Two observations I’ve made:

1) Landfills in the United States are inundated, continuously, with items that do not belong, still have plenty of life, and/or are quite valuable to some.

2) There are people in remote mountain villages throughout Asia whose job it is to porter heavy loads over rugged terrain. They make climbing and trekking expeditions possible, their pay is negligible, and their equipment is appalling.

Maybe my two observations are blatantly obvious, especially for those of us that have traveled in remote mountainous Asia or walked around their local landfill in shock. In short, I am asking for monetary donations that will address these two issues; saving valuable goods (shoes, clothing, backpacks) from further contaminating the landfill and delivering these items to the Hispar village, a remote community in northern Pakistan.

My story:

In the fall of 2008 and with help from an AAC Mountain Fellowship grant, I spent three months in Pakistan on the Hispar Glacier trying to solo a big mountain. To heavily condense the experience, I lost forty pounds and the tip of my finger to frostbite, and tapped further into my physical ability than I ever hope to experience again. Climbing aside, the porters that made my expedition possible, by carrying heavy loads for five days to my climbing objective, were nothing short of amazing. On the strenuous return hike to the Hispar village, where many of them call home, I noticed one of the porter’s shoes. Tali Hussein’s footwear looked like some old tire scraps that he had fastened to his feet with twine. I looked at his 60lb “backpack” that was also twine-wrapped to his tiny frame. I glanced toward several days of rugged glacial moraine ahead of us. Then I noticed the appalling footwear of several other porters hiking nearby. “Their shoes aren’t going to make it,” I thought to myself.

Back in town, and through an interpreter, I found out that 22 year-old Tali Hussein had been using the same shoes for the last SIX years. I looked down at my FiveTen approach shoes that were new prior to this trip. In the last several months I had used them to cover over 200 miles of rough terrain and by American standards they were completely destroyed. Even still, my haggard shoes were far superior to anything my porters wore. And so, prior to leaving the wonderful Hispar village, I found Tali, gave him a hug, and handed him his first pair of “new” shoes, equipped with sticky rubber and all. He was ecstatic and my only wish was that I could thank the other porters in a similar fashion; after all, they had assisted me through the weakest physical event of my life.

Months later at home in Utah, I’m driving to go ice climbing with a friend who works in the return department at one of our nation’s biggest outdoor retailers. I was perplexed by one of his job tasks; taking slightly used clothing, shoes, backpacks, and other outdoor soft goods, and shredding them with razorblades so they are completely unusable. “The corporation has a policy that we can not resell the items, so we just throw them away,” my friend tells me. I think of the utter waste going to the landfill, I think of the countless in need, and I think of my friends in Pakistan. As soon as I get home from that day of ice climbing I begin writing a letter to the manager of the retail store where my friend works.

For the past several months the retail giant that was once destroying perfectly good items has been collecting them for the people of Hispar village, thus rejuvenating my faith in corporate policy. In September I am returning to Pakistan to attend to some unfinished business I have with a mountain. This time with shoes, backpacks, and clothing; saved from the landfill and presented to the hardworking porters that will happily use it.

Here’s how you can help:
•    PLEASE DO NOT SEND MATERIAL DONNATIONS. (I have collected the maximum amount of material donations that I am able to transport)
•    Monetary donations are graciously appreciated and will be solely directed toward costly shipping fees.
•    I AM ABLE TO COLLECT DONATIONS UNTIL JULY 22nd.
•    I can accept cash, check, or paypal.
•    Upon request I am able to provide contact information for the manager of the store providing the material donations.
•    Upon returning to the US I do plan on sharing my experience in the form of articles, slideshows, video presentations, from both a climbing and donation perspective.
•    I am willing to discuss any desires for reciprocation that the donator might have in mind.
•    Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions.

Kindly send monetary donations to:
Kyle Dempster
6228 Haven Moor Cir.
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
801-599-9043
kdemp_911@hotmail.com

“Aw sheet, I ain’t been on a bicycle for damn near 20 years. I don’t remember it being this much fun!”—Morris (pronounced Morse) AAC member from Atlanta and multi-time attendee of Grand Teton Climbers’ Week.

This was just one of the vivid quotes from this year’s Grand Teton Climbers’ Week. The weather wasn’t perfect. It rained everyday, BUT, not ALL day. Climbing, albeit sport climbing, was the name of the game for most who got out on the rock. One particular memorable day involved a set of 15 year old triplets, Morris, a twenty-something former competitive female sled dog musher turned Exum guide from South Dakota (or was it Nebraska?), myself, a 30 meter hank of rope, 12 quickdraws, one Gri-Gri, some Budweisers*, six bicycles and an only teensy bit concerned father in a mini van/sag wagon.

Our mission was to take advantage of the Ranch’s recently implemented reclaimed bike fleet and pedal to the crag. Scary black clouds threatened to the north, but we mounted our chosen vehicles anyway and raced down the bike path toward Blacktail Butte. We arrived exhilarated, giggling like schoolgirls (okay, so two of us really were schoolgirls) and hurried up to the wall. Shortly after the first toprope was installed, we were joined by The Dad, Scott “I promise to be your belay slave if you give me the recipe for your Peanut Noodles”, and Phil Powers’ Posse (his sassy wife Sarah, a family friend and said family friend’s crying kid).

Inevitably, because nearly every generation was represented, discussions (ahem, heated debates, name calling, etc.) on the proper way to do things ensued.

“No, I’d rather not have my belayer tied to that tree;” “That’s why it’s called a belay loop, because that is what you are supposed to use while belaying;” “No, you don’t have to rappel from the anchor, I can lower you;” “You aren’t going to need that knife or prussic,” and of course, my all-time favorite, “Sport climbing is neither.” Ha ha.

We all agreed to disagree (I wasn’t going to argue too much with the father of the three, my boss or the swaggering Morris and his endearing southern drawl). Besides, none of it really mattered anyway. Everyone there that day, with the exception of the crying kid (although he did stop crying) tied in, climbed to a two quick draw anchor, and laughed a whole hell of a lot. Oh, and no one got dropped or hit by the falling choss.

It is climbing days like this that I remember most and hold dearest. It was just all so absurd: the multifarious climbers, arriving by bike, sport climbing in the Tetons.

I know many AAC members deem the benefits of membership the insurance, journal, library or museum. But for me, it is absolutely the experiences I’m afforded at events like this that are most cherished.

*Relax, no one (under age) was drinking (while belaying) at the crag.

Photo by Dana Richardson

• The AAC is looking for a member to serve as section chair for the Oregon area. Know of anyone who'd be interested? Are you? Let us know. #
• AAC Museum featured in the Denver Post today – Bradford Washburn photographic exhibit going on now http://tinyurl.com/mebktq #
• Members near LA: Check out "Granite Frontiers: A Century of Yosemite Climbing" from June 12 – Oct 4 http://tinyurl.com/lolv9o #
• checking out Longway, a Coppworks production http://tinyurl.com/n42owd #

What’s left to do in Alaska after 28 climbing trips in 24 separate years? For AAC treasurer Jack Tackle, along with longtime member Jay Smith (himself a veteran of many Alaska Range new routes), what’s left was four new routes in two and a half weeks. Tackle said this blitzkrieg in May was “maybe my best trip ever to Alaska since I started going in 1976.”

After warming up with a rare ascent of the Rooster Comb, Jack and Jay climbed an 18-pitch new route on the south face of Mt. Huntington’s south peak, followed by a pair of five- and eight-pitch “cragging” routes on an ice-draped rock wall south of Huntington.

After a bit of R&R in Talkeetna, the two flew back into the range and bagged the first ascent of Tangled Up in Blue on the 4,000-foot north face of Thunder Mountain. Grade 6 ice, M6 or M7 mixed, 67 hours tent to tent, a spectacular line to a seldom-climbed peak—Tangled Up in Blue is the real deal. “This was the most significant thing we did on this trip, and both Jay and I think it’s one of the best and hardest routes we have collectively done ever. First attempt. Ground up. We nailed it.”

Not without suffering, though. The two slept only nine hours in 67, and after ten 70-meter rappels down the west face, they had to endure eight miles of nasty snow slogging to return to camp. “The last three miles back up the glacier to the tent took us four hours because of breakable crust and waist-deep snow at times,” Tackle moaned. “It was heinous.”

Want more info and photos? Click here to see the full story.

Jay Smith leading beautiful ice on the first ascent of the Black Pearl on the Scottish Wall, south of Mt. Huntington. Photo by Jack Tackle.

The line of Tangled Up in Blue on the north face of Thunder Mountain. Photo by Jack Tackle.

Dear fellow climbers,

We have access to parts of the world few of our fellow citizens ever see, and we have a particular set of skills not many share. We’re asking you to bring those two things to bear next Oct. 24 in a one-day project that we hope will have some measurable impact on changing the world.

Because you’ve been up high, you’re aware that global warming is fast melting the world’s glaciers–here’s an example from Mt. Everest. In fact, scientists who have drilled glacial cores around the world tell us this melt is growing ever faster, to the point where in the lifetimes of all of us it may endanger not only the alpine world but also the billions of people who live downstream and depend on these glaciers for drinking and irrigation. So far, though, the political response to climate change has been too slow.

Now, with the crucial negotiations looming on the horizon in Copenhagen, we can do something to help change that. The world’s foremost climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, and his team last year declared that 350 parts per million co2 was the most carbon we could safely have in the atmosphere. That’s a tough number, because we’re already past it. At the moment, the atmosphere holds 387 ppm co2, which is why glaciers and Arctic sea ice are melting. Indeed, this research team cautioned that unless we got back below that number, then eventually the earth might well be ice-free.

The planet will scrub some of that co2, but only if we stop pouring more in. To move political leaders to take this seriously, 350.org is organizing a huge global day of action on Oct. 24, designed to drum that number into every head on the planet. Churches will be ringing their bells 350 times, people will be hanging banners from iconic sights from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower, people will be joining hands in great lines along the world’s beaches. There will even be 350 scubadivers down off the Great Barrier Reef, itself succumbing to higher ocean temperatures. But there’s no place that captures the public imagination more thoroughly than the peaks and cliffs that we climb. So: we urge you to get up somewhere high and visible on October 24, and figure out some way to make that number visible.   Maybe stomp it into the snow, maybe hang a great banner off a rock face–you will know what works best where you happen to be. What we’ll need by, day’s end if possible, is a photo, uploaded to the web, of whatever you’ve figured out to do.

If you’re on an expedition, or the weather won’t cooperate, a few days beforehand or a day or two after will work as well–the goal is simply to take this obscure number, arguably the most important number in the world, and make it the most well-known 3 digits on the planet. If we do, then it will set the bar for negotiators. At the very least, we’ll have helped let the rest of the world know what the crucial reality facing the planet is.

If you can help, please register your action at the 350.org website and drop a line to Jamie Henn at Jamie@350.org so we can make sure to know how to get the most publicity from it.

Many thanks,

Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Yvon Chouinard, Rick Ridgeway, Lynn Hill, Phil Powers, Jim Whittaker, Bill McKibben

• Check it out: new Boulder Canyon guidebook coming out next month http://tinyurl.com/mhlcdl #
• new pics and videos of the GTCR climbers' week posted on the AAC facebook page http://tinyurl.com/l99mzr #
• Check out C.A.M.P. USA's warehouse sale this weekend (June 20-22) near Boulder, CO http://www.camp-usa.com/ #

Check it out:  a long-needed guidebook for the Boulder Canyon area will be released next month by Wolverine Publishing. The new book is full of great photos, route descriptions, and climber profiles and looks to be a huge improvement over the past books. We’re pumped about it; what do you guys think?

View sample pages here.   

Pre-order with a $5 discount here.

Bushes, bird excrement, snake paranoia, exfoliating faces, incipient seams—all to get to one perfect crack climb. Peter Doucette, Kate Rutherford, and I have just returned from a month-long climbing expedition in Namibia. At the end—on our very last possible climbing day—we completed a first ascent of Southern Crossing, a V 5.11+ on the Orabeskopf face at the Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain. It took five days of work to find the line, clean it, and do a one-day ascent on June 1.

Our route has 13 pitches, and the first seven are 5.10 or harder. The meat of the route is three pitches of 5.11 in a row (pitches 5 to 7). Above this, the angle kicks back on a ramp system that leads to the top of the wall.

This climb was only made possible by the discovery of water at the base of the cliff—water that was first a sea of mud and algae in a 20-by-40-centimeter granite depression. Peter cleaned out the muck on day one, and each day thereafter we were able to collect 14 to 18 liters on our way back to camp. We spent a total of seven nights on the col between the face and the standard hiking route to the southern side of the Brandberg.

Earlier on our trip we did a one-day car-to-car ascent of Painted Giraffe, also a new route on the face, at 5.9. This route parallels the route Dogbreath, established by Namibian climbers on Christmas day 1974. No climbing on the face had been done since.

More information, as well as articles and a film, will be forthcoming. Visit my website for more details, or feel free to contact me with any questions.

Majka Burhardt

The Orabeskopf face on Brandberg, Namibia. Blue line: Southern Crossing. Red line: Painted Giraffe. Yellow line: Dogbreath. Courtesy of Majka Burhardt.

It wasn’t too long ago that Jonny and Micah showed up with Peter Mortimer to film in our library, as part of the NatGeo First Ascent episode on their then-upcoming trip, which was partially funded by a Spitzer grant. Our librarians regard the camera the way Superman regards kryponite, so I played that role instead. We rifled through stacks of books and maps looking for pictures and topos to add to their knowledge of the area, trying not to crack up on camera. I treasure that afternoon in my mind, as I’m sure you all treasure your own memories with them.

Jonny and Micah were longtime, generous supporters of the AAC: doing benefit slide shows, manning the club’s booth at Outdoor Retailer and other events, and donating many photos and stories to the American Alpine Journal and other AAC publications. In fact, Jonny and Micah’s first ascent of the Shafat Fortress in India was featured in the 2008 AAJ. Jonny served on the committee that bestows the AAC’s David A. Sowles Memorial Award, reserved for mountaineers who have gone to the assistance of fellow climbers at personal risk or the cost of their own objectives. And Micah had recently volunteered to serve on our Mountain Fellowship Grant Committee, having been a prior recipient of that grant. Most recently, they were among eight climbers who authored an AAC membership-drive letter, which mailed just a few days before they were known to be missing (I mention that partly as an apology to those that received the letter after the bad news came in). Wade too was a member of the AAC, and had been helpful to the club by filming at our last Annual Dinner. In the slideshow there’s a good shot of him and Jonny catching up at the event.

The AAC is extremely grateful to the Chinese Mountaineering Association, the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, and Chinese officials for their help in the search operation, along with climbers and donors from around the world who are helping out. It’s my understanding that as soon as the Chinese authorities became aware that Jonny, Micah and Wade were overdue, the newly elected Vice President of the CMA, Mr. Wang, flew to Chengdu from Beijing to personally supervise the rescue/recovery effort. And we’ve been told by our colleagues at the CMA that hundreds of soldiers have been mobilized in the search effort. (Thank you Eliza for fostering this partnership!)

Jonny, Micah and Wade – you are sorely missed.

Dave M.

Hi.  This is our new blog; “our” meaning yours too…assuming you’re a climber (or at least like to follow the exploits of, or converse with, climbers).

Our blog is called Inclined because we like what it means:

A slanted or angled plane not parallel to the ground–“The inclined nature of the terrain forced the hillwalkers to retreat”

An attitude of mind; a preference or disposition toward something–“She was inclined to take risks”

To bend or turn one’s ear towards a speaker in order to listen well–“He inclined his ear to the wise man”

The weblog of the AAC–“The spreadsheet became tiresome so he turned his attention toward the blog Inclined, until his boss dropped in”

Our goals for Inclined are two-fold:

1) Inspiration: the AAC is fortunate to be filled with, and surrounded by, some of the most accomplished and interesting climbers in the world—from yesterday and today. Inclined will be a vehicle for sharing their stories.  We’re not restricting ourselves to hall of fame types.  If you have a good story to tell, and it’s about your experiences related to the vertical world, tell it here.

2) Conversation: Inclined is a place where AAC members, the climbing community at large, and club staff can interconnect.  This is a place where your voice can be heard. Likewise, it’s a place where we can create a deeper understanding of the various ways we support the climbing way of life, protect the places we climb, and sustain climbing culture.

If you like what you’re reading so far, stay tuned.  And if you’ve got something to say, say it here.

Dave M.