By Phil Powers, AAC Executive Director Fifty years ago today Jim Whittaker and Nawang Gombu stood atop Mount Everest. Jim was the first American to go there. He went in close partnership with his Sherpa friend and employee. Today we see lines of people staked up like ants, tent cities … Read more…
This year, artist and climber Renan Ozturk collaborated with The American Alpine Journal to create a limited-edition, hardbound AAJ. The result: a beautiful inset featuring a special print of the Garhwal Himalaya, inspired by Renan’s climb with partners Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker on Meru’s “Shark Fin.” The story of Renan, Jimmy, and … Read more…
By Jon Glassberg. The 2012 Colorado alpine bouldering season was a carbon copy of the last decade of development. Area development often happens in cycles, and “new” zones are discovered and rediscovered in a pattern that can be predicted like clockwork. I have watched countless areas in the high country … Read more…
By Paige Classen. I’m not much of a boulderer, and I’m even less of an alpine climber. So when Marmot invited me to join a team of athletes venturing to Peru to develop unclimbed boulders and climb 6000 meter peaks, I had no idea why I had made the list. … Read more…
Cory Richards wrote to us about his acceptance of the Rowell Award. The Rowell Award—For The Art of Adventure honors an adventurer whose artistic passion illuminates the wild places of the world, and whose accomplishments significantly benefit both the environment and the people who inhabit these lands and regions. It was … Read more…
Alaska Section Co-Chair Cindi Squire wrote to us about her experiences climbing in Alaska. From the belay, I smile and look back over my shoulder at the immense, sweeping view of the mountains around me. It is amazing to think that some people never get to see this view or … Read more…
Mount Everest isn’t supposed to be a difficult mountain to climb. “Climbing” is often not even used to describe the act of reaching the summit of the world’s tallest peak. “It’s just walking. It’s not hard.” was something I’d often heard through the years. Growing up in the climbing community … Read more…
AAC friend Abbey Smith wrote to us in response to our One Day Member Drive to Celebrate the Hueco Rock Ranch: “When I think of “home” I think of the Hueco Rock Ranch. The place of peace, where I am whole. Desert sunshine. Majestic boulders. Starry nights. Blissful solitude. The place where … Read more…
Like tiny bees swarming a honeycomb, Boulder’s Team ABC has been attacking local and national competitions and world class climbing areas with frightening strength, intuitive movement and absolute enjoyment. Their queen bee, the renowned climber Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou has fine-tuned her methods over two decades and developed a complex curriculum that’s … Read more…
The “Live Your Dream” Climbing Grants are developed and administered locally with community support—each Region of the American Alpine Club has it’s own grant program. In the Northeast Region, the “Live Your Dream” Climbing Grant seeks to support climbers from a range of ages and experience levels, as well as a … Read more…
Climbing rocks is a bizarre and obscure passion. We fall in love with a piece of stone, suffer incredible physical pain and psychological torment, and risk our hearts and lives for the beauty and purity of the rock, the environment, the moment, and ourselves. It’s not an easy task to … Read more…
The “Live Your Dream” Climbing Grants are developed and administered locally with community support—each Region of the American Alpine Club has it’s own grant program. In the Northeast Region, the “Live Your Dream” Climbing Grant seeks to support climbers from a range of ages and experience levels, as well as a … Read more…
AAC member Ross Trainor sent us this post about his recent bear and mosquito-plagued climbing and canoeing trip in Alaska. It was curiosity that brought me into commercial fishing. Curiosity got me to Alaska, and it again made me want to venture up the Naknek River and lake to the … Read more…
Chris Alstrin is a Colorado filmmaker and member of the American Alpine Club. Alstrin has been pursuing the art for over a decade. His enthusiasm is undiminished even as his work takes him to ever higher places. He recently did some instrumental work on the Club’s newest video—The American Alpine Club 2012 … Read more…
Telling the stories of the climbing community is important to us. AAC friend Abbey Smith had a chat with the founders of this new—and awesome—climbing gym in St. Louis. Ten years ago, Dave and Dan Chancellor started shaping, manufacturing and distributing So iLL climbing holds from their parents basement in … Read more…
This June, American Alpine Club members Paige Claassen, Abbey Smith, Mick Follari, Andy Mann, and Alex Gilbert travel to Peru. Former AAC Board Member Pete Takeda is coordinating the trip with Marmot Mountain, Ltd. as sponsor. Says Takeda, “The Cordillera Blanca is a fantastic place to climb. We hope to … Read more…
AAC Past President Steve Swenson emailed us about twelve-year-old Drew Ruana of Seattle, Washington. He’d just joined the growing list youth who have climbed 5.14 by redpointing God’s Own Stone (5.14a) at the Red River Gorge. (Learn more Drew and watch his impressive ascent of Vicious Fish (5.13d) at Smith Rocks in the embedded video … Read more…
The American Alpine Club’s Honorary President, William Lowell Putnam gave this speech at the Club’s 2011 Board Meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona. We’ve reproduced it here because it’s a fantastic speech, broad in scope and incredibly rich in Club history—and mountaineering history. It’s been a great many years since I was … Read more…
Telling the stories of our members is important to us because it helps the community understand who makes up that community. Member Bo White traveled to Tajikistan once for research and was lured back by the peaks… My first trip to Tajikistan was in the winter of 2008/09 to collect … Read more…
During Memorial Day weekend, May 25-28, 2012, Mountainfilm will debut its 34th annual festival in Telluride, Colorado. Within this isolated box canyon, enclosed by steep forested mountains and granite cliffs, film festival attendees will roam by foot, bike, and gondola to various locations around Telluride and Mountain Village to watch compelling independent documentary films … Read more…