Video : Speed solo on Grand Capucin by Filip Babicz
On 23 September 2022, Filip Babicz climbed the Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif in just 49 minutes, solo and without rope. All this via the voie des Suisses and the O Sole Mio exit. Climbing this face usually takes eight hours. In the video, we follow Filip...
Dolomites : big new climb on Sass Maor east face for the French Yann Borgnet and Antoine Bouqueret
Sass Maor is one of the most beautiful mountains in the Dolomites. Yann Borgnet and Antoine Bouqueret have just opened a 19-pitch route on the thousand-meter-high east face, without bolts. This was Yann Borgnet’s third visit to this corner of the Pale di San...
James Pearson climbs Parthian Shot and the story behind this iconic british route
It’s one of the most famous routes in the UK: on the famous “gritstone”, in trad climbing of course. Parthian Shot, as it’s called, has seen the cream of British climbers come and go over the past two decades, but its recent remarkable ascent...
François Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre and Stefano Stradelli in the shadow of mont blanc
“We’re off to the west face of the Noire to see if we can open a route,” sums up Emrik Favre as he sets off, accompanied by François Cazzanelli and Stefano “Teto” Stradelli, on ski touring, for a new adventure. On the 12th and 13th of...
UTMB 2023 : American dream
Yes, every UTMB goes down in history. What can we expect after the exceptional intensity of 2022? Just as good, if not better. Jim Walmsley becomes the first American to win. Then the event celebrates its 20th anniversary. Queen Courtney Dauwalter becomes the empress...
Matterhorn : Nadir Maguet 5 minutes short of Kilian Jornet’s FKT
In 2013, Kilian Jornet stunned the alpine world by setting a mind-blowing record on the Matterhorn in 2 hours 52 minutes round trip from Breuil-Cervinia on the Italian side. Ten years later, Italian Nadir Maguet was dreaming of going one better. He tells us about his...
Increase Fee to Climb Everest will not be enough to control mountain tourism
Nepal has announced a 36% increase in the price of permits to climb Everest, bringing the price of a single permit to $15,000 per person. An attempt to curb the ever-increasing number of requests for climbing permits. Will this be enough to avoid high altitude queues?...
French Alps : new big route on the south face of La Meije
French Alpinists Benjamin Védrines, Nicolas Jean and Julien Cruvellier de Luze opened a new 650-meter, 27-pitch route on the south face of La Meije. For Alpine Mag, Benjamin Védrines looks back at the birth of this project and its completion two years later, with a...
And you, who do you step over?
On July 27, 2023, Mohammed Hassan, a Pakistani porter, died while crossing the Bottleneck on K2, at around 8,200m. This was his first ascent as a high-altitude porter (HAP). The reasons for his fall remain unclear. Hassan may have slipped, been destabilized by a small...
Andrzej Bargiel skis Gasherbrum I & II
Polish skier and mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel climbed and skied Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II on July 19 and 26, 2023. These two ascents and descents on skis are part of his project to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks without using supplementary...
Kristin Harila climbs K2 and the fourteen 8000 in 3 months and 1 day
Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila reached the summit of K2 on Thursday, July 27, successfully completing her project, begun on April 26, to climb all 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in less than six months. She sets a new speed record of 3 months and 1 day, shattering...
Broad Peak ski descent for Tom Lafaille and Anna Tybor
On the 19th of July, 2023, Tom Lafaille completed the first French ski descent of Broad Peak without supplementary oxygen. He was accompanied by Polish skier and mountaineer Anna Tybor, being the first woman to ski it. A“parallel universe to me, where I had no...
Bivouac or refuge : what’s the best to preserve the environment ?
It’s a question you’ve probably already asked yourself when planning your next mountain adventure. Aside from the price of a night in a refuge or bivouac equipment, and whether or not you’ll be living in close proximity to other humans, there’s...
This mountain is so steep!
I‘m not going to lie to you: I’m completely out of my depth. Obviously more in french Alps than in Pakistan (geographers will understand), since the Nanga Parbat (8126m) where I was lucky enough to spend 7 weeks, and which was the highlight of my summer....
Sorato Anraku (Japan) and Vita Lukan (Slovenia) rule Briancon, 2nd French stage of climbing world cup
Just eight days after the Chamonix stage, Briançon played host to the Lead Climbing World Cup, which took place on the town’s brand-new climbing wall. The atmosphere was fantastic, with two French climbers, Camille Pouget and Manon Hily, making it all the way to...
Mont Blanc is neither a stadium nor an airport
On July 9, after his Sea-to-Mont-Blanc record, an Italian athlete was brought down from the summit by helicopter. A disrespectful attitude towards the mountain and other climbers. In an open letter published in the meantime, Mountain Wilderness, Chamonix mayor Éric...
Mont Blanc : Benjamin Védrines climbs the Integrale de Peuterey in 6h51
On Monday July 10, French mountaineer Benjamin Vedrines climbed the Intégrale de Peuterey, the most beautiful and difficult ridge on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, in a record time of 6 hours 51 minutes, from Val Veny to the summit. Quite a feat. V édrines has chosen...
Nuptse by fair means, away from Everest crowds
On 21 May, Dutch mountaineer Christian De Jong made history in his country by becoming the first person to climb Nuptse. He also climbed Pumori one week before. Christian De Jong talks to us about his vision of Himalayan ascents in alpine style, his doubts about the...
Courtney Dauwalter : « the ultra-trail world is a fun big puzzle to solve »
Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Western States, Diagonale des Fous, Hardrock… nothing stands in her way. On the 24th of June, 2023, Courtney Dauwalter finished the Western States 6th overall, breaking the women’s record time of 1 hour 18 minutes. The American...
Nanga Parbat : Sajid Sadpara, the son of the famous mountaineer Ali Sadpara
Sajid Sadpara is a 26-year-old Pakistani who wants to climb 14 summits over 8,000 metres in memory of his father. Begun in 2019, this project has already taken him to the highest points of Everest, Annapurna and four other 8,000-metre peaks. On 26 June, Sajid reached...
Nanga Parbat : Sophie Lavaud becomes the first French to complete the Fourteen 8000
On Monday 26 June, Sophie Lavaud became the first French mountaineer to climb all fourteen summits over 8,000 metres: she climbed Nanga Parbat 8,127 metres. Accompanied by several sherpas, Sophie Lavaud reached the summit of the Pakistani giant with François Damilano...
Mallorcan Rhapsody : Chris Sharma’s deep-water solo climbing in Mallorca
In summer 2022, Chris Sharma goes out with his kayak and few friends for five days exploring the Mallorca coastline and camping along the way, to discover new deep-water soloing climbing...
Nine 8000 metre peaks in less than 45 days
A meeting room, dimmed lights, Nappa leather seats, a call console resting on the tempered glass desk, somewhere in Oxfordshire, UK. “The important thing for us, Kristin, is time. With or without oxygen, we don’t care, the Guinness Book doesn’t care...
Seb Bouin climbs Bibliographie (5.15c) at Céüse
Last saturday, Seb Bouin made the ascent of Bibliographie (5.15c) at Céüse, joining the very select club of climbers to have climbed this route. After DNA (5.15d) on April 24, 2022 in the Verdon and Supreme Jumbo Love (5.15c), America’s most difficult climb, on...
The 8 legendary routes of Everest
Since Hillary and Norgay’s feat via the South Col of Everest and the South-East Ridge in May 1953, 17 other routes have been opened on the Roof of the World. Some openings were particularly epic and the routes very rarely, if at all, repeated. Always full of...
Everest 70th First Ascent Anniversary !
Everest is seventy years old. On 29 May 1953, two human beings stood for the first time on the Roof of the World, the highest mountain of all. History is not made up of dates, but of men and women who, like you and me, have a very specific relationship with time. Our...
Meru : new route on the south summit by Mathieu Maynadier, Roger Schaeli and Simon Gietl
From 11th to 13th of May, 2023, the Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier, the Tyrolean Simon Gietl and the Swiss Roger Schaeli opened the Goldfish route (800 m, M6+, A1) in alpine style, on the East-South-East slope of the southern summit of Meru (6570 m*, Garhwal, India)....
First ski descent of Dhaulagiri by Bartek Ziemski
Bartek Ziemski completed the first ski descent of Dhaulagiri, 8,167 m. It seems that this first complete descent of the Himalayan giant was achieved by fair means: Bartek was accompanied on the ascent by his Polish compatriot Oswald Pereira. The two men made the...
Video : Seb Bouin climbs America’s hardest rock climb, Suprême Jumbo Love, 5.15c / 9b+
On November 1, 2022, the French climber Seb Bouin achieved one of his best performances, the linking of the hardest sport climbing route in the United States, Supreme Jumbo Love (Clark Mountain, California), proposed at 9b+ / 5.15c and unrepeated. 60 meters high and...
Death of Tom Hornbein, the man of the West Ridge of Everest
The American mountaineer Tom Hornbein died on Saturday, the 6th of May 2023 at the age of 92. He is the first who crossed the West Ridge of Everest with Willy Unsoeld in 1963. He left his name to the impressive corridor on the Tibetan side of the Himalayan giant. A...
Kristin Harila Summits Cho Oyu : she completes All 14 8000ers in 1 year and 5 days
Kristin Harila reached the summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet (China), at an altitude of 8188 meters, on May 3, 2023. This ascent means that she completes all 14 summits of more than 8000 meters for which she sets a new record of one year and five days, with bottled oxygen....
Video. Steve McClure send Le Voyage at Annot one of France’s hardest routes
His hair has turned gray, but his legendary strength and talent have not. The British Steve Mc Clure came to the end of the Voyage, in Annot, considered as one of the hardest trad routes in France. Opened by James Pearson, his compatriot established in the south of...
Day of drama and confusion at Annapurna
After the death of three Sherpas on Everest a few days ago, the start of the Himalayan season continues in a dramatic way on Annapurna. After yesterday’s summit push, it is the bad weather on the descent that has surprised the teams on the mountain. To date,...
Ski-mountaineering: Kilian Jornet achieves the biggest day of his career in Romsdal (Norway)
Kilian Jornet says it himself: his sequence of 7 summits around Romsdal, in Norway, is “probably [his] most impressive day of skiing”. Understand: extraordinary. Judge for yourself: seven summits, that is 76.5 km and 9257 m. of ascent, all in 21h28. This...
New FKT on the Haute Route: Benjamin Védrines and Samuel Equy link Chamonix to Zermatt in 14:54
On this mythical ski mountaineering route that is the Haute Route linking Chamonix to Zermatt, French athletes Benjamin Védrines and Samuel Equy broke the 15-hour barrier, lowering the previous mark of Olivier Meynet and the PGHM marshal Bastien Fleury by 1 hour 41...
Air Karakoram
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard the Karakoram Airlines flight to Pakistan. This flight piloted by Antoine Girard and his many friends and emulators (Fabian Buhl, Julien Dusserre, François Ragolski…) will take you to the top of mountains of more than 7000 m...
French alpinist Sophie Lavaud will attempt her 13th 8000m summit at Shishapangma (Tibet)
French alpinist Sophie Lavaud is in Tibet: she is preparing for the ascent of her 13th summit of more than 8000 m, the Shishapangma, 8027 m. She had climbed the central summit, 8013 meters, in 2012. She must therefore rectify this ascent to tick off the fourteen...
Backpack Osprey Sopris 40
O sprey ski (or snowboard) bag adapted to the female morphology so that we forget it when we are active in the snow. The Sopris 40 bag is light, adjustable and stable, so that it can be used for both downhill skiing and ski touring. As soon as we have the bag in hand,...
CamelBak Zephyr Pro 12L
CamelBak no longer needs to make a reputation for itself: it is competent and even a pioneer in the field of sports hydration. With the Zephyr Pro 11L bag (+ 2 x 500ml Quick Stow flasks), Camelbak is back with this new women’s hydration bag with a millimeter...
Vanishing Lines, about Ski Resort Expansion on glaciers
Vanishing Lines’ topic ? Ski resort expansion is destroying our last living glaciers. In this Patagonia movie, we understand that the high mountains of the Alps are at risk as developers encroach ever further in the name of expanding ski resorts and their...
Fabian Buhl: mountaineering and paragliding, why choose?
In the world of modern mountaineering, climbing and paragliding combos are opening up new perspectives. The young German climber Fabian Buhl is one of the most talented representatives, whether in the Alps, the Himalayas or Patagonia. He also has the particularity of...
Ski touring and environmental impact: follow the mountain guides!
Opening your eyes when skiing often comes down to anticipating the next snow change. However, all around us, there are many signs of another activity: that of the fauna and flora of course, which we rarely have the opportunity to observe if we are not attentive, but...
La Croisade, a new mixed climb on Aiguille des Pelerins by Symon Welfringer and Tom Livingstone
Above Chamonix, France, the Aiguille des Pélerins is a Mecca for mixed climbing, with what is undoubtedly the most famous mixed route of the Mont Blanc massif, Beyond Good and Evil (Andy Parkin, Mark Twight, 1992). This winter French Symon Welfringer and Brit Tom...
Kilian Jornet and (very) steep skiing
When he is not running, Kilian Jornet skis with mastery on extreme lines. This aspect of his character is not the most publicized, yet some of the Catalan’s achievements in this area rank him among the best steep skiers on the planet. The latest of these was the...
Grandes Jorasses’ Gousseault-Desmaison In A Day by Vedrines and Billon : a new era ?
On February 15, Leo Billon and Benjamin Vedrines climbed the Gousseault-Desmaison on Grandes Jorasses’s North Face in 9 hours and 10 minutes from the bergschrund, starting from Chamonix on foot. On March 4 and 5, in 21 hours of effective climbing and a bivouac,...
Jost Kobusch, 22 days alone and in winter on the Denali in Alaska
By reaching the summit of Denali (6,190 m, Alaska) last February 19 during the night, the German mountaineer Jost Kobusch became, at the age of 30, the 5th man to climb this summit alone and in winter, and the 1st by the Messner couloir route, a direct variant...
Kristin Harila : ready for the next sixteen 8000ers
Without saying it, Kristin Harila has established herself as a rival to Nirmal Purja. In 147 days last year, she climbed twelve of the fourteen highest peaks on the planet, with bottled oxygen. Kristin Harila is setting off on another expedition for five to six...
Chris Davenport, steep skier, guide and entrepreneur
He has skied the Baruntse and the slopes of Everest. Chris Davenport is a guide living in Aspen. He and has climbed all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in one year. We skied with Chris, guest of the last edition of the Arctic Ice Festival. We talked about his...
First Big wall winter ascent in Greenland by Poles Marcin Tomaszewski and Pawel Haldas
In fourteen days of February, Poles Marcin Tomaszewski and Pawel Haldas have climbed a 700-meter big wall on the west coast of Greenland. This is the first winter big wall ever climbed in Greenland. Marcin wrote the story. Our long-planned expedition with Pawel Haldas...
Second ascent of the Directissime Walker, Grandes Jorasses : a first-hand story with Charles Dubouloz, Clovis Paulin and Symon Welfringer
Grandes Jorasses. North face. Winter. Three climbers. Five days. Four nights. A route never repeated. This is the setting of a great adventure such as mountaineering sometimes offers us, one that pushes the cursors very high, in difficulty, in commitment but also in...
Solar Flare by Emily Harrington and Alex Honnold
The event dates back to 2016, but it’s always a pleasure to watch a short film of beautiful climbing… with a great cast. Emily Harrington and Alex Honnold climb Solar Flare (5.12d), in the Sierra nevada, California. The film is raw and simple, the images...
Millet Pierra Ment Evo : a new Skimo Backpack
A brand new crampon pocket. Here is a real innovation in the small ski mountaineering bag market, signed Millet. Is it just a gadget or does it really help? We tested it. In ski mountaineering (skimo competition if you prefer), the backpack has undergone major...
Ice-Climbing scenes in movies : how real is it ? Will Gadd answers
Game of Thrones, K2, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The King’s Man, Vetical Limit, Alien vs. Predator, The Climb and Jumanji: The next level. All these movies have been rated by professional ice-climber Will Gadd to see how real it is! He discusses...
Barre des Écrins south face: major new route by Benjamin Védrines, Nicolas Jean and Julien Cruvellier De Luze
Of the significant gullies on the south face of the Barre des Écrins (4,102m), there was only one left to open: the one in the centre, bordered by the south pillar on the left and the Red Ridge on the right. So obvious but untouched until now, this gully has just been...
Nagalaqa : a new arctic route between sea and ice
Sébastien Roubinet, 2022 winner of the french grant Bourses Expé, sailed along the north of the Canadian Arctic Islands and Greenland to Svalbard (Norway) with his two teammates Jimmy and Eric. From June the 1rst to September the 1rst, 2022, they travelled aboard a...
Arctic Ice – Ice Climbing in the north
These are special places, almost out of time: beyond the Arctic Circle, in the region of Narvik, Norway, the fjords seem asleep by the frost, the villages not so numerous. At the bend in the white ribbon of the road, waterfalls sometimes several hundred meters high...
Fitz Roy : first alpine style solo of Goretta Pillar by Colin Haley
Opened in 1979 by the great Renato Casarotto, the Goretta pillar is one of the major routes of Fitz Roy – or Cerro Chalten. The American climber Colin Haley has just completed the first solo in alpine style, in two days of climbing, from January 17 to 19 shortly...
Patagonia : new route on Aguja Mermoz by Matteo Della Bordella, Leo Gheza, Sean Villanueva
In Patagonia, the Belgian Sean Villanueva and the Italians Matteo Della Bordella and Leo Gheza have started their season on a high note: as soon as they arrived, they rushed to open a route on the east face of the Aiguille Mermoz, 2732 m, Que miras, bobo ? 7b, 500 m....
The high life : last summer in La Charpoua Hut (Mont-Blanc)
What’s it like running an over 100-year-old alpine refuge in the mountains near Chamonix, France, with two young children? For Sarah Cartier, the hutkeeper at Le Refuge de la Charpoua and mama of two, it’s exactly what she needs it to be—a feeling of...
Billur Bektaş : “Alpine plants also suffer from global warming”
We ranked her in our TOP 100 people to follow in 2022. Interview with Billur Bektaş who has just completed her thesis at the University of Grenoble on the project « Flying Meadows », these high altitude plants which also suffer from global warming. We talk with her...
Himalaya : Manaslu Winter Ascent for Alex Txikon and Sherpas
This is the third time that the Spanish himalayist Alex Txikon attempted Manaslu in winter. Thirty-nine years after his first winter ascent, Manaslu was once again climbed in the heart of the Himalayan winter by Txikon and six Sherpas : Tenjen Sherpa, Pasang Nurbu...
Collapse of iconic climbing routes in Bugaboos (B.C, Canada)
End of December 2022 in British Columbia, at the foot of the Snowpatch Spire (3084m), a summit renowned by climbers and described as a “world-class hard Alpine free route”, a major rock fall profoundly altered the face of the north and east faces. A major...
The voyage to the scariest ski run of my life, Wavy
A ski odyssey to the far northern fjords of Norway. After a decade of dreaming of the Kvænangstindan mountain range a team of skiers and riders board Captain Crocs’ vessel Sofie in search of adventure. The last couloir at the end of the film is an incredible...
Women’s climbing: Dreamcatcher, one of the most beautiful routes in Squamish
It is one of the most beautiful routes in Squamish (Canada), but probably also in North America. Dreamcatcher is a line of rare purity: a sword line through a granite shield, an improbable overhang imagined and climbed by Chris Sharma. Without doubt one of the most...
Climbing video: Adam Ondra on the hardest route of the world?
It was an old project that the Czech climber looked at in 2013: Project Big, in Norway’s Flatanger cave, just seemed too futuristic to climb. “It has always seemed like the most improbable part of the cave, looking just too intimidating to be...
Watch Christophe Dumarest and Tom Livingstone climb Grandes Jorasses’ No Siesta
It’s one of the hardest routes on a north face that doesn’t lack them: No Siesta at the Grandes Jorasses, 30 pitches of mixed rock and ice, sometimes doubtful, sometimes compact. Opened in 1986 by Jan Porvaznik and Stanislav Glejdura, No Siesta has seen a...
Vertical ice : the spirit of Guy Lacelle
The Spirit of Guy Lacelle is a journey of discovery and exploration, both of the man himself and the raw beauty of his most inspired winter climbs. Told from the perspective of some of the best ice climbers in the world today, paired with archival footage from the...
Free the Iranian mountaineers
They are snowboard instructors, climbing instructors, mountaineers and former members of the national mountaineering team. There are (at least) five of them. In recent weeks, they have been arrested by the Iranian political police after participating in pro-democracy...
Cogne Ice Opening: the ice season is on!
The ice climbing season is launched: in the Aosta Valley, the Cogne Ice Opening festival has lived up its promise with meetings, renowned mountaineers, complete workshops for all levels, manufacturers who lend ice axes and boots, and ice that is already abundant. And...
Ski touring with Majesty, from the Tatras to the Norwegian fjords
Do you know the Tatras? This remote mountain range in the far east of Europe is the birthplace of a fast-growing ski brand: Majesty Skis. Majesty skis come from a tradition of ski touring and freerando ignored abroad, where the Alps are the focus of attention. If they...
Sea to summit: great skiing in Norway with Majesty
From Poland to Norway, there is (almost) only one step. The Majesty team went to test the Carbon range in the Norwegian fjords of the Harstadt region. Great pictures that will make you want to ski, as the snow starts to...
Headlamp – Petzl Nao RL
If you’re looking for a headlamp for trail running and ultra-trail running, this Petzl NAO RL is undoubtedly the best headlamp on the market. Judge for yourself: this NAO RL provides 1500 lumens of brightness ! The expression “car headlight” suits it...
We have found the snow leopard in the fake photos: From a “visual creation” to an image stolen by Kittiya Pawlowski
The source of the snow leopard was the only link missing from our demonstration that Kittiya Pawlowski’s photographs were fake. We have now found one of the leopards the “visual artist” used. It’s from a picture taken by wildlife photographer Vincent Cordier in...
Patrick Wagnon : “Alpine style is the most beautiful and the strongest”
A beautiful ascent, yes, but how was it done? Without an alpine style carried out throughout the expedition, an ascent cannot be honoured with a Piolet d’Or. Patrick Wagnon, a still active himalayist who has never given up this style and who was on the jury for...
Running shoes : Nnormal Kjerag
This is the shoe that everyone has been waiting for, in a mixture of disbelief (how could Camper, a city shoe brand, do better than Salomon, Kilian’s former sponsor?) and envy (he did win the UTMB with these shoes!) So here it is, on our feet and on the mountain...
“I don’t want to ski the steepest lines in the world anymore, like in The List 2” Sam Anthamatten
Sam Anthamatten has been involved in countless freeride projects. Best Supporting Actor in most of the resulting films, he is currently starring in a short film dedicated (at last) to him, Nevia. We met Sam Anthamatten at the foot of his mountain, the Matterhorn, as...
Death of Ed Webster, a great himalayist
With his Anglo-American companions, Ed Webster achieved one of the greatest ascents of all time in 1988, the first ascent of the massive Kangshung face of Everest, without oxygen bottles or any help. A regular climber in Yosemite, a photographer and a mentor to a...
The snow leopard of too many
Basically, we can think that it is not serious, that it is only an image, and moreover on a theme that does not hurt anyone: the beauty of the world. So why not let yourself be carried away? We think just the opposite. Of course, image manipulation has existed since...
Piolets d’Or 2022: award-winning climbs and testimonials about the future of high-altitude climbing
The Piolets d’Or 2022 offered a beautiful public ceremony on November 19th in Briançon, France, and celebrated the most beautiful ascents of the previous year. A very demanding, even “severe” edition, which brings alpine style to the pinnacle. Alpine...
The Fake Snow Leopard : photomontage spread around the world
They were too good to be true. The whole world has seen Kittiya Pawlowski’s photos of a snow leopard, snapped in the distance and surrounded by magnificent Himalayan mountains. The problem is that the lighting in the American photographer’s pictures is a little...
Piolets d’Or : to Ukraine with love
It was a beautiful January, the snow covered everything. Located at an altitude of more than two thousand meters in the South Alps, France, the Lautaret Pass road was closed due to avalanches, but that didn’t stop a team of Russian mountaineers from crossing the...
Sean Villanueva sends Czech sandstone cracks
Sean Villanueva returns to Adršpach, Czech’s climbing paradise, to continue exploring the incredible sandstone towers. In this video we followed him during a day where he tried to climb the Teplice trilogy which includes the three most beautiful cracks of the...
Epic Steep skiing on the Grandes Jorasses’ North Face
On the 11th of November, Guillaume Pierrel and Boris Langestein skied the Linceul on the Grandes Jorasses. If the north face is a long awaited quest for many climbers, the skiers of this suspended slope in the north face can be counted on the fingers of two hands,...
Watch Adam Ondra climb a bold route on Czech sandstone
In the Northwest of Czechia, near the border of Germany, there is a fairytale-like landscape of endless sandstone towers and walls. The climbing here is so special, just like the local climbing scene and its ethics. The game’s name is opening the routes ground...
Anthamatten, three brothers on top
You’ve probably already heard this name, a name that rings out like an echo in the mountains: Anthamatten. Whether it’s Samuel the freerider, Simon the high-level mountaineer and helicopter pilot or Martin the skier-mountaineer and trail-runner, the three...
Discovery of the cameras of a famous photographer, taken in the ice since 1937. In the footsteps of Bradford Washburn
Griffin Post is an American skier known for his extraordinary freeriding skills. However, it was not for the powder that he returned to Alaska last spring, but for a real treasure hunt: to find the photo and video equipment abandoned by the famous photographer,...
Saraghrar NW and Fitz Roy Moonwalk Traverse win Piolets d’Or 2022, Annapurna III SE Ridge Special jury award
Next November in Briançon, the Piolets d’Or 2022 will be awarded to the Georgians Archil Badriashvili, Baqar Gelachvili and Giorgi Tepnadze for their wild ascent of Saraghrar (7,303 m, Pakistan) and to the Belgian Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll for his solo...
Mont Blanc : the Payot Ridge, unrecommended alternative to the Goûter couloir
In order to find an alternative to the Aiguille du Goûter couloir and its infamous landslides, the Petzl foundation and several scientists have carried out a diagnostic on the Payot ridge, another route leading to the Goûter. Could this Payot ridge become the solution...
Piolets d’Or Lifetime Achievement 2022 is granted to the Slovenian Alpinist Silvo Karo
The 14th Walter Bonatti Piolets d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be awarded in Briançon at the end of November, is awarded to Silvo Karo, 61, from Slovenia. A figure of great mountaineering in the 1980s, a catalyst for modern Slovenian mountaineering,...
Avalanche kills at least 26 mountaineers in Indian Himalayas
In the state of Uttarakhand, in the north of India, an avalanche swept away a group of 40 Indian mountaineers and their instructors at an altitude of 4800 meters on October 4. Despite the search and rescue efforts, the toll was extremely high, with 26 dead and three...
Davo Karnicar, First Ski Descent of Everest 22 years ago
October 7, 2000: twenty-two years ago, Davo Karnicar made the first ski descent of Everest from the summit, on the Nepalese side. In 4 hours and 30 minutes, the Slovenian skier completed the first of the Seven summits ski descents which he then followed, before losing...
AVALANCHES IN MANASLU CAUSE A THIRD DEATH AND THE DEPARTURE OF EXPEDITIONS
Avalanches continue to occur in Manaslu. Several have devastated the base camp, while another avalanche has caused the death of a Sherpa, Dawa Chhiring. Despite the pressure from clients who want to reach the summit of Manaslu, the agencies pack up. Manaslu’s...
The 82 x 4000 of the Alps in one summer, on own power
From 27 May to 12 August this year, Dutch mountain guide Roeland van Oss climbed all 82 of the 4000 m summits in the Alps in 78 days, using his own physical and moral power. If this success without motorised means allows him to join three previous climbers (Diego...
Missing Hilaree Nelson found dead
The lifeless body of Hilaree Nelson was located on the slopes of Manaslu on Wednesday, and then airlifted to Kathmandu. The death toll from the September 26 avalanche and accidents is two. We could hope, still and always, to catch ourselves at a thread to believe that...
Manaslu Avalanche and Search for Missing Hilaree Nelson
The Himalayan season started early, very early this year on Manaslu. Hundreds of climbers set up camp at the base camp, while Nirmal Purja’s team equipped the mountain with fixed ropes. The Norwegian Kristin Harila reached the summit despite the heavy snowfall...
A surprising climber
This time, no one saw Comet Haley coming. It must be said that Colin was even more surprisingly spontaneous than usual in his decision to go to Patagonia to attempt the 1600m Supercanaleta at Fitz Roy, solo and in winter. As he tells us in our article, the American...
Fitz Roy Winter Solo Ascent by Colin Haley
Colin Haley is a seasoned climber of Patagonia. He climbed the Torre Egger solo in 2016, and already, in 2009, signed a solo ascent of the famous Fitz Roy Supercanaleta. But this time, in the middle of the austral winter, the Supercanaleta attracted him again. On...
Warren Harding’s Outrageous First Ascents of The Nose and The Dawn Wall
Warren Harding a singular man who marked his time. Harding was the relentless visionary who first climbed El Capitan, the thousand-meter granite monster in Yosemite, at the head of a team of climbers who were among the best at the time: it was in 1957, and the trio...
Dreaming of Manaslu, but which one?
Lists are one of the most widespread contemporary habits, maintained by the productivity apps that are very much in the air today. Mountaineering is no exception, and this is not new: the 82 “4000”, and of course, the fourteen “8000” climbed...
Netflix : Broad Peak trailer
This is a story as only the Himalayas can deliver. The Polish Maciej Berbeka belonged to the famous group of Ice Warriors, the Poles who aimed for the first winter climbs in the Himalayas. Berbeka was the author of the first winter ascent of Manaslu, on January 12,...
Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, gives his company away to help the planet
Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, could have sold his $3 billion company or taken it public. But fearing that successors would not share his values, and having no appetite for the stock market and its short-term gains, Chouinard chose to transfer 100% of...
How does Kilian Jornet train?
With an unquenchable appetite for victory, the trail king has never been stronger. Now fathering two small children, managing a foundation and launching his own gear brand NNormal. How does he do it? Kilian Jornet himself tries to answer. Once again, Kilian Jornet has...
Watch Filip Babicz’s FKT on Badile North Ridge
One year ago, on September 10, 2021, Filip Babicz set the record for climbing the North Ridge of Piz Badile in 42 minutes and 52 seconds, solo ascent. A Fastest Known Ascent for sure. The north ridge of Badile is rated D and is 750 m high. An Italian-Polish climber...
Review : Millet Trident Guide Shoes
At Millet, we know what an approach shoe is. You need grip: a Vibram sole with Climbing Zone. You need rigidity, because the goal is to crawl through the scree covering the approaches, scree in which running shoes get slaughtered – and your feet with it. The...
Watch GMHM Dru west face first ascent
They were streamed live on YT while climbing the Dru. From 18 to 22 February 2021 the French alpinists Thomas Auvaro, Léo Billon, Jordi Noguere and Sébastien Ratel made the first ascent of BASE on the West Face of Petit Dru above Chamonix in the Mont Blanc massif. The...
Inclusive climbing at the Women’s Bouldering Festival in Fontainebleau
The fifth edition of the bouldering festival created by Zofia Reych was held last weekend in the forest of Fontainebleau. More than a hundred participants gathered to share common values and the pleasure of climbing. They were 120 gathered around the boulders of...
“Marco was a free spirit who did not please everyone”
Marco Siffredi disappeared 20 years ago, somewhere on the north face of Everest. It was on the 8th of September, 2002, and he was 23 years old. A genius snowboarder and a rebel spirit, Marco brought a breath of fresh air and sometimes of craziness to the mountain...
Damn, 20 years !
For many, he is an icon with blond or green hair, depending on the mood, an icy mint look and a smile whose scratched incisor reveals his temperament. “In the powder we are all world champions. There’s no one left as soon as it’s steep and a bit...
Nina Caprez and Cedric Lachat climb Wogu, 8c 350m
This sequence is the full one of the WoGu climbing sequence in Swissway to Heaven movie. Directed by Guillaume Broust Swissway to Heaven follows Cedric Lachat climbing hard routes in the Swiss Alps. Watch the strong climbers Caprez and Lachat working on the one of the...
Drone flying above Everest
This video was shot by drone around and even above Everest. Up to the altitude of 9232 meters, a record in drone flying! Specialists will recognize the North Ridge of Everest, in detail, but also shots of Lhotse for example. Watch it...
Kilian Jornet breaks UTMB record, Katie Schide first woman
The UTMB is not the world’s top trail running race for nothing: the best mountain runners have once again gathered there, in Chamonix, France. For the past 19 years, the world’s elite have been competing against each other around the 160 km Tour du...
No Straight Lines, the video story of paraclimber Angelino Zeller
Climbing is a passion. For everyone. “The real barrier is not the physical ability. If you find your own access, define your own goal, you will find purpose in it. And that’s why I am at the wall” says paraclimber Angelino Zeller from Austria. Watch...
Benjamin Vedrines’s Broad Peak speed ascent and K2 attempt
On 28 July, just nine days after climbing the normal route of Broad Peak (8,051m, Karakoram) without supplemental oxygen and in a record time of 7 hours 28 minutes, Alpine guide Benjamin Védrines challenged, also without supplemental oxygen, the record for the fastest...
NNORMAL Kjerag : the brand co-founded by Kilian Jornet unveils its first running shoes
It’s a small event in the trail world. Even if a few rare photos were released last spring, the official release of the first model of trail shoes from the Nnormal brand may interest many trail runners. Co-founded by Kilian Jornet with the Spanish brand Camper,...
Mont Blanc : the huts on the normal route reopened
Less than two weeks after taking the historic decision to close the Tête Rousse and Goûter huts, the main ones on Mont Blanc, the mayor of St-Gervais, J-M. Peillex, announced that they would reopen next Saturday, August 20. This decision was taken following the...
Sierre-Zinal 2022: Kenya wins ahead of Kilian Jornet and the rest of the world
Sierre-Zinal (Switzerland) just hosted the 4th round of the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS). On a mythical course, the spectacular circuit raised the stakes even higher: Kilian for a 10th title? Mathys and Jornet rewriting their records? But above all, this Kenyan...
Global warming exhumes climbers trapped in glaciers
On July 26, two French mountaineers discovered a corpse that had been trapped for decades in a Swiss glacier. The identity of this mummified man remains a mystery. With the accelerated melting of glaciers, more and more mountaineers who have been missing for decades...
Kristin Harila reached her 11th 8000m peak, the Gasherbrum I
On the 105th day of her challenge, the Norwegian Kristin Harila declares to have reached the summit of Gasherbrum I (8080m) this Thursday, August 11, 2022, only three days after having reached Gasherbrum II (8036m). She has only 3 summits and 81 days left to try to...
Sovereign nature
It’s crazy what a little change gives wings. Those of a kite in this case, a red kite.Accustomed to the hands of climbers, the wiggle of skiers and other alpine balancing acts, my camera went out of its autofocus zone (which is to cameras what the “comfort...
Dent d’Hérens : Tiefmatten’s ridge
In the shadow of its neighbors the Matterhorn and the Dent Blanche, the Dent d’Hérens is a rather discreet 4000m, hidden between Zermatt and Cervinia. And yet it is worth the detour, especially via its Tiefmatten ridge! This complete mixed race with moderate...
The last chance alpinist
After a few weeks in the mountains, disconnected from the networks and other notifications, I returned to the virtual planet. There, depressing alerts and pictures are blooming: melting glaciers, dried lakes, rock slides and ice falls accelerated, overfrequentation on...
Aiguille du Tour: e-MTB alpine style !
Who hasn’t thought of shortening an approach or making it more fun before entering the full vertical? Having a little more fun on the way down? With the new e-bikes, it is easy to ride long distances, more or less steep, with a mountaineering bag on your back....
SUMMITERS OF THE 14,8000: EBERHARD JURGALSKI’S NEW LIST
On 8 July, the Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski made public the results of ten years of investigations into the ascents of the mountaineers who have climbed all the 14 highest peaks in the world. For decades, Messner, Kukuczka and Loretan have led the way among...
Crazy week in K2
It’s madness on K2, 2022 style. In one week, hundreds of ascents are claimed by the normal route of the Abruzzi spur and the FKT for the speed ascent established without oxygen by the Frenchman Benoît Chamoux in 1986, was possibly beaten yesterday. Summary of a...
Speed Ascent of Broad Peak by French Climber Benjamin Vedrines
The french mountain guide Benjamin Védrines has just achieved a feat: the ascent of Broad Peak, 8,047 m, in 7 hours and 28 minutes from a start at 4,890 meters on the Godwin-Austen glacier, before descending by paraglider, and without bottled oxygen. A Fastest Known...
HIMALAYISM: should history really be rewritten?
Looks like the best himalayan climbers have been shrinking. Eberhard Jurgalski and his investigators* have come to the following conclusion: out of about fifty Himalayan climbers, only three have reached the highest point of the fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres with...
5 voies pour le mont Blanc : le Goûter, voie « normale » par excellence
C’est l’itinéraire qui vient spontanément à l’esprit de l’aspirant au sommet du toit des Alpes. Techniquement raisonnable, collectivement prisé, il n’en demeure pas moins une ascension en haute montagne avec sa panoplie de risques objectifs – amplifiés par...
Pride and Prejudice: Jon Krakauer’s Chamonix
In the world of “adventure journalism” and mountain journalism in particular, there is a name that imposes itself to all: Jon Krakauer. Remember, it was him who wrote Tragedy on Everest and Into the Wild. Both stories were best-sellers and cinematographic...
Francois Cazzanelli summits Nanga Parbat in 20hr20min
On the 4th of July 2022, Italian alpinist Francois Cazzanelli summited Nanga Parbat (8126m) via the Kinshofer route, without supplemental oxygen, in a time of 20 hours and 20 minutes, from Base Camp to Summit. Francois Cazzanelli set off alone, on the 3rd of July at...
“I love exploring unknown mountains” Steve Swenson
He is not the best known of American mountaineers, but he is undoubtedly one of those with the best record of achievement, with the North Ridge of K2 and Everest without oxygen bottle, or the first ascent of Saser Kangri II. Former president of the American Alpine...
What the collapse of the Marmolada’s glacier tells us
On Sunday, July 3, at nearly 3300 meters, the rupture of a glacier section, on the Marmolada (3343 m), in the Dolomites, swept away the normal route of this very popular summit, six people paying with their lives for their humble ascent project. Tons of ice blocks...
Torre Egger : Marc Andre’s Vision
In September 2016, Canadian Marc-André Leclerc made the first solo winter ascent of the Torre Egger, via the East Pillar and variants of the Titanic and De Dona – Giongo routes. This remarkable adventure, the details of which can be seen in The Alpinist, the...
Controversy on the Mont Blanc Normal Route : new anchors removed by Christophe Profit
If there is one summit that exacerbates passions, it is Mont Blanc. No doubt also because of the number of aspirants – twenty thousand people – who want to climb the Roof of Europe every year. The problem is that Mont Blanc is becoming steeper and steeper....
MONT BLANC: THE NEW NORMAL ROUTES
Since March, a large crevasse has cut the normal route of Mont Blanc at the Bosses. It is therefore necessary to bypass it: from the right, some guides have placed moorings which have caused a controversy. The guide Daniel du Lac proposes here the main possible...
Climbing Everest: Kilian Jornet’s tips to save money
Whether it is comfortable or luxurious in terms of paid services, an ascent of Everest by its normal Nepalese route will cost the Himalayan climber between 35,000 and 270,000 euros today. The athlete Kilian Jornet, who knows the place well, has revealed some of his...
The Chamonix Film Festival prize list: The Grand Prix for The Alpinist
For its second edition, the Chamonix Film Festival ends with the awards ceremony in the presence of Conrad Anker, the festival’s patron. The Alpinist was awarded the Grand Prix of the Festival. We have seen some astonishing films, which show the diversity of the...
4 billion likes on Instagram, me, myself and I
OOr rather 4.2 billion more precisely, of hearts that fill up every day on Instagram, worldwide, for more than 50 billion photos shared since its launch in 2010. Don’t throw away any more. “Insta” has got us. The image, here is the heart of this...
Kristin Harila’s Quest for the Fourteen 8000
She climbed six 8000ers in 29 days. Even Nirmal Purja took longer to complete his first summits during his famous fourteen 8000 summits. Beating the record of the Nepalese is not the first motivation of Kristin Harila. But being the first climber to prove that a woman...
The mountain embodied: 50 names to know
We’re a bit of a Buddhists at Alpine Mag. At the beginning of each year, we wonder under which features the mountain will be reincarnated. And when summer season comes, we start to see things clearly. Will we live then a period marked by physical and technical...
A tribute to Simone Badier, the great french alpinist
Born in 1936, Simone Badier passed away last March. She was one of the first women climbers to make a name for herself in the 1960s, in a very male-dominated alpine environment. Claude Gardien pays tribute to this fantastic climber who was ahead of her time. In the...
How Mingma G. survived Everest’s Deadliest Avalanche
April 25, 2015. A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. Almost 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured as a result of the deadliest earthquake in the region for 81 years. The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed 19...
Federica Mingolla, from the gym to the big climbs
The path that took Federica Mingolla from the gym’s walls to the mountains, from being a young athlete to a complete mountaineer, was not easy… but the teachings that brought her there will accompany her forever. A nice movie by Matteo...
How much does Everest cost? Welcome VIPs
Everest is expensive. And it’s getting more and more expensive. Agencies are trying to target the high-end clientele, charging more and more for services worthy of a hotel, such as individual rooms, WIFI, cappucinos… The Everest of the pioneers is far...
How much does Everest cost? More than you think
The holy grail of exploration may be climbed hundreds of times each year, but it is more fashionable than ever. For the vast majority of aspirants, Everest is above all a budgetary objective. Since the 1990s and the first commercial expeditions, the business has...
Monday motivation
It is the story of a guy who kept his motivation. He attempted Everest in 2019, and had to stop at 8650 meters. Without oxygen, not because someone stole his tanks at Camp 4, but because he chose to climb in the most stripped down style. Turning back 200 meters from...
Steep skiing and climbing au mont Blanc du Tacul
When the conditions are good up there, you have to take advantage of them. Mountain Guide in Chamonix, Guillaume Pierrel had never climbed with American Mike D. Arnold, also a mountain guide, based in the Aosta Valley. But they decide to go for nice day together. At...
Phantom Line on Jugal Spire : a mountain exploration. The story 2/2
After the first part of the story, Paul Ramsden and Tim Miller are now ready to climb the Jugal Spire as their eyes turn to a thin line of ice. Second part of the story, told by Tim Miller. At 3am the next morning our alarms beeped and we were tugged from our dreams...
Phantom Line on Jugal Spire : a new route and an unclimbed peak. The story 1/2
English legend Paul Ramsden and scottish climber Tim Miller climbed a new route on an unclimbed peak located few hours from Kathmandu, in Nepal. The Phantom Line (ED+) is a beautiful line on NW face of Jugal Spire, a mountain “found on Google Earth”. Here...
Sophie Lavaud’s success on Lhotse, her 12th 8000
Sophie Lavaud succeeded in climbing Lhotse, 8516 m, on May 14, with her sherpa Dawa Sangay. With this twelfth 8000 m in the pocket, she still has two summits to reach, the Nanga Parbat and the Shishapangma, to complete the fourteen 8000 m, a quest that has been fatal...
Nirmal Purja climbed Everest then Lhotse without oxygen
Nirmal Purja has just achieved a great performance by completing the Everest-Lhotse route without oxygen, while guiding clients who are using themselves bottled oxygen. Having just come down from Kangchenjunga, Nirmal Purja has completed three 8000m in less than nine...
The Chamonix Film Festival is back from june 14 to 19, 2022
From June 14 to 19, 2022, the Chamonix Film Festival will be welcoming all mountain lovers and enthusiasts to celebrate its culture and its cinema. After a successful first edition last year, this new edition is eagerly awaited. Whether in cinemas, in the mountains...
Black power at the top of Everest : the bet was won!
They wanted to be the “first all-black expedition” to climb Everest. It’s a done deal. Six members of the American Full Circle Everest expedition (out of nine in total) reached the summit of the roof of the world on Thursday, May 12th, around noon....
Teaser: 2d edition of Chamonix Film Festival is coming soon!
Here is the teaser for the second edition of Chamonix Film Festival! A not-to-be-missed event about mountain cinema. The major productions of the year (Beyond the Summits, Torn, etc.) will be screened from the 14th to the 19th of June 2022, as well as more traditional...
Makalu (8485 m) in a single day without supplemental oxygen : 17:18 for Karl Egloff and Nicolas Miranda
A magnificent pyramid, Makalu, 8463 or 8485 m, is the fifth highest peak in the world. Without supplemental oxygen, Karl Egloff and Nicolas Miranda succeeded in climbing it in less than one day, in 17h18. A new record, and a feat for the Ecuadorian Miranda and the...
Himalayas : Changabang’s Boardman-Tasker repeated 46 years after first ascent
In the Himalayas, India is home to peaks of fierce beauty. Changabang, 6864 metres, is one of them. Its western side was the scene of an epic climb in 1976 by the Boardman-Tasker british team. 46 years later, their route was repeated by a New Zealand team of three....
Seb Bouin sends DNA, possibly the second 9C in climbing history!
On the 24th of April, Frenchman Seb Bouin achieved an incredible feat: to complete his long-standing project, DNA, in the Verdon Gorge (France). Seb Bouin has spent more than 150 days trying this extreme route before. This performance of unprecedented difficulty is...
Running across the Hielo
Ten years ago, the Brazilian ultrarunner Fernanda Maciel attempted to run the Circo de los Altares (Patagonia) in one go, but the weather hampered her dream. She returned with ultrarunner Kaytlyn Gerbin this time. They tackled the wild and remote Hielo Continental...
Sébastien Berthe free climbs El Capitan in 17 hours
After having assured and supported Soline Kentzel in her ascent of Golden Gate, the climber Sébastien Berthe wanted to add a new cross to his list of achievements on El Capitan. And it was El Nino, the route of the Huber brothers, that he repeated in record time....
What is left of Ueli?
The passing is often remembered as a surprisingly distant fact. “Five years already!” one might wonder when remembering the death of Ueli Steck on April 30, 2017. On that day, the hurried mountaineer stumbled at Nuptse. Yet I must confess that it is the...
SOLINE KENTZEL FREE CLIMBS GOLDEN GATE AT ONLY 21 (AND 6 YEARS OF CLIMBING!)
She is not the “best female climber in the world”, but French climber Soline Kentzel, who has only been climbing for 6 years, succeeded this spring in free climbing the Golden Gate route (1000 m, 5.13a/b), on El Capitan in California. She thus becomes, at...
Climbing Mont Blanc could become more difficult
On the normal route of Mont Blanc, at the level of the Bosses ridge, large crevasses have appeared. These crevasses could have a lasting impact on the normal route to Mont Blanc by significantly increasing its commitment and difficulty. Scientists went to the site to...
DRUS: Raphaël Georges climbs the Lesueur route solo
From 21 to 23 March, the young mountain guide Raphaël Georges, 31 years old, made the first solo ascent of the Lesueur route (1952, 900 m, M7, 6b), on the north face of the Drus. Starting from the valley, this strong rock climber free-climbed all the difficulties of...
First ski descent on Aiguille des Lacs by Paul Bonhomme
It’s a new steep descent for Paul Bonhomme. Mountain guide by profession but a great lover of slopes and wild mountains, Paul Bonhomme skied the East face of the Aiguille des Lacs, a summit located in the Valpelline. For those who don’t know this...
Why Marc Batard, 70 years old, is back on Everest. Again.
In 1988, Marc Batard became the Everest sprinter, the first man to climb the Roof of the World in less than 24 hours, without bottle oxygen. A record that still stands. 34 years later, we went to meet Marc Batard at his home, before his departure for Everest, which he...
Tengkangpoche’s movie by Tom Livingstone and Matt Glenn
In October 2021, British climbers Tom Livingstone and Matt Glenn made the first ascent of the North-East Pillar of Tengkangpoche (6,487 metres) in the Khumbu region of Nepal. Tom told us about it in our pages*, and the video of the feat in the route called Massive...
Passion according to Matthias
His Top 100 ice climbs will make many mountaineers dream. But Matthias Scherer is not just any climber: for twenty years he has been tracking down the most beautiful icefalls on the planet, from the Hautes-Alpes to Canada. He has set up his winter base camp in Norway,...
Heavenly Trap : Marek Holecek and Radoslav Groh Baruntse’s Video
This video shows Czech pro-alpinist and Mammut Pro Team athlete Marek Holecek opening a new alpine-style route called “Heavenly Trap” on the northwest face of Baruntse (7162m) in Nepal with his climbing partner Radoslav Groh. Holecek, who already won two...
Eiger North Face Winter Solo : Destivelle points out the difference between Laura Tiefenthaler’s ascent and her own 30 years ago
On the 25th of March 2022, the young Austrian guide Laura Tiefenthaler solo climbed the North Face of the Eiger via the Heckmair route (ED, 1600m). Although this is the only second winter female solo ascent, the performance cannot be ranked in the same category as the...
American Alpine Club : the legacy series
The American Alpine Club, “the largest community of rock-scaling misfits in the country” as they describe themselves, created a series of videos called Legacy Series to pay tribute to the visionary climbers who made the sport what it is today and stands as...
Matterhorn South Face First Major Winter Ascent
From the 27th of February to the 1st of March, the Italians François Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre and Francesco Ratti succeeded in climbing the Padre Pio, une échelle vers le ciel route (1300 m, 7b, 6c obl.) on the south face of the Matterhorn (4478 m), in three days. A...
“There is no commercial future in winter 8,000ers” Fernando Garrido says
This winter, the expeditions on Nanga Parbat (Barmasse, Goettler), Everest (Kobusch), K2 (Grace Tseng and Sherpa-guided team), Manaslu (Txikon, Moro and Sherpas) and Cho Oyu (Gelje Sherpa team and Pioneer Adventure team, on the Nepalese side) all failed. We met the...
Why the greatest skimo race is Pierra Menta
The 36th edition of the Pierra Menta came to an end on Saturday. The crowd went up to the Col de la Forclaz and to the Antécime du Grand Mont in Beaufortain at 5am to encourage the riders. They will have covered more than 10,000m of vertical drop in four days. In this...
Endurance, Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic exploration ship, has been found
Good news has been rare in recent weeks. So let’s focus on this one! An international team located Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance in the Weddel Sea at 16:05 GMT on the 5th of March, 2022, at a depth of 3008 metres. It is a mythical ship of the Antarctic...
“Family and mountain, this is how you balance those two” Conrad Anker says
On October 5, 1999, mountaineering star Alex Lowe disappeared with cameraman David Bridges in an avalanche on Shishapangma (8027 m, Tibet). Alex’s best friend and fellow climber, Conrad Anker, miraculously survived. After the tragedy, Anker and Jennifer,...
“Many friends have lost their home” says Ukrainian climber
Fedir Samoilov is a professional climber. He finished 6th in the World Cup in Briançon in 2021. He is 24 years old and is Ukrainian. Currently, as a refugee in Germany, he is doing what he can to fight the war in Ukraine. We were able to exchange a few words with him....
The legendary Conrad Anker
Conrad Anker has had an incredible life. And he’s not about to stop.At almost 60, the American is the character of a story so intense that even Hollywood would find it hard to believe. His life was adventurous when he was a young mountaineering prodigy climbing...
French Arthur Sordoillet ticks off a rare solo of Pic sans Nom’s North Face
This ascent represents the outcome of 25 years of mountaineering” says Arthur Sordoillet. On the 9th of February, the French mountain guide climbed the Pic Sans Nom’s north face. Solo, in winter, via the Cambon-Francou, one of the most serious routes on...
Will ski touring soon be charged in France?
The advent of marked and secure ski touring routes, set up by the ski resorts, opens up the possibility of paying acces to the activity. But the conditions remain to be defined and this possibility remains distant. Last August, the winter sports resort of Aspen,...
Success at the Matterhorn for French climbers Billon, Ratel & Védrines
French alpinists Benjamin Védrines, Léo Billon and Sébastien Ratel concluded with unusual mastery their winter trilogy of the three mythical northern faces of the Alps, using the most direct routes and in the record time of barely a month. Enough to set a new...
The snowflake perfection
“Let us love the snow. Otherwise, we risk breaking our poetic balance and forgetting our human condition,” wrote Francis Bossus in La Forteresse (1971). This winter and for the time being, the new “white gold” is rather rare. Mountain lovers...
Meeting Nirmal Purja, universal mountaineer
Nirmal Purja made a quick and surprising stop in France, in collaboration with his sponsor Therm-ic. As neighbors, here in the french Alps, we had the great opportunity to ask a few questions to the alpinist, whose notoriety has taken a giant leap thanks to the...
Ice climbing : always a famous place
At the Fer à Cheval in Sixt, the disciples of François Damilano and Thierry Renault continued their exploration of the circus with talent. The free climbing of long interrupted icefalls, mixing dry tooling and pure ice climbing on suspended stalactites, became the...
Cerro Torre tragedy : the rescue story by the Ragni di Lecco
What has happened in recent days on Cerro Torre has overwhelmed us. In the space of a few hours there was anxiety as we waited for news, relief at knowing that our climbers were safe and sound, happiness at having achieved a new route and despair at the tragedy...
Sam Anthamatten: Best supporting role
The youngest member of the Anthamatten clan, now retired from the Freeride World Tour, teamed up with Jérémie Heitz to make the highly anticipated sequel to Heitz’s classic ski film La Liste (2016). The idea for La Liste 2: Everything or Nothing was very simple —...
Dani Arnold: against the clock
He’d promised himself he would break the speed records for all six of the Alps’ legendary north faces. After the Cima Grande in Italy, the Grandes Jorasses in France and the Piz Badile, Matterhorn and Eiger in Switzerland, the only one left was the north face of the...
Chantel Astorga : Miss Denali
Chantel Astorga made her name in 2017, when she won the Piolet d’Or with Anne Gilbert Chase for their ascent of Nilkantha. She hit the headlines again in 2021 for making the first female solo ascent of the Cassin Route on Denali, a punishing, 2,500-m climb she...
Filip Babicz: a man in a hurry
B abicz earned himself the nickname Peuterey Man in 2020 when he added a record-breaking solo traverse of Mont Blanc’s longest ridge (completed in 17 hours) to his earlier record for climbing the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, a route he polished off in just 90 minutes....
Andrzej Bargiel: Steep skiing, himalayan style
Where can you go to push yourself after climbing K2 extremely fast without oxygen and then doing the first ever ski descent (2018)? Not necessarily to another 8000er, says Bargiel, who stuck to “small” 6,000-m peaks in Pakistan in the spring of 2021. But it’s not all...
Marc Batard : Everest veteran
Marc Batard could star in one of those heist films where the hero comes out of retirement to do one last job. We thought he’d hung up his crampons, but, at the age of 70, he has just set a new record on Everest, 34 years after his ascent of the roof of the world in 22...
Léo Billon : Dru story
Corporal Léo Billon is currently one of the driving forces within France’s elite mountain regiment, the Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne, specialising in routes that involve bivouacs and very heavy packs. First up was Blast, on the Aiguille de Blaitière, a hard new...
Christian Maurer: The King of the X-Alps
Maurer has reigned supreme over the world’s most prestigious paragliding competition since his first victory in 2009. He has now won the biannual X-Alps race across the Alps seven times, earning himself the nickname Chrigel, a combination of Christian and eagle. The...
Tragedy in Patagonia : Korra Pesce died on Cerro Torre
They are five at the top of Cerro Torre, on January 27. Five like the fingers of a hand, united to reach this summit which more than any other, seems inhuman. A rare event, two rope parties opened a new route on the East face of the Torre simultaneously. With his...
Paul Bonhomme: X Skier
Paul Bonhomme’s 10X Project to ski ten new lines in the French, Swiss and Italian Alps in just five months was the soap opera of 2021. Spoiler alert: the guide from Haute-Savoie achieved his goal with a mastery that demands respect. In fact, his project was not just a...
Conrad Anker: Mountaineer with a big heart
Conrad Anker has had an incredible life. Now approaching 60, his life has been so intense, even a Hollywood scriptwriter would find it far-fetched. A mountaineering prodigy, he had more than his share of adventures, climbing all around the world during the 1990s, the...
Vivian Bruchez: sage of the steeps
Vivian Bruchez does not consider himself an extreme skier, just someone who skis steep slopes. A distinction that most of us will struggle to grasp, given the impossible-looking nature of some of the faces he has skied. The Chamonix-based skier’s great strength is his...
François Cazzanelli: fast is safe
Another Italian rocket, but one whose motor is just as efficient on the high peaks of the Himalaya. Cazzanelli made his name in 2019 by climbing Mont Blanc via the Peuterey Integral in 12 hours 12 minutes (round trip with Andreas Steindl) and then ticking off all four...
Julia Chanourdie: pure talent
Julia Chanourdie is one of only three women in the world to have climbed 9b outside. She achieved this major milestone in 2020, when she followed her ascent of Super Crackinette (9a+) at Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux (France) by sending Eagle-4, a 9b on the same crag. The...
Ines Papert: Mountaineering with the family
The multiple world champion ice climber, who stopped competing in 2006, still climbs and does so with her family. When she is not out with her son Emanuel, whom she started taking to world cup competitions when he was just one year old, she climbs with her husband,...
Carlos Soria: pensioner of the extreme
When some people retire, they buy themselves a campervan. Not Carlos Soria. He has spent his retirement flitting between basecamps in Pakistan, Tibet and Nepal. Despite being one of the world’s oldest active mountaineers, he is still pursuing his insane quest to climb...
Brooke Raboutou : In the blood
It could be said that Brooke Raboutou has climbing in her blood. Her father, France’s Didier Raboutou, won three world cups; her mother, America’s Robyn Erbesfield, won five US championships and four world cups. And, to cap it all, Brooke grew up in Boulder, Colorado,...
Catherine Destivelle: Mont Blanc’s publisher
In 2020, Catherine Destivelle became the first woman to be awarded a Piolet d’Or for her lifetime achievements. Indeed, her impressive climbing record across the Alps, from the Eiger to the Drus, and in the Himalayas, would, on its own, justify her place on this list....
Charles Dubouloz : The happy mountaineer
2021 was a fantastic and very busy year for Charles Dubouloz. His greatest prize was the highly coveted north face of Chamlang (7,319 m), in the Himalayas, climbed with Benjamin Védrines in four days. Not only did they do it alpine style, it was the first time...
Mattéo Eydallin: Forever young
The Italian ski-mountaineer Matteo Eydallin, who now lives near Gap (France), has always been a master of individual ski mountaineering racing. Last year he carried off the crystal globe in the specialty, after winning three world cup events, as well as the world...
Nicolas Favresse : grade 8 humour
Nicolas Favresse has such a gift for making people laugh — just watch the films of his adventures on the world’s big walls — he could easily have gone into comedy, created a one-man show. The film of the three Alpine rock walls he climbed in 2020 with Sébastien...
Jost Kobusch: Everest far from the crowds
This atypical mountaineer first came to the public’s attention a few years ago thanks to a documentary broadcast by the Franco-German TV channel Arte. He had just one ambition: to make history by climbing Everest in winter via an innovative and difficult new route....
Marek Holecek: Miracle survivor
Marek Holecek has already won two Piolet d’Ors for his first ascents on Gasherbrum (2017) and Chamlang (2019). His epic descent of Baruntse with his partner Radoslav Groh in the spring of 2021 also left a lasting impression. Having already bivouacked five times on...
Janja Garnbret : Forever first
Garnbret made sporting history in Tokyo by adding the first Olympic gold medal in climbing to the six world championship titles she had won over the previous five years. And, because winning competitions wasn’t enough, in November 2021 she became the first woman to...
Hillary Gerardi: suffer with a smile
Gerardi, who left her native Vermont for France 10 years ago, added a wonderful page to the history of ski mountaineering in April 2021 when she and Valentine Fabre set the first women’s record for the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route. The pair’s widely acclaimed...
Antoine Girard: higher and higher
The paragliding altitude record which Antoine Girard set when he flew over Broad Peak in 2016 stood for five years. Then, in July 2021, François Ragolski overtook him, or rather went above him, while flying with Girard in the Karakorum. No worries, a few days later...
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa : Words and deeds
Mingma Gyalje was a key figure in the first winter ascent of K2, one of the biggest events of 2021. He also helped initiate the project that led to the highly symbolic fact of a Nepalese team beating all the Western expeditions to the prize. Mingma G. never hid his...
Yasushi Yamanoi: a life to mountaineering
Japan’s Yasushi Yamanoi, who has dedicated his life to mountaineering, succeeded Catherine Destivelle in being awarded the 2021 Piolet d’Or Carrière. He started out by climbing big walls and made his name around the world by soloing Fitz Roy in the winter of 1990. In...
Brette Harrington: partners in solo
When we interviewed Kilian Jornet, he named Brette Harrington as one of the climbers who inspired him the most. We did a quick search to find out more about this astonishing young woman. We soon learnt that she is one of the few (possibly the only) women to solo...
Quentin Roberts: Alone on Torre Egger
At the beginning of 2022 Roberts became the third person to solo from Punta Herron to Torre Egger, following in the footsteps of Colin Haley in 2016 and Marc-André Leclerc, also in 2016 but in winter. Roberts dedicated his traverse to Korra Pesce, who had died on...
Stefano Ghisolfi: One of the best climber of the world
After having completed Bibliographie in Céüse, the six-time world champion Italian found the 9c rating of Migos a little too high and downgraded it to “only” 9b+, thus provoking a small earthquake in the climbing world as we are talking about the ex-second...
Alex Honnold : An American in Chamonix
Where can you go next after doing the solo of the century on El Capitan? To France, of course. Alex Honnold was sighted soloing the American Direct on the Petit Dru last summer — an impressive feat, but nowhere near as difficult as many of his other achievements. Film...
Kilian Jornet: ever stronger
Killian Jornet has spent less time on the competition circuit in recent years, but when he does enter a race, he nails it. With a nine-out-of-nine success rate for 2021, what more could you ask? The outdoor superstar won the legendary Sierre Zinal race for the ninth...
Eliza Kubarska: a different regard
Eliza Kubarska’s latest film, The Wall of Shadows, offers a very different take on Himalayan climbing to the heroics highlighted by most previous films. Focusing as much on the Sherpas as on the westerners they are accompanying on an attempt to climb Jannu, she...
Sophie Lavaud : 8000 collector
After three unsuccessful attempts, Sophie Lavaud finally reached the summit of Dhaulagiri last autumn, thereby becoming the first Frenchwoman to climb twelve 8,000-m peaks. She has only two left to do, Lhotse and Nanga Parbat. Or three, to be more precise, as she did...
Tom Livingstone: the english job
Livingstone first made headlines in 2019 with his ascent of Latok I with Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar, which earned the team a Piolet d’Or. In 2021, he was again singled out by the Piolet d’Or jury, this time for the new route he had climbed with fellow Brit Matt Glenn...
Tamara Lunger : Farewell to winter
After being introduced to winter climbing by her fellow Italian Simone Moro (who, 12 years ago, became the youngest woman to climb Lhotse), Tamara Lunger decided to attempt K2 in winter, a mountain she had already climbed in summer without oxygen. But the expedition...
Bernadette McDonald : Mountaineering historian
Bernadette McDonald is one of North America’s greatest mountaineering writers. Her twelfth and latest book, Winter 8000, is a masterful account of this major aspect of Himalayan climbing. It is a theme she had already touched upon in Freedom Climbers (2011), a history...
Alex Megos: step back to step up
Alex Megos burst into the climbing saloon in 2013, when he became the first person to onsight 9a. After a six-year break from competitions, he got back in the saddle a few years ago, with the Olympics in his sights. But the Tokyo Games were an ordeal for the talented...
Grandes Jorasses : Hard Winter Ascent for Léo Billon, Seb Ratel and Benjamin Védrines
Barely back from a second North Face in a row, Léo Billon is enthusiastic: “It’s the most beautiful mountaineering route I’ve ever done in the Alps!” With Sébastien Ratel and Benjamin Védrines, the mountaineer who is a member of the Groupe Militaire de Haute...
Garmin inReach Mini
Test conditions Fall hiking and ski touring. Despite very cloudy conditions during our test, the Garmin InReach Mini found its satellites in less than a minute ©Ulysse Lefebvre Getting started Survival kit The mountain public knows Garmin mainly for its GPS watches...
Eiger 1966 : the story behind the death of John Harlin
The north face of the Eiger is unquestionably one of the most difficult and dangerous in Europe, wrote Pierre Mazeaud, who was familiar with the subject. Léo Billon (member of the Groupe Militaire de haute Montagne), Sébastien Ratel (ex-GMHM) and Benjamin Védrines...
Léo Billon, Seb Ratel and Benjamin Védrines in the footsteps of John Harlin
Charles Dubouloz is not the only one to have taken advantage of the beautiful January anticyclone. From 12 to 16 January, Léo Billon (member of the Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne) Sébastien Ratel (ex-GMHM) and Benjamin Védrines climbed the Directissime Harlin on...
Ice climbing: the birth of the 7
If you like iceclimbing in France, then go to La Grave and the Diable valley in Oisans, Freissinières and Fournel in the Hautes-Alpes, Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. These valleys with major lines are the places where the ice climbing activity was born at the dawn of the...
Charles Dubouloz about his Grandes Jorasses’s solo ascent : “a huge personal achievement”
We spoke to Charles Dubouloz, as he is back from his bold solo ascent of Rolling Stones on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. The French alpinist describes the harshness of the environment as “dangerous”, but for him this ascent is the fruit of years...
Solo climb : Charles Dubouloz ticks one of the hardest routes of Grandes Jorasses North Face
He spent six days and five nights in the shadow of the Grandes Jorasses: from 13 to 18 January, Charles Dubouloz climbed the North Face solo via the Rolling Stones route, one of the longest and most difficult routes on a wall that is not short of them. Charles...
Alaska : Ines Papert and Luka Lindic on Mount Huntington
Last Spring 2021 Ines Papert and Luka Lindič made the first ascent of a difficult mixed route on the West face of Mount Huntington close to Denali, Alaska. The duo had spied the line while repeating the Colton-Leach route and after resting for a day climbed the 1000m...
K2 ski descent: can drones revolutionize climbing the highest mountains ?
Drone pilot Bartek Bargiel never thought that his drone would be used to save lives before this expedition: he was there to film his brother Andrezj Bargiel‘s astonishing K2 first ski descent (July 2018). Bartek believes that this has been groundbreaking...
Arctic 12 : Interview with Jackie Paaso
26 days, with mostly difficult weather and snow conditions: skiing the 12 highest peaks in Sweden last april, beyond the Arctic Circle, was not easy for skier Jackie Paaso and her team. Interview with the athlete Jackie, who is also the film‘s executive...
Age of the Nepalese
It was a year ago, on January the 16th, 2021. In the midst of the pandemic, with its restrictions, and after a very difficult year for the expedition business, a team of ten Nepalese, led by Mingma G. Sherpa and Nirmal Purja, managed to overcome the last 8000 never...
Ski test : Salomon MTN 95
Getting started One more time! Salomon has renewed its MTN Explore 95: the 2022 ski is the same as the 2021, which apart from the topsheet was the same as in 2020. Wide rounded tip with progressive rocker, we feel its obvious appetite to make its mark in all terrain...
Ski test : Faction Agent 2.0
Our test Size tested : 179 cm An all-gray ski, that we can’t decide if it is ultra-classic or very refined. The perceived quality is ok, it’s not superbly made, however, there is a beautiful die cut on the sole. Once riding the Faction Agent 2.0, you can feel the...
Ski test : G3 FINDr 94
Our test Size tested : 177 cm We tested G3 skis a long time ago, at a time when the brand had not yet fully mastered the integration of carbon in its structures. The skis were very fickle, they transmitted a lot in the legs, you really had to hold them to get smooth...
ARCTIC 12, full movie
In April 2021, Jackie Paaso and her team, including SCOTT athletes and IFMGA guides Erin Smart and Benjamin Ribeyre, set out on a 415km traverse above the Arctic Circle. The goal was to be the first group to summit and ski all the 2000-meter peaks in Sweden during...
Ski test : Kästle TX 103
Our test Size tested : 181 cm A superb ski that made the team of testers smile from ear to ear because its skiability is clearly in a class of its own in the freeride touring category. The design and manufacturing quality give the zing to this Kästle TX 103. Some...
Ski test : Blizzard Zero G 105
Our test Size tested : 180 cm The Blizzard Zero G 105 is a ski with an imposing size: 105 mm. Its area of expertise is not in your classic ski touring. It’s more of a backcountry ski, where freeriding is top of the list. This ski is irreproachable in deep powder. It...
Ski test : Blizzard Zero G 95
Our test Size tested : 178 cm This Blizzard Zero G 95 feels very lightweight underfoot (1260 g for 178 cm). It is very pleasant in the uphill, you can’t feel it, there’s no inertia. What are its limits? In the downhill going through mounds and chop, you must be wary...
Ski test : Völkl Rise Beyond 96
Our test Size tested : 177 cm The Völkl Rise Beyond 96 in a few words? A very easy ski, quite light, not very mechanized, in other words, a heavy-built skier will deform it a lot and can lose balance on it. But around 70kg it’s very pleasant even if it completely...
The alpinist: Don’t look down
There are missed appointments that leave their mark. In 2015, I had the chance to discover Squamish, where many high-level climbers were invited by their sponsors to gather at the penultimate temple of North American climbing. Among them, a certain Marc-André Leclerc....
The new trend of winter himalayism
When 10 Nepalese climbed K2 together on 16 January last, some said it was the end of an era: the last page in the history of winter climbing seemed to be written. A year later, we can see that this is not really the case: winter Himalayan climbing is booming, with at...
Everest, Nanga Parbat, Manaslu, Cho Oyu winter attempts
Four groups of climbers are currently battling fierce winds, loads of snow and extreme cold on four Himalayan 8,000ers. However, few of them would fit in the usual definition of a “team”. On the contrary, each mountain has become the field to play a game of announced...
Free solo : Dave MacLeod on the north face of Ben Nevis
He is one of the great specialists in Scottish mixed climbing, where ice is sometimes scarce, but frost is abundant on the rock. Dave MacLeod is a regular on Ben Nevis in Scotland. Orion Face direct is a historic route on the Ben. Last March Dave McLeod did the route...
Matteo Della Bordella: The Italian of Patagonia
It took three expeditions and 150 days of climbing for Matteo Della Bordella to climb the west face of Torre Egger, in Patagonia. He finally succeeded on the route in 2013, climbing with Matteo Bernasconi, who died in an avalanche in 2020. Della Bordella was back in...
Nouria Newman : The flying kayaker
Having just received her fifth consecutive Rider of the Year trophy at the Whitewater Awards, Newman is unarguably the world’s leading extreme kayaker. As is often the case in outdoor sports, the young woman from Val d’Isère first made her name on the competition...
Adam Ondra : frustrated king
In August 2021 Ondra once again became the only person to have climbed 9c (Silence at Flatanger, climbed in 2017), when Stefano Ghisolfi downgraded Alex Megos’s route Bibliographie to 9b/b+. Many people had tipped Ondra to become climbing’s first Olympic champion, but...
Nirmal Purja: nepalese revolution
I n just two years he overturned everything in his path. First by climbing all fourteen 8,000ers in six months in 2019, and then by leading the Nepalese team on the historic first winter ascent of K2 in 2020. What is more, this latter climb was achieved...
Elisabeth Revol : Resilient
Elisabeth Revol dropped out of sight after promoting her book To Live (published in 2019), which recounts her winter ascent of Nanga Parbat and subsequent dramatic rescue by the Polish climbers Denis Urubko and Adam Bielecki in 2018. Revol’s climbing partner, Tomasz...
Candide Thovex: Freeride superstar
Tricks and back flips galore… Candide Thovex has been bounding and summersaulting down mountains for 20 years, shocking and twisting his body every which way. He must have a good orthopaedist! The skier from La Clusaz still has a huge following on social media, where...
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi : from Free Solo to 14 peaks
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is one of the biggest names in the mountain film world, especially since she won the Oscar for Best Documentary for Free Solo in 2019, which she directed with Jimmy Chin (who is also her husband). But, because she is less in the spotlight...
Benjamin Védrines : Super fast
4hours 38 mins to traverse the Meije, solo, starting and finishing in La Grave, that is, 3,100 metres of climbing. It can’t be possible, or so you might think. But that’s just what Benjamin Védrines did in 2020. An impressive record that will be difficult to beat, as...
Silvia Vidal : Alone in the world
The 2021 Piolets d’Or very deservedly gave a special mention to the Catalan climber, who has been tackling big walls in Pakistan, Patagonia, Alaska and Mali alone (but with confidence) since 1995. Each expedition lasts several weeks, which means carrying ridiculously...
Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll: Fitz Roy integrale
The most Patagonian of Belgians caused a stir in the climbing world in February 2021 by completing the first solo south-north traverse of the Fitz Roy range in six days. The Moonwalk Traverse involves climbing Aguja Guillaumet, Aguja Mermoz, Cerro Fitz Roy, Aguja...
Symon Welfringer : Hurricane
Symon Welfringer’s mixed route on the hitherto virgin south face of Sani Pakush, climbed with Pierrick Fine in 2020, is a masterpiece that fully deserves its Piolet d’Or. Truth be told, his earlier routes had hinted at what was to come. He cut his teeth on Risht Peak...
Tomás Aguiló: Survivor
Tomàs Aguiló and Corrado Pesce were descending the north face of Cerro Torre after topping out on a new route (La Norte, 1,200 m, 90°, 7a, A2) when they were struck by an avalanche of ice and rock. Despite his injuries, Aguiló, an Italian guide who now lives in El...
TOURING SKIS TEST – WIDE SKIS 2022
Here is our test of touring skis over 90mm waist width, winter 2022. This range of skis allows you to have fun on the descent, and not only in the powder: around 95mm these skis are very versatile, and super comfortable in spring snow as well as in powder. From the...
Ski test : Dynafit Mezzalama
Our test Size tested : 162 cm The Dynafit Mezzalama fits perfectly to its listed program: pure and hard racing! It has almost zero skiability but it offers incredible climbing performance. It is clearly and only made for skiers who line up for the Pierra Menta or the...
Ski test : K2 Wayback 80
Our test Size tested : 170 cm The k2 Wayback 80 is an excellent ski, both lightweight and great skiability. It is well-balanced between the two. You can’t feel the ski underfoot, yet it is pretty fluid, and doesn’t have any nasty tricks up its sleeve. It pivots very...
Energy Deficiency : the north-east pillar of Tengkangpoche
On the north east pillar of Tengkangpoche (6487 m, Nepal), the first attempt to climb in early October by Tom Livingstone and Matt Glenn ended in a bad fall in an artificial climbing passage. Tom injured his hand, still far from the summit, and the team decided to...
Potential Energy : An Abortive Attempt
Travelling to Nepal’s Thengbo Valley last autumn, Tom Livingstone and Matt Glenn finally made the coveted first ascent in 20 years of the North Pillar of Tengkangpoche (6487m). But the two young British climbers took their time, on the spot, to choose this...
Cogne : first Italian-style ice
The ice season traditionally opens with the first real drop in temperature, but also with an event that is well known to ice-climbing enthusiasts: the well-named Cogne Ice Opening. For this tenth edition, the organisers, Matthias Scherer, Heike and Tanja Schmitt, were...
Full of energy : a last-minute alpine trip to Nepal
It is a major route that the British Tom Livingstone and Matt Glenn managed to climb at the end of October, on their second attempt and in 7 days to the summit and back : the north pillar of Tengkangpoche (6487 m), in Nepal. Coveted by numerous strong alpinists for...
Full circle, with Lynn Hill
Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive sport climbers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lynn Hill is famous for making the first free ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. This is the video portrait of Lynn Hill, one of the...
Alpine traverse on skis, in the footsteps of Stéphane Brosse
Stéphane Brosse, one of the best mountain skiers, disappeared on skis 9 years ago, in 2012. Last winter, a team of three young skiers set off in his footsteps to cross the Aravis mountains on skis. The programme? 6500m of positive vertical drop and 35km on skis and...
Why we didn’t like Jeremie Heitz’s movie, La liste : everything or nothing
«The sickest ski footage of all time”. “Jérémie and Sam push the limits of skiing”. “A film that will leave its mark this winter”: the praise is pouring in for The List, Everything or Nothing, the film starring Jérémie Heitz and Sam...
Get us dreaming
“Um, I’ll have a think and get back to you…” Symon Welfringer (winner of the Piolet d’Or in 2021 with Pierrick Fine) was sharp enough to realise that our question, “What are the Piolets d’Or for?” actually hides several questions, each a potential minefield....
TOURING SKIS TEST – UP TO 90MM 2022
Here is our test of touring skis up to 90mm waist, winter 2022. Versatile by definition, designed for all-round skiers, this range of skis allows you to gain height, as these skis are often light, even very light. But in the 86mm to 90mm segment you’ll find THE...
Maurice Herzog and the first ascent of Annapurna – a tarnished legacy ?
The first ascent of Annapurna, on June 3 1950, was a major mountaineering accomplishment that added to the recovery of a post-war France. The French climber Maurice Herzog made sure he was the sole creator of this legacy when he climbed the first 8,000m peak with...
Nirmal Purja, star of Netflix’s 14 peaks : nothing is impossible
The idea of climbing all 14 peaks over 8,000 metres in less than a year seemed totally unrealistic: that’s why Nirmal Purja, aka Nims, called his challenge ‘Project Possible’. On 23 April 2019 Nims climbed Annapurna, and six months and six days later...
Silvia Vidal : queen of solo
The Piolets d’Or 2021 have just awarded a special mention to the Catalan climber Sílvia Vidal, in recognition of her “enormous contribution to the solo climbing of big walls over the past two decades”. From Alaska to Chilean Patagonia, via Pakistan,...
Climbing Rolling Stones on Grandes Jorasses North Face by Tom Livingstone
Britain’s Tom Livingstone made a name for himself in 2018 with his ascent of the north face of Latok I in Pakistan, along with Slovenians Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar. Having fallen in love with the French Alps, his goal this winter was to climb several famous...
Ski test – Wedze MT85
Our test Size tested : 176 cm Wedze (Decathlon) offers this ski alone or in a pack with bindings (Dynafit Tour Light) and skins, for a very competitive price (575 €). The pair of skis alone is also sold at an attractive price (375 €). But does this mean we have a ski...
Taming Rolling Stones on Grandes Jorasses North Face by Tom Livingstone
Britain’s Tom Livingstone made a name for himself in 2018 with his ascent of the north face of Latok I in Pakistan, along with Slovenians Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar. Having fallen in love with the French Alps, his goal this winter was to climb several famous...
Climbing in Jordan : the story of a great french new route
A group of young climbers as part of the Rock Adventure Programme (RAP) from the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing (FFME) came back from Jordan in Winter 2020 with the impressive achievement of establishing a new multi-pitch route in the Wadi Rum...
Ski Test – Dynastar M Vertical Pro
Our test Size tested : 178 cm The Dynastar M-Vertical Pro is the typical backcountry product, not especially heavy or light, a ski you can do everything and go everywhere with, very easy to pivot. It has a very good tip-lift assisted by a rocker: the ski...
Ski test – Hagan Core 89
Our test Size tested : 170 cm The Hagan Core 89 rides on deep, hard, and groomed snow. It’s an excellent compromise between accessibility/skiability. It’s easy thanks to its pivoting, tip width, curve radius (18.5m), and flex distribution at the fore of the ski. All...
Ski test – Salomon MTN Summit 79
Our test Size tested : 164 cm We really liked this Salomon ski; it is simple and straightforward. It is relatively fluid despite its (very) light weight and perfectly corresponds to a ski touring program. It’s a ski that will go anywhere thanks to its good tip...
Ski test – Scott Superguide 88
Our test Size tested : 170 cm A mixed review for this Scott Superguide 88 which needs a detailed analysis. You don’t feel immediately at ease on this ski. It’s very flat with a long edge length despite the front rocker. It feels like the ski is glued to the snow, a...
Ski test – Völkl Rise Above 88 W
Our test Size tested : 170 cm The Völkl Rise Above 88 W is a women’s ski. It’s lightweight underfoot and oversteers a lot. You get the impression on the first downhill that it has no tail. If you put too much effort into pivoting, you do a full 360°! But, once you...
TEST SKI – WEDZE SLASH 100
Notre test Testé en 183cm. Malgré sa largeur de patin relativement contenue (100mm) pour un ski de freeerando, il faut bien voir que ce Wedze Slash 100 est avant tout un ski de freeride. Pourquoi, parce que même monté en fixations à inserts, il reste conçu pour les...
Mingma G. Sherpa : the pawn who chose to be a King 2/2
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who this autumn climbed the (true) summit of Manaslu, and who last winter made the first winter ascent of K2 with ten other Nepalese, has patiently built his success. Founder of the company Imagine Nepal a few years ago, the rising star is a...
Mingma G. Sherpa : the pawn who chose to be a King 1/2
Mingma Gyalje, aka Mingma G, is a man of his word. He said he would take the first winter ascent of K2 for his country, and he did it. He committed to put an end of years of controversy on Manaslu by reaching its true summit, and he provided, with no room for doubt,...
Ski test – Movement Axess 86
Our test Size tested : 169 cm The Movement Axess 86 is a very light ski with carbon weaving showing through fore and aft. This Movement Axess 86 showcase this noble fiber with this transparent effect that the designers have mastered the ski’s lateral and longitudinal...
Ski test – Kästle TX 65 World Cup
Our test Size tested : 160 cm (one size) A genuine ski-mountaineering racing ski by Kästle. There’s no doubt, this Kästle TX65 World Cup is a step above the Dynafit Mezzalama. Like all these ultra-light racing skis (less than 700g for this Kästle!) that you benefit...
Ski test – Hagan Core 84
Our test Size tested : 162 cm We were able to test the Hagan Core 84 in size 162 cm, a women’s length… Therefore, when you weigh 70kg you find yourself on a very flexible ski. The tip bends, which obviously is detrimental to its fluidity. Although, a skier who’s...
LAST TRACK IN THE SNOW
Their tracks are lost on what seems to be a small snowy ridge.On the few photos released by the rescue team, we can guess the route taken by the three climbers. We understand their choice to stay on a snow line to avoid the adjacent coulées.We can imagine their...
14 peaks : when Netflix meets Nirmal Purja
When the one who climbed 14 peaks of more than 8000m in 7 months as well as the K2 in winter meets the one who changed the the cinematographic production codes, we must expect a very high calibre. The teaser of 14 peaks: nothing is impossible seems to confirm this...
Ski test – SkiTrab Magico 2
Our test Size tested : 171 cm The Trab Magico 2 is a light ski, just over one kilo. On the snow, it is flighty, you must force down at the front to not be taken by surprise. The only problem is if you put too much pressure on it, due to the construction in this zone...
Ski test – Blizzard Zero G 85
Our test Size tested : 178 cm With the Blizzard Zero G 85, you are closer to a traditional ski touring ski that is efficient in the climb, stable on the edge and in steep slopes. We really liked its main characteristic, which is its stability. When crossing slopes and...
The North Face Summit L3 50/50 Down Jacket
Test conditions Chilly departures on ski touring, ice climbing belays. Unboxing This jacket is amazing and at first glance, somewhere between a good old down jacket and a small warm jacket.The outer fabric seems particularly resistant, without the fragile aspect of...
Ski test – SkiTrab Maestro.2
Our test Size tested : 171 cm The Trab Maestro.2 is a 100% touring ski that feels like it’s impressively light. It does : 953 g for 171 cm. At any rate, it is very pleasant, you can’t feel it underfoot. Its active edge is pretty long and contributes to a good grip on...
Ski test – Atomic Backland 80 SL
Our test Size tested : 170 cm The Atomic Backland 80 SL, strangely this is a ski that isn’t 80 mm at the waist but 79 mm. this fact doesn’t change a dime of how excellent this product is on the snow; we adored it. A 17.5m radius. This ski is perfect in all conditions,...
First ascents in Hindu Kush for Georgian Climbers
The Georgian team Archil Badriashvili/Giorgi Tepnadze continues to open new technical routes on high summits or to clear virgin faces. This summer, with Baqar Gelashvili, Archil and Giorgi explored the Roch Gol valley in Pakistan (Hindu Kush). They came back with the...
Three french mountaineers missing in Nepal
Three french climbers from the GEAN (Groupe excellence alpinisme national) of the FFCAM (Fédération des clubs alpins et de montagne) have been missing since 26 October 2021 in Nepal, Khumbu, not far from Ama Dablam. A reconnaissance flight revealed traces of an...
Ski test – Black Crows Orb Freebird
Our test Size tested : 173 cm The Black Crows Orb Freebird is an old friend, an award-winning freeride ski several times. The brand lists a slight gain in weight compared to the previous model and a Titanal plate to prevent the bindings from ripped off. On the snow,...
Ski test – Atomic Backland 65 UL
Our test Size tested : 161 cm (one size) Of the three pairs of skis tested in ski mountaineering racing, Dynafit Mezzalama, Kästle TX65 World Cup, the Atomic Backland 65 UL is the most successful ski. Too bad, we weren’t able to ski the Dynastar Pierra Menta. We...
Yasushi Yamanoi, 13th Piolets d’Or Career Award
The 13th Piolet d’Or career award, which will be presented in Briançon at the end of November, has been awarded to the 56 year old Japanese climber Yasushi Yamanoi. Dedicated to committed mountaineering and alpine style for nearly three decades, with major...
First ascent of Chamlang’s North Face : a masterful new line by French Charles Dubouloz and Benjamin Védrines
Benjamin Védrines and Charles Dubouloz can be pleased with their route. The two Frenchmen took just four days to climb the north face of Chamlang (7,319 m) and descend its west ridge. Their seamless, alpine style ascent of a magnificent new line on this sought-after...
The solo according to Alex Honnold : “you have a much closer relationship with death”
TThe new episode of Great Wide Open directed by Jared Leto features American rock climber Alex Honnold. Honnold takes Jared up Matthes Crest in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Honnold shares how his life was shaped by the early years of climbing with his...
Flying up to 8407 m : interview with French paraglider pilot Antoine Girard
Antoine Girard is just back from a 2-month expedition to Pakistan, where he and his six companions were aiming to do a series of combined paragliding ascents. By flying in from a base camp 40 km away, Antoine managed to climb Spantik in less than a day. On the last...
Advanced Mountain Kit The North Face
The North Face is accustomed to presenting innovations on a regular basis, and provides the means to do so. This fall, it is the launch of a complete range for mountaineering, the Advanced Mountain Kit, which is at the heart of the brand’s news. It is a very high-end...
class struggle at the top
Last week was marked by a surprising debate. Some people wondered if the top of a mountain was the highest point or the more comfortable little flat spot below.What does this curious episode tell us? A dusty quibble of specialists around a few meters of snow? No....
The truth about Manaslu
Manaslu has been the talk of the town. Summit, not summit? One is tempted to say, it’s over. In a post published on October 13, the Himalayan Data Base, the venerable institution that took over Miss E. Hawley’s verification work, wrote: “With the...
“The mountaineering world is no more sexist than the rest of society” Lise Billon
Alpinist and mountain guide Lise Billon spent the summer in Peru with rock climber Mélissa Le Nevé (the first woman to send Action Directe, 9a, in May 2020) and photographer Jan Novak. Before she heads off again, this time to the United States, she chatted to us about...
Karakoram : Link Sar First Ascent Movie
Standing at 7041 Metres, Link Sar is said to be the last great unclimbed mountain of the Karakoram range in Pakistan. The Mountain has seen 9 failed attempts since 1970 : Steve Swenson first attempted Link Sar in 2001 with an American team, and then again, after a...
Everest Express: acclimatizing at home
Is it possible to climb Everest in three weeks or Manaslu in a fortnight under acceptable margins of safety? The short answer is yes, it is, as long as climbers find the right way to pre-acclimatize while at home. The use of hypoxic tents and masks is granting some...
Piolets d’Or 2021: mountaineering under the sign of adaptation and creativity
After a year 2020 marked by lockdown and closure of borders, we awaited the Piolets d’Or 2021 prize list with impatience mixed with curiosity. The result? A heterogeneous list of achievements, witnessing the tribulations of the last season of high level...
Himalaya: Manaslu’s true summit rediscovered!
No fewer than 200 people have attempted to climb Manaslu since early September. No fewer than 100 people claim to have reached the summit in the last few days. But did they? On 27 September, a determined Nepali, Mingma G. Sherpa, reclimbed Manaslu’s true summit, which...
The Last Mountain, the story of Tom Ballard who disappeared on Nanga Parbat
Tom Ballard was the son of mountaineer, Alison Hargreaves who perished on K2 in 1995. Mother and son, two of the greatest climbers of all time, died at almost the same age doing what they loved best. Left behind to cope with the enduring tragedy are Tom’s sister Kate,...
![[Breaking news : climbers safe] Rakaposhi Drama Sparks Debate](https://alpinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/joshisayat-400x250.jpg.webp)
[Breaking news : climbers safe] Rakaposhi Drama Sparks Debate
An SOS call last Saturday from three climbers trapped at 6,900m on Rakaposhi (7,788m ) has triggered one of the biggest rescue operations in Pakistan’s mountaineering history, and an even bigger ethical debate and financial mess, since the team was climbing without a...
A new major climb on La Meije South Face
At the end of August, Benjamin Ribeyre, Erin Smart and Cyril Dupeyré completed their project on the south face of the Meije, the opening of a new major route on the Doigt de Dieu. Mountain guide based in La Grave, Benjamin Ribeyre has a passion for the Reine Meije....
Verdon : the show must go on
We will never get tired of seeing the mythical cliffs of the Verdon. Even better: it is his story that is summarized here in about twenty minutes. Alternating interviews with Bernard Vaucher, Bernard Gorgeon, Catherine Destivelle, Angelika Rainer, Lionel Catsoyannis...
The Tricot – Bionnassay – Mont Blanc Ridge Traverse
Have you ever wanted to take an adventurous hike up to the mont Blanc via a beautiful route off the beaten path? If so, then come with us to Val Montjoie, along the ridge that links the Col de Tricot to the Aiguille de Bionnassay and continues up to the summit of the...
The Alpinist : The life of Marc-Andre Leclerc
Attention blockbuster in the making ! The American majors are now interested in mountains and mountaineering, surely following the worldwide success of Free Solo and Dawn Wall.It is therefore Universal that has joined forces with Red Bull Media House and Sender Films...
David Roberts 1943 – 2021
Known in the climbing world as a mountaineer, author and the dean of adventure reporting, David Roberts has died at 78, August 20th. He was the author or cowriter of 32 books, including four that he finished after his throat cancer diagnosis. Australian mountaineer...
Why we run ? : a conversation with Bernd Heinrich
Forty years old : the start of the long wait or an age of possibilities ? For Bernd Heinrich it was definitely the latter, as 40 was the age when he discovered ultrarunning and began setting records. Now in his 80s, Heinrich has just written Racing The Clock : Running...
Riding down Piz Boè on a bike
Guinness World Record holder Tom Oehler has taken trial mountain biking to new heights again. The 37-year-old Austrian, who holds the world records in bike high jump (3m, 9.8 ft, 2009, Kaprun, Austria) and 400m hurdles on a bike (44,62s, 2013, Linz, Austria), rode...
No room for mistakes !
Mountain biking is on the rise, and trials athletes are having a field day when they accept a certain amount of commitment. Follow Austrian trials mountain biker, Tom Oehler, on his mission through the Dolomites, taking on the most exposed and extreme MTB trails he...
Seconds Out : Vic Saunders and Mick Fowler in the boxing ring
Famous since he and Mick Fowler opened the Golden Pillar at Spantik in August 1987, British climber Victor Saunders has always remained humble. So much so that he recently decided to reveal, in a book to be read – Structured Chaos, the unusual life of a climber...
A JOURNEY IN MONT-BLANC BETWEEN FRANCE AND ITALY
Incredible but true! Taking the Julbo team’s mountain athletes and their community to the peaks together was a daring gamble. Through polls, votes, quizzes and calls to action of all kinds, followers were invited to participate in the athletes’ mountain...
Magnificent new lines climbed on Ushba and Ailama in Georgia
The two Georgian climbers, Archil Badriashvili and Giorgi Tenadze, made a name for themselves in 2019 when they climbed the Nanga Parbat in spring and then made stunning first ascents of the Pangpoche in Nepal in autumn. In 2020, Covid-19 hit and the pair, having...
Pakistan climbing season is on : Crisis and Opportunities
In every crisis lies an opportunity, they say. This could be the case in the Karakorum mountains where, against all odds, the summer is looking promising. After the horrors of spring in the Himalayas – covid and overcrowding on Everest – Pakistan is poised...
Scottish sea stacks #1 : iconic Old Man of Hoy
Whether you call them Old Men, sea stacks or pinnacles, the towers that dot the Scottish coastline are as dishearteningly beautiful as the wind that sweeps them. Of a fragile balance on a geological scale, they resist all the same to the steps of the handful of...
The invention of the fleece
Everyone has one, or several, at home. 40 years ago, fleeces ousted woollens : offering just as much warmth, they are water-repellent, wind-proof, breathable and cosy ; an ideal combination in the mountains. But how did fleeces, a game changer for outerwear, come...
Nepal Himalaya : The Season of COVID and Secrecy
Nothing went as planned in Nepal this season, as the Himalayas opened their doors to the world again after a year-long gap due to the pandemic. Covid spread in the base camps like wildfire, from Everest to Dhaulagiri, while the Nepalese authorities denied it. A total...
Millet Trilogy 15+ backpack
Getting started At first glance, this Millet Trilogy 15+ bag is a strange object. Is it a trail bag with its large shoulder straps and helmet holders? Is it a mountaineering bag with its ice axe holders? Or a ski bag with ski racks? Or is it a climbing bag with its...
New Life, a film by Caroline Ciavaldini and James Pearson
James Pearson and Caroline Ciavaldini have spent the last decade exploring the world as a husband and wife team, climbing together across the globe on some of the hardest and boldest routes around. When Caroline discovered she was pregnant in 2019,the couple asked...
Advocacy for a new Himalayanism : Should the rules for expeditions to Nepal be changed?
The queues of Everest candidates have made visible an unattractive aspect of the current Himalayas: too many fixed ropes and extreme merchandising have made the adventure at altitude bland, to the point of denying the existence and the interest of a real, roped-up...
Chamonix, mountain film capital past and present
From 9 to 13 June, Chamonix Mont-Blanc hosted its first mountain film festival, and we saw many of you there ! Such a festival was a natural choice for the “world capital of mountaineering”, which has attracted film-makers for over a century and provided backdrops for...
The white darkness : a fascinating biography of one of the last hero of Antarctica
If you are of the belief that exploration is a thing of the past, or if you are tired of listening to armchair and social media pseudo adventurers, then read The white darkness, by David Grann. It will bring back your faith in adventuring, and the ability of certain...
Chris Bonington, the Himalayas unbridled
From the south faces of Annapurna and Everest, to the Central Tower of Paine and Shivling : whether as lead mountaineer or expedition leader, Chris Bonington is not only one of the most prolific British mountaineers, but also one of the most creative, and an ardent...
The Golden Pillar
The Golden Pillar of the Spantik owes its name to the orange-pink marble which captures the light of the setting sun. It has often been compared to large alpine routes such as the Walker Spur, but the Walker starts at 3000 meters and climbs to 4000, while the pillar...
An expedition with the Vanguard Alta Sky 53 bag
The bag that carries, supports and protectsyour equipment and your back + Total weightVersatilityRobustness – Missing a pocket for everything No, it doesn’t all fit in the bag, at least not at the same time. But a good 3/4 of what’s in the picture...
![[Teaser] JULIA, the story of Julia Chanourdie](https://alpinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/JULIA-TEASER-FEATURED-400x250.jpg)
[Teaser] JULIA, the story of Julia Chanourdie
Julia-Teaser from Alpine Mag Pro on Vimeo. Julia Chanourdie made the most her time in 2020 without any competitions by sending her first 9a+ at the beginning of the year 2020 in Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux, France. In November 2020, at the same crag, she sent her first 9b...
« No one noticed my bulimia. I was an expert in hiding. » Caroline Ciavaldini.
High level climbing is very demanding. So much so that some athletes themselves, poorly advised or with little support, cultivate weight loss, with dangerous consequences. Ex-competitor Caroline Ciavaldini decided to speak out and say that she herself knew that her...
Climbing and eating disorders: the Light documentary
This is a known phenomenon among high level climbers, yet it is rarely discussed. Being “sharp” is part of the climbing culture, but this sharpening can take on worrying proportions at the top level, with athletes who are obsessed with their...
Marc Batard : why I gave up on Annapurna
The ascent of Annapurna (8,091 metres) will not take its place among the “Everest sprinter’s” list of accomplishments. At 69 years of age, Marc Batard, who holds the record for the speed ascent of Everest in less than 24 hours, has nothing else to prove in the...
Carlos Soria, the Spanish veteran mountaineer who attempted to climb Dhaulagiri at the age of 82
Carlos Soria is not the only person in their eighties to have attempted to climb the highest peaks in the world, but he has already done 12 of the 8000ers and achieved amazing feats in the Alpes, such as climbing Les Drus in 1962. In April 2021, Carlos Soria and his...
ARCTERYX NORVAN SL2
You can innovate once on 1000 details, you can refine an innovation 1000 times, but you can’t put together 1000 novelties 1000 times. Or close to it. In short: Arcteryx is taking the world of footwear to the top. The quintessence of materials, perfection of...
SALOMON SENSE 4 PRO
We loved the Sense 3 Pro so much, which succeeded in conceiving the almost-impossible: to bring together all running profiles, to satisfy from 40 to 80 km or even more. Curiosity climaxes in 2020, and an indispensable award in 2021: the Sense 4 Pro remains a...
ASICS FUJI TRABUCO MAX
At last an Asics for ultra that meets all expectations! The ex-aficionados deplored successive innovations: where was the Asics expertise, what were those tenfold grips… The Fuji Trabuco Pro 2021 is simply full and harmonious. Precise fit and amazing lacing;...
The Matterhorn, up the Zmutt Nose in winter : “what fires my imagination in mountaineering is the adventure”, Mat Détrie.
The ascent party made up of Pauline Champon, Mat Détrie, and Louis Pachoud repeated the Zmutt Nose route on the north face of the Matterhorn from 24th to 26th February. Listed one hundredth in the collection of the 100 greatest routes in Valais, it certainly is...
A FIRST FOR THE GMHM ON LES DRUS : “I HAD NEVER COME ACROSS SUCH A STEEP FACE IN THE ALPS”, LEO BILLON
Four members of the French Army’s High-Altitude Military Group (GMHM) opened a way on the west face of Les Drus, from the 18th to 22nd February, in four bivvies. One member, Léo Billon, tells us how the idea for this challenge came about, and how they managed to...
An historic ascent overshadowed by tragedy : The Nepalis’ response to what happened on K2
The ascent of K2 in the dead of winter was a historic first. Yet, it came with 5 deaths, including 3 bodies yet to be found. It was a story entailed with rivalries between base camp teams, nations, among the media and on social networks. But it also encapsulated the...
Disaster in the Indian Himalaya : Avalanche, Glacial Lake Outburst or Flash Flood?
What caused the flash flood that killed almost 250 people in India’s Uttarakhand state on 7th February 2021? Glacier collapse? Glacial lake outburst? Debris flow? While hypotheses have been plentiful, the underlying evidence is thin. Based on the data now available,...
Interview : Sean Villanueva on his solo reverse Fitz traverse
Sean Villanueva blew away the mountaineering world by completing the first solo south to north traverse of the Fitz Roy massif, setting off without warning from the 5th to the 10th February 2021. We got to interview the most musical of climbers by telephone from his...
Ski test : Dynafit Beast 98
Our test Size tested : 184 cm The Dynafit Beast 98 doesn’t have a very lifted tip, when you find yourself in deep or crusted snow you are quickly taken by surprise. You mustn’t lean forward, and be sure with your balance. In wide turns at high speed, if you put...
Yvon Chouinard : Some Stories
New book column ! Yvon Chouinard left his mark on El Capitan and Fitz Roy, and established the emblematic brand, Patagonia, having started out forging climbing equipment by hand. A collection of his writings, Some Stories is an autobiographical book which sheds light...
Entering the history books : Julia Chanourdie becomes world’s third woman to climb 9b
2020 was a year off for climbing competitions, but not for Julia Chanourdie, who will be going to the Olympics in Tokyo. She made the most her time without any competitions by sending her first 9a+ at the beginning of 2020 in Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux, France. In...
What remains of his 1980 solo ascent of Everest ? Reinhold Messner speaks out on the changing face of alpinism
41 years ago, Reinhold Messner climbed Everest for the second time. He did it right in the middle of monsoon season, without the aid of oxygen and alone on the deserted mountain. Since this day in August 1980, where he managed the impossible, Everest was transformed....
Grands Mulets : Mont Blanc by its historical way
Fancy Mont Blanc far from the madding crowds ? The Grands Mulets achieved it. From May to early summer, you have everything to gain doing Mont Blanc backwards. The idea ? Hike and ski in the Balmat and Paccard passes before reaching the summit via the north ridge of...
El Capitan, 1975 : Jim Bridwell’s visionary ascent of The Nose in a day
On 21 June 1975, Jim Bridwell secured his place in El Capitan history when he and his companions climbed Yosemite’s biggest wall in a single day. Try to imagine: Harding had taken 47 days to ascend the 1,000 metres of the Nose in 1958 and 36 years would go by before...
Training for the Uphill Athlete, the training bible by Kilian Jornet and Steve House, Extracts
In Training for the Uphill Athlete, Steve House, Scott Johnston and Kilian Jornet have joined forces to share their decades of combined training experience. Whether trail running in the mountains or ski mountaineering, this training manual, edited by the Alpine Mag...
“You have to enjoy the training, that’s where it all happens” Kilian Jornet
While there are no end of avid trailers and ski mountaineers, few publications have been specifically dedicated to mountain training. Alongside Steve House and Scott Johnston, Kilian Jornet is the author of ‘Training for the Uphill Athlete’ a manual for mountain...
An exclusive interview with Adam Ondra
Adam Ondra needs no introduction. The 27 year old Czech climber is a living legend in the climbing world. His long list of accomplishments include the first 9c sport route, a second free ascent of the Dawn Wall and qualification for the Olympics in Tokyo. Adam Ondra...
Colin Haley : Reflections on Hard Solo Climbing
Colin Haley, a strong American climber and, until recently, a committed soloist, confesses to the following. Soloing is almost like an art form in itself, a form of mountaineering stripped of rope – and friends. By his own admission, Colin Haley is not about to...
Colin Haley : Reflections on Hard Solo Climbing
Born in Seattle, in love with Chamonix and Patagonia, Colin Haley is one of the best American climbers. After a series of remarkable solo firsts, he is now hanging up. Last summer, conditions that were too harsh in Patagonia made him think : the desire to do big solos...
5 voies pour le mont Blanc : Miage – Bionnassay – mont Blanc, la traversée royale
Voilà la (vraie) voie royale d’accès au sommet du mont Blanc, via la traversée Miage-Bionnassay. Si vous voulez ressentir le vide sur une arête aussi aérienne que magnifique, alors n’hésitez plus ! Itinéraire Départ : Les Contamines-Montjoie. Parking du...
5 voies pour le mont Blanc : la voie du Pape, par le versant sud italien
Amateurs de quiétude et d’ambiance italienne cet itinéraire – nommé aussi voie des aiguilles Grises bien que n’y passant pas – est fait pour vous. Le mont Blanc existe dans sa version sauvage et non mécanisée qui plus est, sans accroître la difficulté technique de...
5 voies pour le mont Blanc : les Grands Mulets, dans les pas des pionniers
Les vases communicants ont fonctionné. Ce que les trois monts ont gagné en fréquentation ces dernières décennies, les Grands Mulets l’ont perdu (sauf au printemps avec le salutaire ski de montagne qui préfère cet itinéraire). La faute aux crevasses et aux séracs...
5 voies pour le mont Blanc : les trois monts en traversée depuis l’aiguille du Midi
Progressivement « les trois monts » se sont imposés comme la voie normale chamoniarde, au succès similaire à l’itinéraire saint-gervolain. Atouts nombreux : un premier jour piano, un refuge où il fait bon vivre et un cheminement de toute beauté, logiquement découpé....
Impressive Fitz Roy solo : up and down without rope for Jim Reynolds
The purity of the climb is matched only by its unexpectedness. And no one has seen Jim Reynolds come. Yet this 25-year-old Californian made, on March 21, a solo among the most breathtaking of recent years. We are far from Alex Honnold’s solitary flights on the...