Features

Yosemite: A Layered Terrain

In mountaineering literature that focuses on the individual, it can be hard to remember that landscape is not just a backdrop; stories occur where topography and history meet. From famed ascents to razed forests and rockfall, we present one valley ve ways. With texts from Peter Haan, Paula Wright, Peter Croft, Libby Sauter and Chris Kalman, and images by Craig Muderlak, Alex Nabaum, Jamie Givens and Jeremy Collins.

Untracked

In a debate with a fellow guide about the current state of mountaineering, Cosmin Andron struggles to answer the question, What is climbing for? From the Carpathian Mountains of Romania to the Western Garhwal of India, the Romanian alpinist recalls false starts, unplanned walls—and the intense, indescribable feeling that lures him on.

The Many Faces of One Face

On March 25, 1966, Dougal Haston, Sigi Hupfauer, Jörg Lehne, Günther Strobel and Roland Votteler completed the rst ascent of the Eiger Direct on the Eiger North Face. ough the British-American team's trials were well documented, the stories of the German climbers largely faded from the record. On the ftieth anniversary of this controversial climb, German historian Jochen Hemmleb joins British journalist Peter Gillman on a quest for a more "multifaceted," complex history.

Beginnings of Histories

On September 3, 2016, the search for missing climbers Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson on the Ogre II in Pakistan ended. In these pages, friends and climbing partners alike share memories of two great alpinists and beloved men.

Departments

The Sharp End

Off route and out of time.

Letters

One reader reports on Henry David oreau's reconstruction of early New England maps; another requests that we revisit Pinedale, Wyoming; and the indefatigable Bosley Sidwell calls for applicants to join an imaginary mountain expedition.

On Belay

After ten years as a boulderer, Keita Kurakami attempts what some other local climbers called impossible: a new free route on the daunting 110-meter Moai Face of Mt. Mizugaki—that turned out to be the hardest multipitch trad climb in Japan.

Tool User

The search for the origins of the Jumar takes Anders Ax on a journey to caves, monkeys and marmosets.

Climbing Life

Tami Knight nds the way out. Jenny Abegg confronts anxiety at Indian Creek. Shelton Johnson locates the Cavalryman's Paradise in Yosemite. Jane Jackson seeks space in New Mexico. David Stevenson heads into the blue. And David Roberts revisits moments of doubt.

Full Value

In July 1973 in the Bugaboos, Sibylle Hechtel ropes up with a stranger for the rst ascent of Dégringolade, "a tumbling fall, or plunge."

Wired

Founder of Mountain magazine, the late Ken Wilson was known (in Doug Scott's words) as "a relentless guardian of the soul of mountaineering—as he saw it." John Porter looks back on his nine-month stint in Wilson's mountain world.

Local Hero

After growing up trekking in the mountains of Pakistan, Hanniah Tariq returned in 2012 to the Baltoro Glacier, where decades of waste from mountain tourism littered the area. In response, she founded High Altitude Sustainability Pakistan. Vanessa Beucher reports.

Off Belay

Tami Knight creates a eld guide to modern climbers.