The Alpine Journal 2015

The Alpine Journal is the oldest publication of its kind, created as a record of mountain exploration across the globe and has maintained that tradition this year. This, the 152nd publication of the Alpine Journal, takes you on a selection of significant first ascents of 2014, from Antarctica to Greenland, Europe to High Asia; on adventures in rock climbing, mountaineering and exploration of the high mountains of the continents. The volume includes the first ascent of Gasherbrum V, exploration of a hard-to-reach granite cirque in Alaska, hard climbing on unexplored cliffs of Greenland only reachable by sailboat, and descriptions of still-unclimbed peaks in Tibet and South America. Area notes from local experts in mountainous regions around the world give inspiration as well as the recent developments. History and science are, as always, well attended and include the history of mountain guiding in the Golden Age of mountaineering; new light on what might have happened on K2’s first ascent; stereographic photography in the Victorian era, and the prevalence of algae in the mountains. To celebrate the first ascent of the Matterhorn, Robin Campbell has curated and discussed a collection of early drawings of the mountain. Roger Birnstingl gives us previously untranslated letters from the scandalised Italians on the race for the first ascent of the Cervino; Ian Smith tells us about Whymper in the aftermath of the first ascent; John Cleare goes back 50 years in his story of the centenary ascent with the BBC.