Patience is truly a virtue and mountains really are metaphors for life. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and without taking a chance, you will never know what sort of opportunities and doors will open. The Colorado Fourteeners High Bivys Project I completed over a 95 day period in 2011 is just that type of story. I camped overnight on top of each of the 58 Colorado Fourteeners, and I experienced some incredible sunsets, some difficult weather and lightning, but also some amazing views. I decided to take a lot of risk, I set some lofty goals, and I was looking for a high reward.

In our own way we should all try to accomplish something great, therefore transcend into a place nobody else has ever ventured before.  My accomplishment truly was a ‘first’, but realize that every time you try to take on a new challenge in your life, it is a ‘first’ for you, even if the feat has been done before. Whether it’s your first hike up Grays Peak, or a tough climb up the Diamond on Longs, it is still a first for you. We each know ourselves better than even our closest friends, spouses, or family members. Why?  Because you own your own body, you own your very own thoughts, you own your own goals and your own dreams. While I became the first to camp directly on the summit of every Colorado Fourteener, I chose such a challenging project because I had set a personal goal. I spent the night on one peak, then two, then three. Suddenly in a week or two I was ten or fifteen peaks in. My long-term goal wasn’t going to happen overnight, but one peak at a time was my strategy. Each peak was considered a ‘short term’ goal.

Your goals can be personal, professional, or family oriented, among a few of the choices you have. Start small with short-term goals, and those will often build up into long-term achievements. In the spirit of the AAC, you are reading this probably because you have goals that are climbing oriented. Use those goals to your advantage and apply the same work ethic towards your non-climbing life goals, and you will likely become very successful in anything you choose to do.

As a mountaineer, sponsored athlete, professional geographer, and researcher, I earned some of my early career success in research grants with the American Alpine Club. In 2008 and 2009, I earned two separate AAC Research Grants and spent the summer climbing Mount Rainier and Mount McKinley while collecting survey data. The information I collected was useful to the management of the climbing permit systems for both iconic peaks. Just recently in 2011, I became the first person to receive a third AAC research grant, where I have been assessing trail and route impacts on state high-points throughout the west, starting with comparing New Mexico’s two highest peaks (Wheeler and Walter) with Colorado’s two highest peaks (Elbert and Massive).

But the AAC doesn’t only award research grants. There are grants for climbing, conservation, preservation, and unique expedition objectives. Nearly $100,000 will be awarded in 2012 for aspiring alpinists who are all about supporting the ‘climbing way of life’ through various climbing endeavors. Do you have goals and dreams in mind that involve climbing?  Even a small AAC grant of $500 could mean the difference between you getting a chance to chase your short term goals and use those smaller goals to go after your larger goals.

Finally, tell other people about your goals, your achievements, and produce something to share with others.  Don’t just take the money and run, never to be heard from again. In my situation I write research articles, books, and trip reports. With my Bivys Project, I will be releasing a book titled: “Sleeping on the Summits: Colorado Fourteener High Bivys” (Westcliffe Publishing, Boulder) due out in Summer 2012. 

Good luck in all of your endeavors and remember, the possibilities are endless! Once you think you have reached your highest goal, a new opportunity may present itself and you should always embrace the challenge. When I finished my Bivys Project, I thought that was the end, but a new door opened. In 2012, I will be heading to climb Mount Everest, and a whole new set of challenges await.  Always embrace new challenges and chase new goals whole-heartedly.

Best for a safe and Happy New Year and a big year of climbing in 2012,

—Jon Kedrowski, AAC Member

AAC Research Grant Recipient 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Check out the other photos in this gallery by clicking the pic.

What began as a friendly favor to help fund a small medical clinic in rural Nepal has changed the lives of thousands residing in impoverished mountain villages all over the world. When Scott MacLennan realized $1 per person per year can staff a basic clinic in Nepal’s Rasuwa District, he founded the non-profit Mountain Fund in 2005 to support community-based initiatives that create sustainable healthcare, education and economic opportunities in low-income areas.

“Our approach is to discover those things that can be done today, with little funding and by local protagonists dedicated to their own communities,” says MacLennan. 

Each year his organization provides over 100 volunteers from 23 different countries housing, meals, staff support and access to communities where they can help save lives. Having managed non-profits for over 20 years, MacLennan has implemented an innovative system where volunteer donations, Medical Treks and partnerships with other non-profits maintains a reliable income stream to support community hospitals, schools, orphanages, day care centers and English language programs in Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, and El Salvador.

This year, the American Alpine Club partnered with Mountain Fund to provide safe, clean and comfortable lodging in Kathmandu for AAC Members—The Kathmandu Clubhouse. For $15 per day, Members receive airport pickup, wireless internet, breakfast and dinner. The two Clubhouses are centrally located and have a many bedrooms, a spacious living room, dining room, outside patio and plenty of exterior space for stretching and sorting gear. 

While in Nepal, give back to the community by volunteering for Mountain Fund:

• Koseli School provides 75 kids who live in the slums on the banks of the Bagmati River with good education, nutritious food and clean clothing for about $1.50 per student per day.

• Orchid Garden Day Care Center gives 170 kids from the poorest families a safe and nurturing place to play while their family works. “Before Orchid Garden many kids would be left at home with a slightly older sibling (an 8-year-old watching a 3-year-old for example) or in extreme cases, tied with a rope to the kitchen table and locked in a tiny, filthy flat for the day,” says MacLennan. “We give them good food every day and have nursery through first grade school there as well. It’s a really fun and lively place that the kids just love.”

• Helping Hands Community Hospital serves the poorest people in Kathmandu. With the support of several volunteers, Mountain Fund donates around $1,000 each month. “That’s big money in a country where the average wage is about $400 per person per year!” says MacLennan.

• Teach conversational English to using Rosetta Stone online (first time ever in Nepal) to men and women of all ages, Tibetan refuges and minorities.  MacLennan says, “The young people in the classes love it as they are already tech savvy and the older students like it as well since they are getting to know how to use a computer at the same time they are learning English. There are few options to learn to speak English well in Nepal. There are a ton of English schools taught by non-native speakers who turn out students who know some grammar, but can’t put a sentence together and speak with such an accent they can’t be understood. Good English is the key to jobs in a country so dependent on tourism. Again we are using our Western volunteers as coaches and mentors.”

• Three to four times per year, Mountain Fund coordinates Medical Treks to help the communities in need and to generate income to support the cost of the health clinics they operate. “It only costs $1.00 per person per year to staff a basic clinic,” says MacLennan. “That’s what got me hooked on the clinic work in the first place. Super low cost, super high impact.” 

• Over the past 10 years, Mountain Fund has started four clinics, one full hospital and supported the local schools in Rasuwa. Earlier this year, they started helping a school and opened a medical camp in the Chepang village near the Chitwan National Park. “The Chepang are a really marginalized group of people, denied even citizenship in Nepal they live as part-time farmers and part-time hunter gatherers.” PHOTO: At the medical camp in the Chepang village, Mountain Fund Board President Dr. Ari Stern saw 917 patients over three days.

• Lend a hand at the Ward 9 children’s center in Pokhara. For the past two years, Mountain Fund has provided hot lunch for kids who live in shanty homes on the government owned land.

—Thanks to Abbey Smith for getting in touch with Scott.

The following post is from Dr. John All, AAC Member and CBEE2011 Scientist. John and several others spent some time assisting the Peru National Park staff to create new facilities in the Llaca Valley of Huascaran National Park. His report below describes their work on new guesthouses and toilet facilities.

Soon after our arrival in Huaraz, Peru, the seventeen expedition members took a planning and acclimatization trip to Huascarán National Park’s Llaca Valley. While there, our expedition personnel were asked by Park Director Marco Arenas, our host, to provide expert advice regarding some of the infrastructure that was being developed—most notably for assistance with a new composting toilet facility.

Members of the CBEE group had experience with this topic thanks to past AAC projects.  Most notably, in July 2010, the AAC presented an international conference for scientists, planners and land managers entitled ‘Exit Strategies’ that dealt with managing human waste in the wild. Several of the CBEE climbers attended the conference, which covered all types of waste solutions, from individual pack-out products to moldering toilets. 

The proceedings are available for anyone online (www.americanalpineclub.org/p/exit-strategies) and an active Google group continues sharing knowledge of what works among researchers and parks managers.

Protecting water quality in this area is critical as it is the only reliable source of water—from glacial runoff—for the local populations, agricultural irrigation, and the local hydroelectric plant. This is in addition to providing water to arid regions of western Peru. In fact, UNESCO declared Huascarán National Park (HNP) critical enough to be designated the Huascarán Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site.  HNP is in the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain range in the world. “The importance of the site for biodiversity conservation is high” according to UNESCO.

The Mountain Institute observed that Huascarán National Park is the second most popular protected national area destination in Peru after Machu Picchu. Historically, tourism has been the most important economic activity in the region, although recently the mining sector has grown substantially.  Data show that tourism in Peru’s second largest source of foreign currency, so the pressures are high to continue expanding tourism resources in the Park.

THE LLACA VALLEY REFUGIO:

Originally built in the 1970’s by the Office of Glaciology and Water Resources, the Refugio was housing for building a safety dam on the lake. Now, for nearly thirty years, the Refugio has been leased to the Peruvian Guides Association as its base for training and testing new guides. 

Located at 14,500 feet, the Refugio is just a few hours drive from the city of Huaraz, and has become a well-known destination for hikers and for climbing training by both local guides and international visitors.  The Llaca Valley is the location for the technical/practical school for all guides run by the Association of Mountain Guides of Peru. The Refugio is also a camp for the peak Vallunaraju and an increasingly popular lake and glacier day and overnight trip for international tourist/trekkers.  During our visit we saw numerous Peruvian visitors who had come up the Valley for the day to see the mountains and glaciers. 

To accommodate increasing use, the Park is building new guesthouses in the Llaca Valley that will substantially increase the load on the Park’s resources.  There are also numerous campsites nearby, so ready access to park services such as toilets is critical to caretaking this fragile high elevation environment.

Based on environmental observations made as part of a land cover change research project led by Dr. All, the soils are thin and rocky and best support vegetation that is adapted to the high elevation. The climate is dominated by seasonal precipitation with long arid periods during the year.  This presents challenges for effective composing, percolation, and dealing with other impacts of human and foraging animal use.  The HNP personnel emphasized their commitment to preserving and protecting the environment in the Llaca Valley while accommodating increasing visitor use. 

The American Alpine Club was pleased to be asked to assist with the new composting toilet at Quebrada Llaca. We were very impressed by the initiative involved in this endeavor.  The toilet building that has been implemented is very effective. However, a few small inexpensive changes will lead to better results in the long run. 

Each of these recommendations was discussed with Huascarán National Park staff during our stay at the Refugio and many of them were made in consultation with the people who helped design and build the current facility.  Each suggestion will have minimal cost but will greatly improve the efficacy of the facility – especially as visitor numbers grow to this easily accessed and beautiful valley.  We will be pleased to provide follow-up assistance to Park personnel in Llaca Valley when we return in 2012.

 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE COMPOSTING TOILET:

Capacity: The first issue is that several toilets were built in each of the two rooms but the doors can be locked from the inside – often done when people are using the facility.  Unfortunately, this means that effectively there are only two toilets even though there are facilities for five people to use the bathroom at the same time if the rooms are unlocked and segregated by sex.  We recommend signing the doors to segregate the rooms and then limiting the ability to lock them from the inside so that more than one person can use them at the same time.

Composting effectiveness: Regarding the composting toilets, there are several ways in which these can be improved. 

First, the choice of composting material is important.  It is most effective to use a pH neutral wood and mix 50% wood chips with 50% duff to increase micro-organism populations in the compost.  The excrement to compost ratio should be roughly equal and so there should be a switch to a smaller cup to scoop out the mix than is currently being used.  Additionally, a sign should be added that says something to the effect of ‘place only one cup of mix per use’ so that the correct amount of compost mix is added.  Finally, the mixture itself currently is too dry to compost effectively.  Some water should be added to increase the moisture content or perhaps more urine should be diverted into the mixture. 

For the toilet facility as a whole, due to the small area for the compost mixture, a removable container should be placed under each toilet so that the mixture can be removed and thus have more time to be rendered inert in a remote facility – this suggestion was made by Park personnel and is very important for long term success of the facility.  A small composting pen should be built near the toilet facility for continued longer-term composting.  A wall and shrubs/trees can be used to block this additional area from public view.  

The temperature of cooking mixture should be tested weekly to ensure that is remains above 50 degrees Celsius. This will kill any potential biological pathogens in the excrement and compost so that it can safely be used as a nutrient supplement for planting.

Urine separation: Urine is currently separated in the male section of the facility and allowed to pool just below the building.  Instead, the urine should be directed down the hill and into a small trough so that sunlight can render it inert. The trough should be far enough away that smell is not an issue and should drain into thick duff during rainfall. 

Note:  All photos were taken by Ellen Lapham in July, 2011.

For more information about this project, please contact Dr. John All, john.all@wku.edu or Ellen Lapham, AAC Director and Conservation Committee Chairman, elapham@americanalpineclub.org

The following post if from Carolyn Stwertka, CBEE2011 Climber-Scientist and generally awesome AAC Member. It was composed at the behest of shejumps.com—an organization dedicated to increasing female participation in outdoor activities. We’re lucky to be able to post it ourselves, before shejumps.com.

My lifelong dream is to be a badass PhD Scientist-Mountaineer who understands complex environmental phenomenon from the framework of physics. Or I could just say I want to know why stuff happens, where it happens, and where I want to be when it happens. For example if it is a snowstorm, I want to know where the most snow will fall and where it will be the safest to ski. Or if it is a bad air quality day in Salt Lake City and people are being hospitalized due to toxic air, why the air quality is bad, which pollutant is causing the bad air, and how I can help solve the air pollution problem. Driven by these forces—the desire to be in the snow, and the desire to save the world—I embarked on my first dream trip, to Peru: The American Alpine Club’s 2011 Cordillera Blanca Environmental Expedition.

The American Alpine Club (AAC) wanted to get climbers involved in scientific field-programs to extend the capacity of scientists to study remote high altitude locations. Our goal was to build a baseline data set of how pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from urbanization, burning, combustion, and mining makes it into the mountains. Global CO₂ concentrations have risen 36% since the pre-industrial times (NOAA, 2011) and almost all of this increase is due to human activities (IPCC, 2007)! As a greenhouse gas, increased CO₂ concentrations are preventing the earth from proper ventilation—providing a threat to our largest freshwater sources left on this earth: Glaciers. To understand this story of a changing environment the science team needed equipment, atmospheric modeling, and field-assistants. I was the science team leader in charge of sampling for carbon dioxide (CO₂). This was a great experience to design a field program using my knowledge from my master’s research. I learned a ton about communicating to my team members and how to plan for bad weather. The protocol was for each of eight climbing teams to measure CO₂ twice a day in the high mountains while others took measurements in the valley base at 10,000ft. This way I got CO₂ measurements on a horizontal gradient on different peaks in different valleys to test my hypothesis that CO₂ concentrations depend on where the wind is coming from. 

I have 40 flask samples from my colleagues and I am just waiting for funding and I will be able to analyze my CO₂ samples at the University of Utah’s Isotope research facility. I’ll be able to determine what the concentration of CO₂ is, and whether the CO₂ is from gasoline burning or wood burning. I can proudly say I took a CO₂ sample on the tallest mountain in Peru: Huascaran Sur at 22,200′ above sea level! [Ed. The funding has been obtained and the samples are being analyzed right now.]

I ended up attempting 4 peaks and summiting 3. I want to say ‘thank you!! to [AAC Industry Partners] Patagonia, & Black Diamond as well as Kirkham’s Sporting Goods in Salt Lake City, Starbucks, and the Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute for donations to the fundraiser Altabird.com held for this expedition.  Without the donations and support of Altabird.com, the successful fundraiser would not have been possible!

My jump in the photo is a shout out to those who make their dreams come true…and ‘yes’ next time I will have skis!  What do you do when your dream comes true?

AAC – Peru 2011 from Will Eccleston on Vimeo.

The American Alpine Club has just announced three new position operating out of the main office in Golden, CO.

The first—the Conservation & Advocacy Director—we announced ten days ago on Inclined.

 But now, we’re also hiring a Rocky Mountain Regional Coordinator and a Membership/Community Programs Assistant.

So read through the Job Descriptions and send your resume and cover letter to jobs@americanalpineclub.org today! We want the absolute best to fill these positions.