A memorial event in celebration of Guy Lacelle’s life is set for January 16 in Canmore, with more details forthcoming via the Banff Mountain Film Festival Facebook page and the En Memoire de Guy Lacelle Facebook page. The event will be an evening of stories and salutations to Guy, and all family and friends are welcome to come share their best stories, put up a climb or two, and connect with others who crossed paths with this remarkable climber. Sleeping bag space is rumored to be plentiful.

Details on specific location are yet to be announced, but should come soon. Please watch the above Facebook pages for that information, and plan to attend.

A climber on Commando Ridge. Image courtesy of the BMC.

The AAC is looking for two climbers to nominate to attend the British Mountaineering Council’s 2010 International Sea Cliff Climbing Meet. The BMC event will be held May 9-16 at the all-new location of the Count House in Cornwall (UK), a 200-year old house perched above the granite cliff of Bosigran. The meet organizers hope to bring together climbers of all grades from around the world to “enjoy the full delights of British sea cliff climbing.”

More information about the meet can be found on theUIAA.org as well as the BMC’s event listing, but here’s a quick summary:

“Sea cliffs offer some of the most enjoyable and adventurous ‘trad’ climbing in the British Isles. The granite cliffs of Cornwall in South West England were first explored by climbers more than a century ago, and the area has developed into a climbers’ Mecca. There are well over 1,000 routes clustered around the western tip of the peninsula, providing not just the best concentration of granite climbing in Britain but also many ‘three-star’ classics on other rock types such as Greenstone and Killas Slate. There are quality routes in all grades from V Diff to E10, so something for everyone! Other attractions of the area include great pubs, Farmhouse Cream Teas and the famous Cornish pasty, so we expect to have a fantastic week’s climbing and a lot of fun besides.”

“The last summer meet in 2008 based in North Wales saw a great mix of people and abilities: Belgium climbers fond of airtime; Russians leading their first trad routes; some superb evening presentations and plenty of smiling faces at the end of each day.  The perception that BMC International Meets are for top end climbers is simply not the case.  The meets have been, and continue to be, made up of people from a whole range of climbing experiences and grades.”

- Becky McGovern, BMC

Interested? Contact Dana Richardson at drichardson@americanalpineclub.org for more information on how to apply to attend on the AAC’s behalf.

Spaces are limited, so the BMC is asking climbers to not make any concrete travel arrangements until they receive confirmation from the BMC directly. If the meet becomes over-booked, slots will be reduced to one per federation.

The American Alpine Club (AAC) seeks to add a dynamic member to its senior staff for the position of Major Gifts Officer. The position requires a minimum of five years of experience in development work with direct experience soliciting funds from individuals and foundations. This position will be an integral part of the AAC team as the Club continues to expand programs, grow membership and prepare for its next capital fund campaign. Exceptional candidates will have extraordinary organizational skills, a passion for the outdoors and be capable of working directly with donors. The position reports to the Executive Director and the right candidate will be a part of the senior leadership team. Resumes and cover letters should be sent electronically by January 11, 2010 to Janet Miller. A full job description is available on our website at www.americanalpineclub.org/pt/majorgiftsofficerjobdescription.

The climbing community has felt the need to band together in loss too many times this year, in ways only fellow climbers can understand. Continuing a string of tragedies, Canadian ice climber Guy Lacelle was killed in an avalanche last Thursday during the Bozeman Ice Festival. Lacelle and a partner were climbing in Hyalite Canyon, MT, participating in the Ice Breaker competition, when a party above triggered a small avalanche that pulled him off the cliff and down the ice.

As written by the Petzl Crew, of which Guy was a part, “Guy was one of the leading ice climbers in North America, responsible for many bold solo ascents in his home country of Canada and elsewhere. He was a regular at many major ice climbing events and was still pushing the limits of ice climbing until the day he died at the age of 54.” Read more of the Petzl Crew’s blog tribute, including photos and videos, here.

For more details on the accident, please read the article in last Friday’s Bozeman Daily Chronicle here.

Climbing Magazine also posted information including links to a 2008 Alpinist interview with Lacelle.

Doug Chabot, AAC member and avalanche expert, analyzed the slide and conditions in the video below, via AvalancheGuys:

Our sympathies and thoughts go to Guy’s family and climbing partners today and in the weeks ahead.

AAC member Lance Fox from Wisconsin climbed Mt. Everest from the Nepal side last spring, summiting on May 21. But that wasn’t his only accomplishment in the Khumbu. Along with his climbing gear, the veterinarian shipped over deworming supplies to help treat the local people’s yaks and yak hybrids. Fox taught Phurba Tashi Sherpa, a 16-time Everest summiter and the sirdar of Fox’s Himex expedition, to administer the Safeguard dewormer, and supplied enough of the product for two doses for 200 animals. Expedition leader Russell Brice reported later in the year that these animals began producing more milk, suggesting they were healthier because of the treatments.

Fox said it’s very likely that the Khumbu draft animals had never received veterinary care. Next year, he hopes to greatly expand the treatment program.

“Our hope is to return to the Khumbu next spring to deworm around 2,500 to 3,000 yaks and teach more of the local people how to do it (and why), while leaving another round of Safeguard for them to apply a follow-up dose four to six weeks later,” Fox said. “If funding is secured, we have identified seven villages along the Everest base-camp trekking route to hold, for lack of a better term, yak clinics.

“My long-term hope is that the program will expand not only to become a yearly endeavor but also expand in numbers of animals treated, and perhaps look at additional health-care choices for these wonderful animals,” Fox added. “I could also see the program expand to help the horses and even dogs in the Khumbu.”

You can learn more about Fox’s Everest climb at his website. And here’s a short video showing Fox treating the Sherpas’ beasts at Everest Base Camp.

As reported on Climbing Narc, Erik Weihenmayer recently teamed up with Charley Mace and Access Fund Executive Director Brady Robinson to accomplish his hardest route to date: The Naked Edge (5.11b) in Eldorado Canyon, CO.

Props to Cedar Wright and film crew for filming the seven pitches of sustained 5.11 climbing on November 5. Brady Robinson’s thoughts on the climb: “Climbing The Naked Edge with Erik and Charley was one of the highlights of my entire climbing career. He didn’t just get up it, he climbed it. Every single move. It was an honor to share that experience with him.”

Here’s the video, also available via the Access Fund.

The volunteer trail crew.

The AAC’s Sierra Nevada Section hosted its annual Fall Highball on the East Side over the weekend of November 7-8, and it was a rockin’ good time. A collaboration between the AAC, Friends of the Inyo, the Access Fund, the Eastern Sierra Cimbers’ Coalition, and local land managers from Inyo National Forest, the weekend kicked off with a morning of volunteer work at Peabody Boulders in the Buttermilks. With coffee and breakfast (provided by the Access Fund) to fuel them, volunteers spent a few hours cleaning up trash and protecting vegetation and habitat. “They kicked ass,” said Doug Robinson of the team of 70 volunteers.

On Saturday evening, Robinson gave a slide show to an SRO crowd of about 150, connecting the early days of bouldering on the East Side to modern alpinism in the Sierra. A silent auction and raffle raised more than $2,700 toward the effort to construct a permanent toilet in Buttermilk Country.

Doug Robinson, left, and Fred Glover, one of the organizers of the Fall Highball.

After a Sunday-morning informal coffee with local climbers and federal land managers back at the Peabody Boulders, the crowd spread out for a great day on the rock in perfect weather. Huge kudos to AAC member Darren Malloy of Friends of Inyo, whose efforts were vital to this event’s success. You can see a few more photos from the event at the Sierra Nevada Section’s web page.

The fifth edition of Alpine Briefs, an occasional online newsletter from AAJ editors Kelly Cordes and Dougald MacDonald, is now live: Alpine starts, a new Zion wall route, first ascents in Newfoundland, whipper videos, and much more.

Working on a trail causeway in Los Glaciares National Park, Patagonia. Photo by Rolando Garibotti

The second year of the AAC’s Patagonia Sustainable Trails Project has kicked off with a trail-restoration educational course for 17 Argentinean rangers from eight national parks across Patagonia. The course, held October 24 to November 1, was organized by AAC member Rolando Garibotti, directed by Max Ludington, a National Park Service (NPS) seasonal trail crew leader based out of Jackson Hole, and coordinated by Claudio Chehebar, director of the regional office for all Argentinean Patagonia national parks.

The nine-day course included more than 76 hours of fieldwork in Los Glaciares National Park, home of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Instructors focused on a number of techniques to help mitigate erosion on heavily damaged trails. This included building drains, water bars, causeways, wood steps, and rock steps. Only materials available in the area (logs and rocks) were used, and special importance was given to the longevity of the “structures” and sustainability of the trails. While the focus of the course was learning, a number of erosion-prevention structures were built along the trail leading to De Agostini base camp, on the approach to Cerro Torre. These included 14 water bars, 45 drains, 50 wood steps, 19 rock steps, 15 meters of causeway, 19 meters of fill, and 6.5 square meters of retention walls.

For this unique American-Argentinean collaboration, the instructors were James Bouknight, Nick Guillespie, Cullen Kirk, and Mark Loseth, all seasonal NPS trail crew leaders. Also helping during the course were Juanjo Landucci and Diego Oyarzun, both from El Chalten. With the exception of Oyarzun, these leaders also participated in the first cycle of the Patagonia Sustainable Trails Project, in late 2008.

Special thanks go to Carlos Zoratti, chief ranger for Seccional Lago Viedma, for all the help provided during the course. Also, special thanks to the El Chalten Chamber of Commerce, which kindly secured free lodging for all the participants in a number of generous local hotels: Albergue Rancho Grande, Cabañas Aires del Fitz, Hotel Inlandsis, Hosteria Senderos and Posada Lunajuin.

Following the course, work has continued on the Laguna de los Tres Trail, the approach to Fitz Roy’s east face. Weather permitting, this work will continue until early December. The projects completed last year have held up very well, despite powerful forces of erosion in the area—in one area, several cubic meters of dirt and rocks had moved off the trail during the winter. A full report on this year’s trail work will appear at this blog in mid-December.

This project has been made possible by a generous grant from Patagonia Inc. A report on the project’s first year can be found at the AAC website. You can watch a short video about the trail work at Patagonia’s Tin Shed web page.

—Rolando Garibotti

It’s not often that you’ll find such localized events on here, but the Adventure Film Festival is worth mentioning for all of us out there that share common ideals in living a lifestyle that embraces and embodies adventure. Specifically this year (the festival’s fifth), the Adventure Film Festival hits close to home: on Friday evening, Sender Films will premiere “Point of No Return,” the film project of Jonny Copp, Micah Dash and Wade Johnson during their fateful expedition on China’s Mt. Edgar in May. Jonny was the founder and festival director of Adventure Film, and an active and supportive member of the AAC climbing community.

Before the film begins, the AAC and all local climbers present will stop to recognize and thank the six men who quickly and selflessly traveled to China to assist in the search effort for their friends and colleagues: Eric Decaria, Mick Folari, Nick Martino, Nick Rosen, Steve Su and Pete Takeda. Their actions exemplified traits we hold dear in climbing and proudly bore witness to the brotherhood of the rope. Please join us in expressing our appreciation to our fellow climbers and friends.

If you’re around, the event is worth your time. More information on the Festival:

Every year the international Adventure Film selection committee chooses over thirty new films from approximately two hundred entries from around the world.  Awards Winners in nearly a dozen categories are selected, ranging from “Extreme Sport” to “Activism through Adventure.” Adventure Film, as it’s known, covers risks, mighty and absurd, the unknown and those experiences that bring us to the edges of our seats with our hands over our eyes or our fists in the air. We believe in the power of the story, especially the narratives of adventure and awakening, to change and challenge the world we live in.

For more information check out their website.

Tickets (one-day and full fest passes) are on sale here.

Check here for the latest film trailers.