The government of Pakistan has announced that its bargain rates on mountaineering fees will be maintained for the 2010 climbing season. Under the discount plan, which has been in place for the past several years in an effort to lure climbers to the troubled country, there is no fee for … Read more…
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 … Read more…
According to news reports, the Indian defense ministry has agreed to open as many as 104 mountains in Ladakh to climbers. The final decision must come from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Recently, officials relaxed the Protected Areas Permit Regime to allow foreigners to visit the village of Turtuk in … Read more…
Jon Kedrowski from Texas State University spent more than a month on Denali this past season—including a trip to the summit via the West Buttress—in order to conduct a study entitled “Climbers’ Perceptions on McKinley: Crowding Concerns, Hazards, and Climber Demographics.” The researcher handed out written surveys to climbers at … Read more…
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 … Read more…
The AAC and a select group of nonprofits and government agencies are teaming up to host an international conference on managing human waste in wilderness settings. The three-day “Exit Strategies” meeting will be held at the American Mountaineering Center and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado next summer: July 30 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
The Front Range Section of the AAC, along with the Access Fund and Rocky Mountain National Park, held a super-successful ninth annual Lumpy Trails Day on October 18. Nearly 50 volunteers gathered to work on the climber’s trail to beautiful Sundance Buttress at Lumpy Ridge. Click here to visit the … Read more…
We are excited to announce that Jed Williamson, past president of the AAC and celebrated member of our community, has recently been awarded the first annual Charles (Reb) Gregg Award for Wilderness Risk Management. View the press release here. Congratulations, Jed.
The AAC is teaming up with Erratic Rock, Leave No Trace, MSR, and Outdoor Research on a great new initiative to recycle fuel canisters in Chilean Patagonia. The program will be headquartered at Erratic Rock: the Puerto Natales–based hostel, guide service, and all-around base camp for climbers and trekkers in … Read more…
Access Pan America is a new organization designed to share ideas and resources for climbing access problems throughout the Western Hemisphere. Co-organized by AAC member and Access Fund founder Armando Menocal, the group held an organizational meeting in August in Squamish, British Columbia. Activists from seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, … Read more…
Rolando Garibotti narrates a short video about the Patagonia trails project, cosponsored by Patagonia Inc. and the AAC, at the latest incarnation of the Tin Shed, Patagonia’s superb multimedia collection of climbing, surfing, skiing, and fishing stories. Learn more about this four-year project to build sustainable climber and hiker trails … Read more…
In 2007, a group of American Alpine Club women planned to travel to Pakistan to help organize and teach a Pakistani Women’s Climbing Camp, in conjunction with the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP). That plan was postponed in the wake of the violent siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad … Read more…
Denali National Park mountaineering ranger Brandon Latham describes his experience working with PhuNuru Sherpa on Denali’s high-mountain climbing patrol during the month of June—a climbing exchange sponsored by the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation. The South District of Denali National Park is the starting point for most expeditions heading for Mt. … Read more…
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. Then I noticed the appalling footwear of several other porters hiking nearby…
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.
Both the CMC and AAC actively promote conservation in mountain environments. Our colleagues at the National Snow and Ice Data Center have been working with a few scientists to take current photos of glaciers that appear in the NSIDC’s collection of historic images (the NSIDC allowed us to use some … Read more…