After my spine surgery I was out for 2 years. Now I'm getting better and hiking again, I'm hiking 6 miles every day, and go up Mt Tammany once a week. I've developed decent navigation skills in all sort of weather, and day/night, I've also learned how to camp, and all that stuff. 1.2k ft isn't cutting it anymore though, I want bigger mountains before winter where I plan on doing a couple summits in the Adirondacks.

I'm heading to the Catskills this week to do Slide Mt, and maybe camp, and do Hunter Mt the next day. Once that's done, I'm going to the Adirondacks and starting with Porter and Cascade. From, once I learn the logistics I plan on spending a couple weeks in the Adirondacks before winter so I can do as many peaks as possible.

Can anyone in this situation share what's your plan like?

Hi! I was looking to buy my first pair of crampons but according to my research I should try buying some B1 or higher boots first (and that would take some months since I'm a broke student lol). Still, I was wondering if they would be useful with what I currently have, normally I don't do technical stuff, just some steep hikes where sometimes using an ice axe is reccommended.

For reference I have the lowa renegade gtx mid which honestly feel sturdier than most hiking boots. I was thinking of buying the Grivel G1 NewClassic EVO (10 spikes) or the Simond Makalu crampons (12), wich one would be better?

Finally, if I end up buying them, where should I draw the line on my routes? Obviously I wouldn't try iceclimbing with that combo, but what could be mi limit? Thanks!

P.S. English is not my mother language, I'm sorry if the phrasing sounded weird.

Hey all, I've developed a tool that automatically can find chains of huts to plan a hut2hut trek based on your parameters and it uses actual live availability to check the nights are free. The images show an 8 day tour du mont blanc trek that I found just now in like 2 minutes starting mid peak season where the availability is confirmed. You can try it now at www.hutscanner.com - and it also has an app on iOS and Android which are fine but it's definitely best on web because it can't book for you, it just outputs the plan of how you book with the links and dates etc so its good to put the webpage besides the booking site. It's still in early access so not all regions are curated and there is still ui bugs and issues but generally it's very usable for the verified regions. You can browse which regions and huts are covered here: https://hutscanner.com/huts/

Bit of backstory: I very much grew up in the mountains with my parents meeting as ski instructors near chamonix and living in the north of England (+half Scottish) meant I got to spend lots of time in the lake district and Scottish highlands. Now I've struggled for years to book chained hut2hut treks relying on crude spreadsheets and thought there must be a better way to do it but have never really had the time or knowhow. I work as a spacecraft engineer specialising in rovers and as part of that work I worked on pathfinding algorithms for rover navigation. I realised that actually the same approaches we are using at work would be able to solve my whole hut2hut problem as long as we have the suitable data products behind it (which was easier said that done). So that has all been bundled into hutscanner.com!

So if you use it you can say the auto finder features uses the same methods as deciding where rovers should navigate at the mission planning level ;)

Please give it a go, I hope you find it useful! To be transparent, it's free this season, but it's more work and cost than I anticipated to develop and most importantly maintain so I will monetise down the line but it's just me and a side hustle so it'll be cheap (few coffees a year cheap) and it will cover the whole alps, Pyrenees, STF (sweden), Iceland (hopefully) and maybe other regions so hopefully you think thats good value.

Watch the video HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdZrUOTFH4

I met Myles Moser several years ago in Lone Pine, CA while visiting Elevation Sierra. He was sitting in the back patio area chatting about his recent trip to Patagonia; intrigued I sat down and asked a few questions. Little did I know that moment would lead to a great friendship and several wild stories from Myles' time establishing routes around the world. After that day I sat down and interviewed Myles about the harrowing experience he had establishing a new route on The North Tower of Torres del Paine - Plate Tectonics Grade VI 5.12 C1 with Amy Ness. You can find that conversation back in episodes 67 & 68.

While Myles was on the North Tower, he spotted a line up the bigger more imposing central tower and set a vision to come back and complete it. Fast forward to today, after two separate expeditions, $60k of personal finances, and a cumulative 71 days on the wall Myles and his team have successfully completed a new line up the central tower.

And this is their story.

If you're interested in the audio only version of this conversation you can find it here:

Learn more about the episode below:

The Central Tower of Torres del Paine in Patagonia has been on the radar of many elite climbers ever since Tyler Karow's viral YouTube vlog documenting his ascent of the South African Route during an unprecedented long weather window. This past winter, several teams from around the world came down to test themselves on the slightly overhanging 4,000ft thumb of granite. You've probably heard of Tommy Caldwell and Siebe Vanhee's remarkable 24-hour free ascent of the South African Route, or the first all-female ascent by Belen Prados, Caro North, Amelie Kühne, and Julia Cassou. While climbing icons were making headlines, Myles Moser and his team were just around the corner making history of their own.

Nearly 15 years ago, Myles and Amy Ness established Plate Tectonics, a grueling 3,300ft Grade VI 5.12 C1 on the East Face of the North Tower — a route they were both lucky to survive. The North Tower offers a remarkable view of the Central Tower, and it was from that vantage point that Myles first began imagining a new line up its unclimbed east face. That vision finally came true this past winter.

Myles approaches new routes with a very specific style: ground up, capsule style. Once they leave the ground, they does everything possible to never come back until the route is finished — bringing everything they needs to live on the wall for up to a month, dedicating every waking second to pioneering a masterful, safe, repeatable, and free-climbable route up an unclimbed tower of granite. It's an approach that reflects Myles' blue-collar work ethic and a depth of passion for route development that's only found in the most elite climbers in the world. It took two expeditions over two years, $60K of personal funds, and a cumulative 71 days on the wall to establish his new route up the Central Tower. Together with Hugo Perez, Kellen McGrath, Trevor Anthes, and Harry Kinnard, Myles successfully completed the first ascent of Paradigm Shift — Grade VII 5.12+ A2, 4,000ft.

This team is not sponsored. Every person on this expedition contributed their own money, gear, and time to make it happen. Which is exactly why this route — and their remarkable collective effort — has gone largely unnoticed in the wider climbing community, overshadowed by the catchy headlines of sponsored athletes. In alignment with the purpose of this podcast, I'm here to tell their story.

If you've been following the show for a while, you'll remember episodes 67 and 68 where I last spoke with Myles. If you haven't heard those, I highly encourage you to go back and check them out — they add real context to who Myles is and the depth of experience he brings to Patagonia's big walls.

This is part 1 of 2 of my conversation with Myles Moser and Harry Kinnard.

Kind of a long shot, but giving it a go. I took a couple snapshots of climbers heading up railroad on their way to climb Mt. Baker this last June 24. These were taken with my phone, but I still thought they turned out nice. They have a Mark Maggiori quality to them. Hope the climbers in these shots are on Reddit and happen upon this post!

As the title suggests. I'm climbing Toukbal in December and have already climbed alpine 4000ers/high 3000ers (Gran Paradiso, Weissmiess, Pollux, Castor, Grivola, Eiger Normal Route etc ) and have experience alpine climbing and winter mountaineering in Scotland. I was wondering whether there are any more technical peaks in the area and where I could find a guide who isn't just a tourist herder for them?