo: Alex Huber
Paul Preuss and Hermann Buhl both practiced the art of free soloing. A relatively recent newcomer to the discipline discusses their influence on his own pursuits above the void.

The Revision of History
As mountains such as K2, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna and Broad Peak celebrate their fifty-year anniversaries, their histories are being revised, sometimes by pundits who had nothing to do with the first ascents. How valid is the revision of history when it comes to our climbing?
by Samantha Sacks

The Rat Diaries
The red book was, to a young climbing artist, a literal blank book of possibility. The genesis of the rat diaries – and of a cartoonist whose work has captured the absurdities of climbing for a generation.
by Tami Knight

A Climber’s Tale: Jean-Christophe Lafaille
Inauspicious beginnings in the Himalaya have not dissuaded France’s smallest alpinist from achieving the greatest things. For one climber, no more Annapurnas has finally taken on new meaning.

CLIMBING NOTES
New routes, May 16-August 15, 2005.

OFF BELAY
Tidal Rhythmites, Big Cottonwood Canyon.
by Julie Paegle