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Mt. Everest, Part I: The Early Years

It is the icon of all mountains, but years of exploitation have impugned the honor of Everest. Ed Webster, with Katie Ives, writes an honest mountain of it, while Wade Davis, Mike Westmacott, Wang Fuzhou and Tom Hornbein weigh in on the early innocence of the Goddess Mother of Earth. Ed Webster and Katie Ives

Sharp End

Booty

For alpinists, there's only one drink: scotch. The Editors

Editor's Note

The new editor of Alpinist sounds off. Michael Kennedy

Namesake

The etymology of Bushido. The Editors

On Belay

Blue ribbons of ice from Cody, Wyoming, and devotion on Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs. Aaron Mulkey and Albert Newman

Tool Users

The genesis of Tom Hornbein's oxygen mask. The Editors

Contributors

Contributors

The Editors

Letters

Letters

Reflections on love and loss, arrogance and reenactments.

Climbing Life

The Climbing Life

Observations from the field.

Wired

Escape Route

When Kurt Albert and Bernd Arnold bolted one of the proudest lines in Patagonia, purists were outraged. A young alpinist puzzles out the sometimes-paradoxical values of alpine free climbing. Freddie Wilkinson

Bachar-Yerian

How do you climb a blank wall without "murdering the impossible"? The author adopts a style that lets him have his pristine adventure and climb it, ground up, too. The result: the Bachar-Yerian, a mental testpiece that still defines boldness and traditional climbing twenty-eight years later. John Bachar

Full Value

A late start, a paucity of gear, and a looming storm combine to menace our heroes. Within hours on a new route up Colorado's Hallett Peak, an all-too-eager apprentice becomes a seasoned alpinist. Robert Culp

Off Belay

One man's failed internship is another's liberation. Will Pass

Wired

Will future high-altitude climbers count by numbers or by fair means? In August 2008, eleven climbers died on the world's second-highest peak. A re-examination, seven months later, of what the chaos of memory reveals. Katie Ives

Features Content

After the Fall

No one likes to think about it, but when things are about to go terminally wrong, most climbers hope to be rescued. In the Tetons, the Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers get the call. Ron Matous

The Giri-Giri Boys

In spring 2008, five Japanese alpinists upturned the concept of enchainments in the Alaska Range forever. Two of them didn't come back. How the Giri-Giri Boys found their style, and lost their friends. Katsutaka Yokoyama An Infinite Lightness of Being

The fairytale towers of Elbsandstein near Dresden, Germany, have enchanted (and petrified) climbers for over a century. An exploration of the unusual atmosphere and ethics that make this Saxon wonderland unique. Helmut Schulze

Postcards from Sardinia

To a young Italian steeped in the tradition and routes of the Alps, the crags of southern Italy were an anathema. Then a postcard arrived, and Sardinia's adventure climbing slowly took form. Maurizio Oviglia

Local Heroes

Local Hero

Kelly Cordes is more than familiar with "disaster style" and margaritas. But his unassuming hero, Scott DeCapio, taught him all he knows about simple happiness. With photographs by Dan Gambino. Kelly Cordes