The Cutting Edge

Jacob Cook and Bronwyn Hodgins, partners in both climbing and marriage, joined two other Canadians last summer in Baffin Island's Weasel River Valley. This remote Arctic region has seen big-wall ascents since the 1970s, but it is very far from climbed out, as the pair explains in Episode 30 of the Cutting Edge. This team also was the first ever to explore the possibilities for combining climbing a...

Italian climber Matteo Della Bordella returns to the Cutting Edge to talk about the first ascent of the west face of Bhagirathi IV. This is a very steep 800-meter wall, entirely above 5,000 meters, in northern India. After several earlier attempts, both in 2015 and in 2019, Matteo and two friends climbed the wall in a bold, lightweight style, reaching the summit in one long day. Remarkably, they d...

The ice climbs of Helmcken Falls in central British Columbia are like no other climbs on Earth. Since 2010, our guest Tim Emmett has been developing "spray ice" climbs at Helmcken, connecting blobs of ice blown onto an enormous overhang by one of North America's most powerful waterfalls. In February, he and Klem Premrl completed their hardest climb yet: Mission to Mars, with the out-of-this-world...

Our guest for this episode is Leo Houlding, one of the great expedition leaders of our time. Leo's goal for this year was a new free route on Roraima, a legendary mountain in South America that is steeped in British climbing lore. In 1973, a team of four Brits—Mo Anthoine, Joe Brown, Hamish MacInnes, and Don Whillans—made the first ascent of the super-isolated and dramatic north prow of Roraima. J...

The north pillar of 6,487-meter Tengkangpoche in Nepal is one of the great unclimbed prizes of the Himalaya. In October, Quentin Roberts from Canada and Juho Knuuttila from Finland spent six days on the wall, reaching a new high point. A blank slab and the climbers' chosen style (no bolts, no portaledge) ended their attempt just a few pitches from easier ground. In this episode, Whitney Clark inte...

In this episode we travel to the Pamir Alai mountains of Kyrgyzstan for a special two-part show. The first part features a conversation with Nik Berry and Eric Bissell, who went to Kyrgyzstan in August with Dave Allfrey and Brent Barghahn to attempt the first free ascent of a huge wall in the Ak-Su valley: the northwest face of Pik Slesova. Their route eventually went free at 5.13a, with eight pit...

Koyo Zom in northern Pakistan is nearly 7,000 meters tall, and its stunning north face looks like a massive medieval fortress. No one had climbed or even attempted Koyo Zom for more than 40 years. In September, Tom Livingstone and four British friends set out to change that. Dividing into two teams, they attempted two lines on Koyo Zom. Tom and his climbing partner, Ally Swinton, succeeded on a ve...

Vitaliy Musiyenko is the most prolific climber of long new routes in the Sierra in modern history. This summer was no exception, including one line that recently was called "The Rostrum of Sequoia." In this interview with AAJ contributing editor Whitney Clark, Vitaliy describes how he transformed from an overweight and apathetic high schooler to the master of modern Sierra climbing, plus the joys...

At sunset on August 5, 2019, Steve Swenson, Graham Zimmerman, Chris Wright, and Mark Richey stood on top of Link Sar, a 7,041-meter peak in Pakistan that had resisted numerous attempts dating back to 1979. The successful climb of the southeast face was the culmination of two months of effort by a powerful team of American climbers: two veterans in their 60s, and two of the leading alpinists of tod...

Thirty-one-year old Barbara "Babsi" Zangerl is one of the world's most accomplished all-around rock climbers. She started climbing at age 14, and early on she focused on bouldering. After herniating a disk in her back in 2009, she switched to roped climbing and rapidly expanded her horizons. She was the first woman to complete the so-called Alpine Trilogy of long, often run-out 5.14 testpieces in...

In this episode we’re venturing into the world of FKTs: the Fastest Known Times for mountain ascents, alpine traverses, and similar feats. Our guest is Karl Egloff, a mountain guide who was virtually unknown outside his home in Ecuador until 2014, when he set the fastest known time for running up and down Kilimanjaro in Africa. The previous record was held by some guy named Kilian Jornet. Since th...

In early April 2019, Luka Lindič and Ines Papert teamed up with Brette Harrington to climb a major new route in the Canadian Rockies: the complete east face of Mt. Fay. Chris Kalman spoke with them about this wild new line, along with the paradoxical allure of these complex and dangerous mountains. The Cutting Edge is presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker, with additional support for this episode f...

In October, Jerome Sullivan and two friends succeeded on the south pillar of Cerro San Lorenzo, perhaps the most difficult unclimbed summit in Patagonia. It was a "terrible" climb, but a truly grand adventure, Jerome says. In episode 18 of the Cutting Edge, Jerome and Chris Kalman tell us all about it. The Cutting Edge is presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker. This podcast is produced by the Americ...

The Patagonia season has just come to a close, and so we asked the experts, Rolando Garibotti and Kelly Cordes, to go beyond the headlines and talk in depth about a wild new route, a ground-breaking, no-rope solo climb of Fitz Roy, and a series of very bad accidents and rescues. What's it all mean? Find out in this episode's deep dive into all things Patagonia. The Cutting Edge is presented by Hil...

Scott Coldiron is that rare and lucky climber who gets to discover and develop an entirely new area: the massive ice and mixed climbs of the Cabinet Mountains in Montana. After a few years of under-the-radar development, 2018 and 2019 have been the biggest years yet on the Thunderdome cliffs and the alpine climbs nearby. AAJ editor Andy Anderson gets the full story. The Cutting Edge is presented b...

In mid-November, Chris Wright and Graham Zimmerman spent three days on a new route up Mt. Macdonald, high over Rogers Pass in British Columbia. Just getting onto the mountain required years of waiting for the exact right set of circumstances to line up. In this episode, you'll hear about this wild new route, the tactics and gear required, and the two climbers' strong partnership, which will take t...

In late September, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison completed the first ski descent of Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world. Their route was the stunning Lhotse Couloir, a plumb line from the summit down ontto the vast Lhotse Face, right next to Everest. In this episode, Hilaree talks in depth about their preparation and how they made this impressive descent. The Cutting Edge is present...

Austrian climber Hansjörg Auer pulled off a rare feat in July: a solo new route on a 7,000-meter peak in the Karakoram. In this episode, Hansjörg talks about his new route on Lupghar Sar West, the pleasures and perils of soloing big mountains, and that terrifying rappel video that went viral last winter. The Cutting Edge is presented by Hilleberg the Tentmaker. This podcast is produced by the Amer...

After Brette Harrington's partner, Marc-André Leclerc, disappeared during a climb on Mendenhall Tower in Alaska in March, along with Ryan Johnson, Brette felt compelled to return to the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska repeatedly last summer and climbed numerous new routes in the Mendenhall Towers and elsewhere. In September, she and Gabe Hayden completed a difficult first ascent on the rarely...

On August 9, four decades years after the first ascent of Latok I in Pakistan, Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar from Slovenia, along with Tom Livingstone from the U.K., completed the second ascent of this stunning peak (and the first ever from the north side). We spoke with Luka and Tom to get the full story, including their take on the great north ridge of Latok I. The Cutting Edge is made possible by...

In early June, Colin Haley set a new speed record for the Cassin Ridge on North America's highest peak, soloing the 8,000-foot route in a little over eight hours. In this episode, Colin chats with Andy Anderson about the new record on Denali, his previous speed solos of Mt. Foraker and Mt. Hunter, and the future of climbing in the Central Alaska Range. The Cutting Edge podcast is made possible by...

Anne Gilbert Chase and Chantel Astorga made the first all-female ascent of one of Denali's hardest climbs, the Slovak Direct, in June. In this episode, Chris Kalman chats with Anne Gilbert about how she got hooked on Denali (she and Chantel attempted this climb two years in a row), the joys of climbing steep ice with a 30-pound pack, and how she feels about first female ascents. The Cutting Edge i...

In early June, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell not only smashed the speed record for climbing the Nose of El Capitan, they also broke the four-minute mile of climbing: the Nose in under two hours. In this episode, Alex and Tommy speak with Chris Kalman about the preparation and tactics for the climb, the risks of speed climbing, and what comes next. Thanks to Hilleberg the Tentmaker and Black Diam...

In February, Matteo Della Bordella from Italy and Silvan Schüpbach from Switzerland did the first ascent of a very remote peak in Patagonia. But what made their adventure truly exceptional was their "fair means" style, paddling sea kayaks for 100 kilometers to and from base camp, carrying all the food, expedition, and climbing gear for up to a month in the mountains. The AAJ's Chris Kalman spoke t...

Marc-André Leclerc died tragically in a climbing accident in Alaska in March, along with Ryan Johnson. Eighteen months earlier, AAJ associate editor Chris Kalman had recorded a long interview with the young Canadian, in preparation for an article that appeared in AAJ 2017. To honor Marc's life and provide a window into his unique character and intelligence, we offer this edited version of the inte...