Features

Mountain Profile: The Aiguille du Dru Part II (1955–2015)

"It seemed built to perpetuate our dreams"—thus Guido Magnone described the Aiguille du Dru in The West Face. Ian Parnell relives the history of a peak poised between mountaineering fantasies and environmental realities. Royal Robbins, Claude Remy, Andy Parkin and Jérôme Sullivan share dispatches from the past to the future.

Going Home

Dean Potter, Graham Hunt and Sean Leary were climbers and BASE jumpers who shared a passion for the freedom of the air. After their deaths, Chris Van Leuven returns to Yosemite to remember them with the community they loved.

What the Heart Only Sees

In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry exhorted generations of readers, "What is essential is invisible to the eye." During a February 2015 trip to Patagonia, Brette Harrington free solos the granite spire named after the famous French author, following that motto deep into a hidden world of memory and longing.

The Mirror Cracked

On April 25, 2015, a massive earthquake struck Nepal, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people. Climber and journalist Ed Douglas reports on some of the effects of the disaster and the work of recovery in mountain villages.

Departments

Sharp End

Reading and writing between the lines.

Letters

One reader reports on porters' rights in Pakistan; another recounts a golden climbing life in Bozeman; and a third requests more photo captions.

On Belay

For seven years in the Utah desert, Pete Takeda pursues what he believes to be "the greatest unclimbed offwidth that no one's heard of," seeking to trace a line between passion and fanaticism. Meanwhile, a pair of hardy Canadians continues with style up the "Auger Sanction."

Tool User

Niall Fink searches for the story of early climbing helmets—and encounters the "Baron" of British climbing, the still-indefatigable Joe Brown.

Climbing Life

Emma Yardley finds herself in the ice. Jason Nelson seeks protection in Ouray. And Mark Rodell's hero chases youth around Pinnacles.

Wired

In the late 1860s, a generation traumatized by the Civil War saw redemption in a cross-shaped snowfield in the Rockies. Historian Maurice Isserman explores the ways that mountain geographies have both divided and united American imaginations.

Local Hero

Pavla Jesih, one of the great Slovenian climbers of the twentieth century, nearly slipped from historical memory when she died, marginalized and silenced, in 1975. Bernadette McDonald recounts how a theater troupe helped bring her remarkable story back to life.

Off Belay

Paul Ross recalls an epic 1958 ascent of the Bonatti Pillar and the rescue of one of Alpinist's favorite heroes, Hamish MacInnes.