The 2024 AAJ has just gone to press, which means we’re on schedule to deliver AAC publications at the end of this summer. (It takes months to print and ship the thousands of copies of this 368-page book.) In the meantime, we plan to share stories from AAJ 2024 in “The Line” throughout this spring and summer.

Let’s start at the back.

The back cover of this year’s book features four photos from various stories that will appear inside AAJ 2024. Here’s a preview.

*Daniel Joll on Adventure Tourism, a new 14-pitch line on the Airport Wall near Milford Sound. Photo by Llewellyn Murdoch.*

NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND

The photo above is from our yearly round-up of big-wall and alpine climbing in New Zealand. Our New Zealand report has been written for the past nine years by Ben Dare, one of that country’s top alpine climbers. In fact, one of Ben’s own climbs appears in this year’s summary: an 1,100-meter new route called Apparition on the east face of Flat Top Peak, climbed solo. Dare previously soloed the first winter-conditions ascent of this face, by a direct line called Soulfly, to the right of Apparition, reported in AAJ 2022.

This year’s New Zealand report also covers the first ski descent of the big, steep east face of Malte Brun (3,199 meters), the sixth-highest peak in the country. Sam Smoothy has been on a quest to ski all 24 of New Zealand’s 3,000-meter peaks, and he ticked the east face of Malte Brun on October 20 with Will Rowntree and Jim Ryan. The 2024 AAJ includes a couple of spectacular photos from that day; here is Jasper Gibson’s photo of the three skiers looking back at Malte Brun after completing their line, which linked spines and chutes just to looker’s left of the big rock buttress above them.

Want more alpine news from New Zealand? Head to the AAJ website to read this year’s report.

*Portaledge camp on the northeast face of Pico do Itabira in Brazil. Photo by Murilo Vargas / 100 Limite Filmes.*

A SPECTACULAR SPIRE IN BRAZIL

*The line of Ao Ao (9 pitches, 5.13c A12), established in June 2023. An earlier route to the right was climbed in 1999. Photo by Murilo Vargas / 100 Limite Filmes.*

Pico do Itabira is a stunning granite tower about 1,000 feet high in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. It has a long climbing history—the first ascent, involving some crafty ironwork as well as traditional climbing techniques, was in 1947. In June 2023, British climber Gareth “Gaz” Leah teamed up with Neni Gabbardo from Brazil to establish a new nine-pitch line up the northeast face. Their route, Ao Ao, has a mix of bolts and traditional protection. The hardest pitch that was free climbed was 5.13a, and the eighth pitch is estimated to be at least 5.13c.

Filmmaker Murilo Vargas (100 Limite Filmes) captured some spectacular photos of the spire and the climb. More of Vargas’ photos and a pitch-by-pitch description of the new route will be available soon at the AAJ website.

*Ratmir Mukhametzyanov on day four of the first ascent of the southwest face of Pik Voennyh Topografov. Photo by Alexander Parfyonov.*

AN ALPINE BIG WALL IN THE TIEN SHAN

Last summer, Russian climbers Ratmir Mukhametzyanov, Alexander Parfyonov, and Aleksei Sukharev climbed a huge wall on a 6,873-meter mountain near the Kyrgyzstan-China border, with the Soviet-style name of Pik Voennyh Topografov, the Peak of Military Topographers. The trio spent six days climbing the rock wall, and their round trip from base camp took ten days.

Not only was this an impressive ascent—it won the Russian Piolet d’Or for climbs in 2023—but it also yielded some remarkable photos, mostly by Parfyonov, who wrote our AAJ story, with help from Anna Piunova of Mountain.ru and Kat Tancock, an American translator. We used many of Parfyonov’s photos in the upcoming 2024 AAJ, and we’re happy to share a few additional photos or different crops here.

Moody view of the wall from Chon-Toren Pass.

Setting up the bivouac for the third night on the wall.

Low on the rock wall, above the initial 300-meter ice slope.

Icy conditions on the southwest face.

THERE’S MUCH MORE ONLINE…

The fourth photo on the 2024 back cover is an image from the first ski descent of the north face of Mt. Breitenbach in Idaho, by Marc Hanselman and Jon Preuss. We highlighted this descent in the November Line, and you can read the full report at the AAJ website, so head to those pages for all the details.

Every AAJ report ever published gets posted online, and the web stories usually provide additional photos, topos, maps, and other bonus materials. Most of the new reports from the 2024 edition will be posted at publications.americanalpineclub.org by midsummer, even before most people receive their books.

The Line is the newsletter of the American Alpine Journal (AAJ), emailed to more than 80,000 climbers each month. Find the archive of past editions here. Contact Heidi McDowell for sponsorship opportunities. Questions or suggestions? Email us: [email protected].