There’s nothing wrong with parachuting into an area, skiing a renowned peak, and then heading home, but that’s not why Kim Havell came to Wyoming. No, she moved to Jackson a year ago specifically to immerse herself in the steep wild playground that is the Tetons, and the list of her descents after just one [ more... ]

If you’ve climbed in the Gunks in New York State you know the route on the Vandals wall that Hugh Herr put up in 1983, the first 5.13 on the East Coast. And on the West coast he made the second ascent of City Park, 5.13c, on Washington’s Index Town Walls, in 1986. But if [ more... ]

How could you be on the edge of your seat reading about a 50-year-old expedition to the top of Everest? Easily. Pick up a copy of the May issue of Outside (the Everest feature isn’t on the web yet, unfortunately) and read Grayson Schaffer’s exhaustive, riveting, even arm-hair raising account of the first successful American [ more... ]

While Ueli Steck made significant headlines announcing about a month back that he and Simone Moro would climb a new route up Everest’s south face using no Sherpas, oxygen, or fixed lines, it should not be overlooked that around the same time Kazakh Denis Urubko and Russian Alexei Bolotov announced they would try a similar [ more... ]

In the past eight years ultrarunner Kilian Jornet has won more than 80 races, claimed some 16 titles and set at least a dozen speed records. He has run across entire landmasses­ (Corsica) and mountain ranges (the Pyrenees), nearly without pause. He regularly runs all day eating only wild berries and drinking only from streams. [ more... ]

George Lowe, the last surviving member of the first successful assault on Mt. Everest, has died at the age of 89. During the climb he displayed massive skill over 10 days in spearheading a route up the Lhotse face, immediately below the South Col. Then his job was to ferry support up and down the [ more... ]

Six high-altitude ascents of 2012 have been nominated for the Piolets d’Or, the 21st annual celebration of the best in mountaineering. All six climbs reached summits over 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), and five of the six resulted in bold traverses over the top and down another route. Winners will be announced the first week of [ more... ]

More details are coming out regarding the descent from the first winter ascent of Pakistan’s Broad Peak by a Polish team, but there’s still no trace of Tomasz Kowalski and Maciej Berbeka, who were exhausted and trailed the other two summiters, Adam Bielecki and Artur Małek, by a considerable margin. The two took between seven [ more... ]

Did George Mallory and Sandy Irvine summit Everest before dying on the way down in 1924? It’s an age-old mystery and the one shred of evidence that might actually help shed light on it is their camera. Tom Holzel is an Everest historian who has for some time championed the idea that finding the camera [ more... ]

Three separate pairs of climbers are preparing to attempt aggressive new routes on Mt. Everest this spring. Success on any one of these attempts would be a major development in Everest’s climbing history, particularly if they succeed in pure alpine style, without supplemental oxygen. Ueli Steck (Switzerland) and Simone Moro (Italy) will try a new [ more... ]