Alpinist 58

Alpinist Magazine Issue 58 – Summer 2017

Features Royal Robbins: In the World of Granite and Light Few other names
conjure more images of the Golden Age of Yosemite than that of Royal Robbins,
who passed away in March. Known in climbing history for so often being first,
Robbins gave Tom Patey the last word in Advanced…

Royal Robbins: In the World of Granite and Light
Few other names conjure more images of the Golden Age of Yosemite than that of
Royal Robbins, who passed away in March. Known in climbing history for so
often being first, Robbins gave Tom Patey the last word in Advanced Rockcraft:
«Good climbing and good company often go together: each is essential to the
enjoyment of the other.» Herein, friends of Robbins share memories of the
father, climber and visionary.

Paradigm Shift
In 1993 Lynn Hill’s first free ascent of the Nose on El Capitan became a
powerful symbol of women’s ability to rock climb at the same level as men.
Decades later, Caroline Treadway interviews Hill, Steph Davis, Beth Rodden,
Pamela Shanti Pack and others on closing the gender gap in the upper limits of
hard trad climbing.

Under the Influence
On her eleventh birthday, Claudia Camila López received a camera as a present.
Since then, the Colombian-born climber has been documenting the faces of
people, crags and mountains, looking to capture the elusive, invisible essence
of the world.

Breathe Deep
In September 2016, a week after learning that Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson
were overdue from a climb in Pakistan, Jeff Shapiro and Chris Gibisch leave
for the Kishtwar Himalaya in India. With the fate of their friends on their
mind, Shapiro and Gibisch vow to «pay attention to every moment for its full
value» and to be ready to turn back if the risks seem too great as they seek
their way through dense forests and a chaotic icefall to the unclimbed south
side of 6486-meter Brammah II.

On Belay
After weeks of climbing in the Neacola Mountains, Drew Thayer and his partners
eschew the convenience of a plane ride to complete an irresistible line on the
map: a complete journey from summit to sea.

Climbing Life
Whitney Clark contemplates what a few seconds are worth. Christopher Elliott
climbs a rock spire on the island of Soqotra to learn more about its
mysterious summit cairn (three years after Mike Libecki described it in
Alpinist 34). Poet Ed Roberson goes to Peru. Spencer Gray catalogues the items
that make a day in the «freedom of the hills» possible. Leslie Hsu Oh finds
family, strength and love on a wintry climb. Shirin Shabestari carries on in
her father’s tradition up Damavand, the tallest volcano in Iran.

Full Value
In October 1976, little more than a year after climbing the south face of Mt.
Watkins, with Tobin Sorenson and Gib Lewis, Rick Accomazzo returns to the
2,800- foot wall to take part in a major rescue attempt.

Wired
Early expeditions often combined the exploration of new heights with a search
for rare botanical specimens. More than a century after both natural history
and mountaineering fractured into subdisciplines, Associate Editor Paula
Wright explores climbing’s science gap.

Off Belay
Jeremy Collins imagines the young Royal Robbins.