Epics

Stefan Glowacz and friends make a first ascent on South America's largest rock monolith, ground up and all out.

Simon Yates and Paul Schweizer gamble on the first alpine-style ascent of the Southwest Spur of Mount Vancouver. | By Paul Schweizer

How did the disaster that left 11 dead on K2 happen under blue skies, without a breath of wind? The complete account of three days of tragedy and heroism.

The Legendary British Climber on the Eiger.

There is a photograph of Tom Patey taken on the Old Man of Hoy, a 450-foot pinnacle of rock standing in the ocean off the north coast of Scotland.

Even before we tugged up our harnesses beside Orizaba's lower glacier, I'd been given hints the world was askew. The mice that infested the Quertano Hut pooled by the door as we readied to leave, their demonic eyes reflecting our headlamps.

I had my first full-time job. I was newly married and had a five-month-old son. I was 24. My life had seemed to be on track well enough.

As soon as we landed on the Kahiltna Glacier we ran into a familiar face from home, in New Hampshire.Ben Gilmore greeted us, Come on up and hang out!...

There's nothing wrong with spending a summer in Vancouver when Squamish is your backyard, I just wanted more this year. Then the phone rang."Come to California," Trev said. "We'll climb some real mountains. There's a couple of Grade Vs I want to get on."

"Pretty sure I'm floating," I said into the phone immediately after my friend Matt called to say, "Whatever you do, don't drive your usual way.At that moment my car's engine quit, and it lifted up and started drifting toward a gas station. It was 12:30 a.m. and dumping rain. "What do you mean?" Matt said.

Bruised ribs from a bike crash did not qualify Greg for our toughest man title. I had the trump card: a permanently broken rib, called a non-union fracture in the orthopedic jargon, from a surfing crash. It was no contest.