Features

A Season in Patagonia, Part II

Every year, the golden spires of Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park lure alpinists into sagas of storm-lashed suffering and existential angst. A decade ago, our inaugural Alpinist 0 presented some of their strongest voices in "A Season in Patagonia." This year, a younger generation of climbers (several under the age of twenty-five) took advantage of good weather to revisit old tales and pursue new dreams. Herein, therefore, a sequel: Scott Bennett and Cheyne Lempe romp up an 1900-meter enchainment between Aguja Mermoz and Fitz Roy (Page 40). Max Odell finds a rime-ice wonderland on the seven summits of the Mushroom Traverse (Page 46). Forty-two years after Cesare Maestri bolted the Compressor Route of Cerro Torre, Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk complete the first "fair means" ascent (Page 49). Luca Signorelli, Rolando Garibotti, Ricardo Compañy, Adriana Estol, Carlos Comesaña, Jorge Ackermann, Luciano Fiorenza, José Bonacalza, Matias Villavicencio and Sebastián de la Cruz debate the young men's decision to chop the bolts (Page 54). David Lama overcomes his own controversies on the way to the first free ascent of the Southeast Ridge (Page 65). And in memory of Bjørn- Eivind Årtun, we present his draft of a prose poem about the first ascent of Torre Egger's Venas Azules (Page 71), written shortly before his death.

The Magician's Glass

In the 1970s and early 1980s, a small band of British Himalayan alpinists climbed harder, faster and lighter than most others of their time thought possible. By the mid-1980s, many of them had died. Journalist Ed Douglas profiles three survivors of this brief, magic era—Nick Colton, Tim Leach and Steve Bell—trying to understand the 1981 Annapurna III attempt that caused these men to scale back their alpinism and to search for other meanings in their lives: What if the most important peaks are the ones we never climb?

Departments

The Sharp End

Largely forgotten tales of local Himalayan climbers remind us that some of the most significant acts take place beyond the margins of recorded history.

On Belay

Yan Dongdong explains how one mountain in the Qionglai Range became an aspiration and a symbol for Chinese alpine-style mountaineers. Chris Weidner gets lost in the Bugaboos and finds a new start.

The Climbing Life

Peter Haan looks for a door into another world. Doug Emory's characters try to reconcile themselves to this one.

Wired

What happens to the solitary creativity of our pursuit as more climbers perform for a mass audience? Mountaineering historian Andy Selters investigates what may become one of the defining questions of our era.

Escape Route

More than a century before Mark Twight declared that Alpine Style was his religion, Victorian intellectuals climbed in search of a new, secular morality based on risk, commitment and immersion in the natural world. Our ever-intrepid Professor Reidy traces their spiritual journey to the Swiss Alps—and discovers that leaving the safety of his archives might be very dangerous indeed.

Off Belay

Fred Beckey instructs the youth.