ALPINIST 63 – Autumn 2018

Alpinist Magazine Issue 63 – Autumn 2018

In Alpinist 63, you’ll find the second and final part of our series on the
history of Nanda Devi and nearby peaks in India’s Garhwal Himalaya. Pete
Takeda’s effort to trace a mysterious rumor involving a covert CIA operation
on the sacred mountain known as the headwaters of the Ganges, as well as to
investigate expeditions’ environmental effects from 1940 through the Cold War
to the present day, proves nearly as monumental as Nanda Devi herself.
Included also are the insightful contributions of environmental humanities
professor Meera Baindur, world-renowned alpinists Julie-Ann Clyma and Martin
Moran and Piolets d’Or Asia Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Harish
Kapadia, who explore the legends and communities swirling like unsettled snow
around the summits of Nanda Devi, Nanda Devi East and Nanda Kot.

Elsewhere in the issue, Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama offers an in-depth look
into the first ascent of Sun Patch Spur, a nearly six-kilometer-long linkup of
K7 West and Badal Peak in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan. In “Through the
Canvas,” Canadian artist Jenna Robinson probes the subtle balance of light and
texture in alpine landscapes. And you’ll certainly rethink bailing—in more
than one sense—upon reading Doug McCarty’s account of the frostbite-inducing
New Year’s Eve he spent on the summit of Montana’s Granite Peak in 1972, or
Szu-ting Yi’s recollection of her ambitious attempt to traverse 43 peaks along
the Continental Divide in Wyoming’s Wind River Range.

The whimsy in Whitney Clark’s and Jerry Auld’s mountain writing promises
contemplative inspiration, while David Stevenson and Shawnté Salabert both
comb through past geographies in search of more than simple answers. And Paula
Wright celebrates the community-oriented spirit of longtime rescuer Maryanne
Reiter, while Katherine Indermaur celebrates the spirit of vulnerability at
the heart of Indian Creek in southeastern Utah.—and much, much more….