Alpinist 55

Alpinist Magazine Issue 55 – Autumn 2016

Mountain Profile
Not far from the famous Tetons, much of the Wind River Range of Wyoming
remains relatively quiet, small figures of human travelers easily lost within
its intricate corners and vast massifs. Joe Kelsey, great chronicler of these
mountains, once wrote: «There isn’t much reason to make the effort to visit
the Wind Rivers unless you believe in something—something encompassed, however
imprecisely, by the term wilderness.» Paula Wright recounts moments from its
written and unwritten histories, from Native American inhabitants and European
explorers to environmental activists and big-wall free climbers. Royal
Robbins, Doug Robinson, Jeff Lowe, Raymond G. Jacquot, Sibylle Hechtel, Joe
Kelsey and Dick Dorworth offer glimpses of their own adventures in this
mysterious, but fragile range.

Stillness and Storms
A little more than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a German
expedition traveled to Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia to
establish a new climb on the Torre Central. For East German team member Bernd
Arnold, the trip also symbolized the regaining of his own freedom with the end
of his region’s former communist regime. The resulting route, Riders on the
Storm, included some of the hardest free pitches in the region—luring others
to try to eliminate the rest of the aid. Twenty-five years later, New Zealand
big-wall climber Mayan Smith-Gobat joins German alpinist Ines Papert to
attempt to finish their dream. Amid the rockfall, the ice and the heavy
storms, Smith- Gobat strives to find her own way in the wild.

Departments

The Sharp End
Of visible and invisible maps.

Letters
A reader shares the climbing journals of her late son.

Climbing Life
Helen Mort extols a woman climber’s best (imaginary) friend. Devi Lockwood
follows her mother’s paths. Kai Lightner explores the old and the new. Jamie
McNally dreams of vanishing landscapes. Mark Jenkins contemplates quitting,
and Henry Tyce decides he won’t.

Wired
Award-winning poet Helen Mort searches for the reasons why writing poetry
about climbing experiences can be so challenging—and she presents some of her
favorite authors› solutions.

Full Value
Derek Franz peers into the dark side of the dirtbag dream.

Local Hero
James Edward Mills honors Steven Shobe, role model and pioneer.

Off Belay
Kristen Rowe and Mike McMahon recount their quest to capture an image of a
climber atop Ancient Art in the Fisher Towers, silhouetted against the full
moon—the story behind the cover of this issue.