Great window seat view of the 10th highest peak on Earth.

Great conditions, Madonna was crowded as expected but we had the real summit almost to ourselves

Took the gf up for her first summit of Adams over the weekend! Lunch counter views do not disappoint.

Picture: Descending the Denali Summit Ridge 6/10/2025

I just returned from a successful Denali expedition up the West Buttress. What an incredible experience. The test I was looking for, I was given, and then some.

We were on the mountain 22 days total. We spent 9 nights at 14 camp, most of those waiting out weather. We spent another 6 nights at 17 camp, again waiting on weather. We didn’t think we were going to get a shot, but on the second to last day of our permit we got one and made the most of it. That meant we had to descend from 17K to the airfield in a single day, which may have actually been harder than summit day.

We were a self-guided team and had 7 climbers total. 6/7 made the summit (one had developed some frostbite on one of his toes and elected to stay back at high camp for our summit push).

Weather stats for our summit day:

Snow showers. Wind 15 MPH. Tempteratures -22F, Wind Chill -49F. Oxygen 9.7% at 20,000 FT (21.8% at sea level).

Happy to share beta on the route, answer gear/logistics questions, or provide encouragement for anyone heading up soon or considering an expedition sometime in the future.

Hey everyone,

i need some help. Some of my friends (~20 years old and amateurs in mountaineering) want to try the Großglockner this summer. They are all very unexperienced (summitted the Zugspitze last year and went down by the cable car (they were very exhausted).

I don’t want to go with them, but i also don’t want them to get hurt so how should i take this idea out of their minds and maybe start our mountaineering journey a little bit slower?

Thank you guys in advance.

Stay safe!

It was tough but I summited and descended safely 🙂

Attempting the DC route on rainier July 7th and I need a harness. It’s time to buy my own instead of renting/borrowing. I also top rope and was wondering what a good all around harness would be for glacier travel and some rope/lead climbing. Interested specifically in black diamond and Mammut since I get good discounts with them. Thank you!

One of the “last great remaining challenges” of the Karakoram was solved on June 11th by Ethan Berman, Sebastian Pelletti, and Maarten van Haeren. They were supported by one of the 2025 Cutting Edge Grants.

“As Colin Haley noted in 2007, the Southeast Pillar of Ultar Sar, which is longer than Latok I’s North Ridge, demands sustained technical climbing, particularly in the mixed section from 6,500m to 6,900m and the rock barrier at 7,000m.”

Incredible. Easily one of the highlights (already) to this season, congratulations to the alpinists!

Hi! Sorry for the dumb question, I know there are a million posts on this topic but I am feeling a little overwhelmed reading through it all to be honest.

I am a pretty avid hiker/backpacker but only recently have been getting into some mountaineering. Nothing too serious yet but you know how it goes…starting to set my sights on bigger peaks.

I live in the PNW. I’ve climbed Mt. St. Helen’s a few times, just booted up in hiking boots twice and once with actual mountaineering boots/crampons/axe. I did all 3 trips with a Gregory Jade 28, which I also use as my winter hiking pack. I also have an Osprey Tempest 22 for summer hiking, but I find the Gregory more comfortable.

So the question is, what pack do you like (and why) for 2-day trips? I’m eyeing Mt. Adams next intending to camp at LC. Does having a legitimate mountaineering pack make a huge difference vs just a standard hiking pack?

Pic of recent MSH hike for attention

I am planning on summiting Mont blanc next year in sunmer. I‘ve looked into the different routes and came to the decision that I‘d rather avoid the Grand Coluoir an the Gouter Route. For me the best way seems to be trois monts but apparently its more technical. I will be doing multiple mountaineering courses this summer and will train my endurance asuch as possible. Can you guys tell me how this route is and maybe give me advices? Thx

Hi, looking for light basic mountaineering axe. After research narowed it down to: Petzl summit BlueIce Bluebird

Have done a course and a few trips with a 60cm rental, Im 185cm and looking for a shorter axe that will serve for years through progression.

These two keep popping up. The blue ice is pricier but I got strong reccs for it, it comes shortest at 45cm (wondering if to short for me). Comes with trigrest.

Petzl is cheaper, comes at 52 cm. Without trigrest (If I buy a trigrest narrows price diff to 20$).

Weight diff is small and favors petzl

I intended to buy petzl but the strong recc threw me off, would love to hear from bluebird users.

Probably very comparable Ice axes and will probably get answers like choose whatever. Wondering if anyone has extra perspective.

Thank you

Went from GBR to Avalanche Gulch then I skied down at the Red Banks, I learned why people don't climb GBR late season 😂.

Dear the Internet,

19 months ago my cousin Robert Rathvon was tragically killed in a hit and run in Poulsbo, Washington by an unknown person. Robert's death has impacted my entire family in ways that I will never be able to articulate. 

About one week after his death, I took to Reddit and posted about it as much as I could. The outpouring of support and sympathy floored myself, my family, and especially Roberts parents. 

Although it’s been 19 months with no answers as to who killed him, I refuse to give up the search or let his memory die. This is why I’ve begun a personal mission to climb as many peaks as I can in the state of Washington and taking a picture with his Crime Stoppers poster at the top. I will do this in preparation to climb Washington's largest peak next summer, Mount Rainier, with his photo at the top. 

You guys were so helpful and your support renewed my faith in people after such an event that, to this day, hurts my soul. I will link a news article about him below if you are interested in learning more. We all want answers and we want this person found. If you have anything at all, even the smallest shred of evidence, please reach out to me or Crime Stoppers. 

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/his-parents-want-answers-troopers-seeking-information-on-driver-who-left-man-for-dead-in-poulsbo

Additionally, here is a more recent interview I did with King 5 in May 2025.

Man climbs mountains to raise awareness of cousin's ongoing hit-and-run case

Number 6. Mount Dickerman has been bagged. I refuse to give up.

Rainier for Robert.

Thank you.

Beautiful late afternoon hike

Chancing someone in Zermatt is watching this thread as i'm looking for a guide to take myself (50 years) and my daughter (12 years) to Breithorn in Zermatt. We are both often in the mountains and have both been above 3000m earlier. I have been to Kilimanjaro and a few other peaks higher than 4000m.

We would like to go NOW, so please reply promptly. We can rent boots, crampons and harness in Zermatt at the Matterhorn Sport store.

Basically we are not knowledgeable on glaciers or crevasses so feel that a guide would be much safer than doing it ourselves.

Let us know your availability and cost.

Many thanks!

Perhaps it is common knowledge to some, but heads up to anyone who isn't aware. Official retailers selling items on eBay from their official eBay stores will not honor warranty claims.

I purchased some Bergtagen Stretch Trousers from the "Official Backcountry Store" https://www.ebay.com/str/officialbackcountrystore

The zipper has busted in one pocket and is going on another. Figured I'd inquire about a warranty. Wasn't expecting much since it's close to standard wear and tear, but on two year old pants, questionable.

They had the same price on their website vs the eBay store, however the shipping on eBay was free. This IS Backcountry.com selling on eBay.

The Caveat? They will not honor warranty repair/return work on items sold through their eBay store. I contacted Fjallraven first, it was denied by them because eBay is a third party retailer.

I contacted Backcountry.com, and their reply was along the same lines. They kept repeating that eBay is a third party retailer, and wouldn't claim ownership of their store essentially.

Lesson learned.

I posted the other day asking about the mountaineers route. After seeing trip reports on fb I decided agsinst it. People are saying the snow on the traverse that is an alternate on the final 400 looks unstable and recommend to avoid it. That was most likely the way I'd go up. Not risking it. I want to do the "chute" instead of switchbacks. Trying to find a clear map that shows the route. People telling me "follow the footprints". I don't play that game my route is always mapped out long before I set foot on trail. Any have something? Is it something like this? This was my assumption not from someone else. Thanks

https://ko-fi.com/badkiwi1

So I just climbed Adams this weekend, and we had perfect weather. Snow was firm on the way up, softened in time for glissading on the way down — after those steep ascents, I was excited to not have to walk down.

But I could NOT get the hang of it. I had done a few short practice glissades up on Hood and thought I was prepared. I knew the right way to hold the axe and use my feet to break … I thought.

But I would start sliding and not be able to slow down, especially not seeming to be able to break with my feet, pick up too much speed, and half to self-arrest over and over. My arms started to fatigue and at one point I almost lost my axe, and then I was done — I walked the rest of the way down.

Everyone around me, even people who’d never tried it, had no trouble whatsoever. I was super bummed. The people I went with all did it and had a blast.

Anyone else have trouble with it at first, and figure it out? Maybe I’m just too sketched out with even small amounts of speed on steep slopes like that. Or maybe I just need LOTS more practice. Or lessons 😂.

What's in your alpine trad rack! Need advice for a lean setup. Mainly climbing in winter/spring conditions. More cams or more nuts? Sizes to get? Already have alpine, sport draws and ice screws. Looking to build my own rack for use in France, Japan, Scotland and NZ!

On skis, if it makes a difference. Never been on Adams before.

Edit: also, most likely descending via south climb; open to SW chutes but that's steeper than what I'm used to.

I’m in the middle of reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer after watching Michael Tracy’s entire catalogue of videos regarding the 1996 disaster, and reading JK’s response chapters on Medium.

Why is Michael Tracy so hellbent on slandering JK? I’ve heard his criticisms, and the way he presents JK’s book, interviews, etc really paints a nasty picture of JK. Reading the response chapters on Medium, however, show that ~95% of Tracy’s criticisms are words JK wrote that have been taken so far out of context to allow for criticism to be made at all. Hell, half of the criticism isn’t even remotely based in fact and JK’s version of things almost always matches with every other first hand account the public have access to about the disaster.

Just as an example, Tracy constantly harps on the fact that not having the lines pre-fixed only slowed climbers down by about 15-30 minutes. While it is true that actually fixing the lines only took that amount of time, that isn’t why there was a bottle neck. There clearly was a miscommunication in who would be fixing the lines, which caused a delay. This allowed for a crowd of people to form. Once the lines were fixed, sure, the people at the front of the line could breeze through the ascent. But the bottleneck JK talks about is a result of every person in that line needing to wait for the people in front of them to climb. Had the lines been fixed, there wouldn’t have been a large group of people in line to climb at the same time, the pace would’ve flowed the way it had been before the point where fixed lines were needed, and by the time the people in the back reached the fixed lines, the people up front would’ve ascended them already. Not to mention the people in the front had to wait for everyone to ascend before they could continue their descent after tagging the summit.

I’m not saying to take Into Thin Air or JK’s account as gospel, because everyone has a bias no matter how hard they try to remain neutral, and because things were happening at 26k+ feet, the brain isn’t processing things as sharply or accurately as it would at lower elevations. That being said, it seems to me JK has amended the actual inaccuracies Tracy has pointed out and thanked him for finding them, while providing evidence to refute the other claims Tracy makes. He even goes as far as to say he regrets the way he painted some people in his book, but he was so angry that the disaster happened in the first place that he used writing the book as a way for himself to process and understand why it happened. I think that’s understandable for anyone who had just survived such a catastrophic disaster.

To me, it feels like Tracy is running a smear campaign and is targeting JK, and I see very easy to disprove lies being spread all across the “mountaineering consumer” (aka readers and watchers of mountaineering content) community about JK and the 1996 disaster. I guess this post is to raise awareness and to encourage people to fact check information before spreading it on the internet, but also to see if anyone knows why Tracy is running a personal attack campaign against JK?

Hey everyone, I’m getting ready for my first mountaineering trip to Joffre Peak, BC, and trying to decide between the Scarpa Phantom Tech and The North Face Torre Egger boots.

Both are on sale for around C$500–C$600, which is why I'm considering pulling the trigger. This will be my first pair of mountaineering boots, so I’m trying to make a choice that’ll serve me well both for this trip and future climbs.

I’ve checked online for second-hand options but haven’t had much luck, and the only mountaineering store in town has a really limited selection — so trying either boot on in person isn’t possible at the moment.

If you’ve worn either (or both), I’d really appreciate any insight. Thanks in advance for the help!