Alpinist Magazine Issue 35 - Summer 2011
Features
- Out of Darkness
- In the spring of 2009, Jonny Copp, Micah Dash and Wade Johnson died below the 8,530-foot east face of Mt. Edgar (21,713') in the Minya Konka Range of Sichuan, China. A year and a half later, Kyle Dempster and Bruce Normand followed their path through mist and avalanches to finish a dangerous route they believe no one should climb again. Kyle Dempster
- Forest and Fog
- Today, Sonnie Trotter is known for hard trad ascents of routes like Cobra Crack (5.14). Twelve years ago, he was a twenty-year-old sport climber overawed by the shadowed granite and eerie wildness of the North Walls of Squamish, British Columbia—the portal to his first real adventures. Sonnie Trotter
- Numbers
- Two alpine hard-heroes confront a last great problem, battle the requisite inner demons and test the brotherhood of the rope against the mountain of numbers. Graphic art by Michael Hjelm. Michael Hjelm
- Less and Less Alone - Alex Honnold
- Free soloing is often called the purest form of climbing: an intense, solitary encounter between the climber and the rock. What happens when one of its most talented practitioners finds himself surrounded by mass-media attention? Alex Lowther
Departments
- On Belay
- Along Utah's Green River, four friends discover that transcendence isn't always about first ascents. On Yosemite's Southern Belle, two young climbers epic up an old route. In Colorado's Eldorado Canyon, a writer unveils the meaning of the Ghoul's Turn. And back at Alpinist world headquarters, our associate editor dreams of pitons.
- The Climbing Life
- Pointillism on Castle Mountain. Stream-of-consciousness on Denali. Enlightenment and burger grease in Montana. Several ascents of Slawston Bridge. And the story of Tami Knight's first mountain.
- Wired
- Against an ethos of summit-at-all-cost, Blake Herrington extols the oft-forgotten, valuable art of failure. Blake Herrington
- The Sharp End
- The Silent History and the Loud. Katie Ives
- First Ascent
- In 1971 Peter Haan led the first free ascent of The Left Side of the Hourglass. Two years later, Jim Bridwell called it a "work of genius" in his Yosemite free climbing manifesto, "Brave New World." For Haan, it was more than just a climb, it was a chance to live up to the ideals of his generation—or to die in the attempt. Peter Haan