[Update. June 10, 2011: The Dinner went great! Check out some of the pictures on Flickr. We'll be posting a full update soon.]

The next AAC Board Meeting is Saturday, June 4 in Flagstaff, Arizona. It will be most generously hosted at the Lowell Observatory by Bill and Kitty Putnam. Flagstaff sits at the center of the largest contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest on the continet and is home to some excellent climbing opportunities: limestone sport cragging a few minutes out of town at The Pit, excellent bouldering in a beautiful setting at the nearby Priest Draw, some fantastic basalt crack climbing forty minutes away at either Paradise Forks or the Oak Creek Overlook, and for those with a little more time on their hands, the striking, multi-pitch sandstone towers outside of Sedona. [Links courtesy our friends from mountainproject.com]

The evening of the 4th, there will be an Honorary Membership Dinner at the High Country Conference Center, also in Flagstaff. We will hear from our host, chair of the honorary membership committee and esteemed Honorary President, Bill Putnam. Executive Director Phil Powers said, “I have read a draft of his remarks and can say that this is a unique opportunity for us all to be grounded in the history of the Club in a presentation accented with humor and insight.”

The following climbing icons will be inducted as Honorary Members of the Club.

Joe Brown

Walter Bonatti

Tom Frost

Louis French Reichardt

Audrey Salkeld

John Oliver Wheeler

John Edward (Jed) Williamson

And posthumously:

Arnold Wexler and Richard Manning Leonard

The cost for the dinner is $100. You may make your reservations by contacting Janet Miller at (303) 384-0110 xt. 15,  or via email at jmiller@americanalpineclub.org.

There are many lodging options in Flagstaff. There is a Drury Inn very near to the conference center with an AAC Rate available.

Room rate – $139.95.

Call the Drury Inn & Suites (928) 773-4900 and indicate that you are with the American Alpine Club room block June 3 and 4. Group number 2103627

OR Online at:
www.druryhotels.com, click on Book it Fast, then enter group number 2103627.

We hope to see you there.