Photos by edge

Mike Robin crimps the feature that gave "Straight Razor" (V7/8, Lincoln Woods, RI) it's name.

With bad beta, she missed the flash by one move. The second attempt, however, was the charm...
Photo by Girlclimb.

Meaghan works the horizontals during a mid-Summer's trip to Farley, Western Mass' premier crag.

Meaghan works a very quick redpoint on Dikenstein, 5.11c at Sundown. Photo courtesy of Katelyn (Girlclimb) on my Nikon Coolpix 4800.

July 18, my anniversary. This poor woman had no idea...

Having a little alpine bouldering fun mid-hike. Note Cannon Cliff, 1000' tall, down in the lower right corner.

Crack climber extrordinaire Doug Scott tapes up in preparation for a first ascent in Fringe of Death canyon at Indian Creek.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, 1984

Doug Scott leads the initial corner on this two pitch first ascent in Fringe of Death Canyon, Indian Creek, UT. If anyone recognizes the route and knows what, if anything, it is referred to in the guide book, please let me know. It went at mid-range 5.10, as I recall.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, 1984.

Located minutes from downtown Providence, RI, the boulders at Lincoln Woods may have their fair share of graffiti, but when you are climbing and focusing on the movement, you barely notice it.

Here Meg grabs the sharp undercling crimp next to the "tag" that gave Peace Dove it's name. One of the best V4's at the Woods.

Feet cut loose, hair flies, but Meaghan sticks the jug after the crux dyno on The Pedestal, V5, at Lincoln Woods, RI.

One of the deadly sins available on the main street in Chamonix is the abundance of decadent food.

Here Edge, in half of his alpine regalia, guards the packs and enjoys a chocolate croissant.

Helping load kayaks atop the Catalyst while anchored just outside Endicott Arm in Alaska's Inside Passage.

The first rays of morning light appear high on the Brenva Spur route, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc.

Leaving the Trident Hut at 1:30 AM, we descended to Col Moore before climbing the fantastically exposed ridge via headlamp. High on the face, the first rays of dawn illuminate Charles Carr as he crests the terminal serac band, marking the end of major difficulties on the route. The seracs were making terrible creaking noises, making my position under them less than enviable.

We summited at 8:30 AM before descending the French side following the Bosses Ridge via the Grand Mulets for a complete traverse of the mountain.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, 1985

After a 4AM start and 14 hours on the face, I top out the last pitch of 65 degree ice on the Frendo Spur.

Carrying only 4 ice screws for the route, and leaving two of them at the belay, meant having to run out the full 160 foot pitch a bit.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, August 1985.

The North Face of the Aiguille du Midi taken the day after a major storm and the day before we climbed the Frendo Spur.

Due to the recent warm spells in Europe, I have heard that there is considerably less permanent snow on the face. This is a shame, as the route in the conditions we climbed it in was stellar.

The line of the Frendo Spur begins under the large buttress and face one third of the way in from the left of this picture, then works it's way up the faint ridgeline aiming for the prominent snow arete high on the face before weaving it's way up to the secondary highpoint just left of the summit. For scale, the snow arete was 600+ feet in length.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, August 1985.

After picking our way through the bergshrund via headlamp, we weave up the Frendo's initial ice face.

A 4AM start meant that these steep mixed pitches were climbed in relative dark and very cold temps; here the first light of day enables a picture and reveals the awesome exposure.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, August 1985.

Midway on the Frendo Spur we are now blessed with full sunlight and engaging climbing on the thin alpine ice and mixed rock.

Photo from the Loran Smith Collection, August 1985.

Photo taken the day after an early season snow storm blankets Cannon Cliff and the Whitney Gilman Ridge.

Meaghan stops to catch her breath on the approach to Cathedral Peak. We went from sea level to the 11,000' summit in 24 hours by car, foot, and rock shoe.

A team on the mid-section of the Cannon Cliff ultra classic route, Moby Grape. 5.8

Derek lowers from the single bolt on the 5.9 A.0 pendulum pitch on Vertigo.

The thin tips finger crack at the crux of Vertigo. While this is typically the third pitch, Derek combined this with the pendulum on pitch two to make it one burly rope stretcher.

Pitch four of Vertigo involves a difficult step right to reach a thin crack that widens to off hands at the top. Three bolt belay below the pitch, three piton belay above.

The fifth pitch of Vertigo is the notorious Half Moon Crack, a completely unprotected 5.9R off-width with a 60 foot run-out.
Here Derek opts for the Crescent Moon variation, which ascends to the base of Half Moon then traverses left on thin smears to access a thin corner which leads to a beautiful thin finger crack through a bulge, which eventually opens to hand size. A very comfy, three bolt belay above.

Derek showcases the Lance Armstrong Foundation's "Livestrong" bracelet atop the fifth pitch of Vertigo, Cannon Cliff, NH.