Want to climb in Alaska? Argentina? Africa? If you’re 25 or younger, the AAC’s Mountain Fellowship grants can help you attempt the climbs of your dreams. Mountain Fellowships are awarded twice each year, and the next deadline is coming up fast: April 1.

Recent Mountain Fellowship winners have climbed new routes in Chile, British Columbia, and Malawi. Could you be next? Find out more and download an application here.

Temporary repairs to the Piedra Grande hut on Pico de Orizaba.

The Mexican Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing (FMDMyE) is working to repair the roof of the Refugio Piedra Grande on Pico de Orizaba, which is North America’s third-highest mountain and a popular training climb for U.S. and Canadian mountaineers. The Piedra Grande hut is located at about 14,000 feet on the 18,490-foot volcano near Mexico City; it serves as base camp for the standard Jamapa Glacier route on the north side of the peak.

In February, members of FMDMyE made two trips to the hut to complete preliminary repairs to the roof, which has been badly damaged by high winds, causing numerous leaks. In May, the president of the FMDMyE, Alfredo Velázquez, plans to lead another group to complete more permanent repairs. However, the federation has raised only about one-third of the estimated budget for the job, and is seeking additional funding.

Contributions for the repair of the Piedra Grande hut can be sent to the FMDMyE account in Mexico:

Bank: HSBC
CLABE (routing number): 021180040380302196
Account: 4038030219
Federacion Mexicana de Deportes de Montaña y Escalada, A.C.

Make some popcorn, pop open a frosty beverage, and settle in for half an hour in front of the computer. This video trip report is well worth your time.

Mason Earle, a 2009 AAC Mountain Fellowship winner, traveled to Chile’s Torres del Paine in January and February with Britons Pete Rhodes and George Ullrich to attempt an all-free route on the El Cap–size east face of Cerro Catedral. The trio of young climbers planned to start up La Escoba de Dios and then strike off for a corner and crack system to the left. In the end, they climbed 15 pitches (nine of them new) and did some very impressive free climbing (several 5.12 pitches) despite horrendous conditions. You can read a news story about the attempt by AAJ associate editor Lindsay Griffin here. The video below, produced by Pete Rhodes, offers a great look at the action, complete with miserable cave living, jumar whippers, nasty spindrift, and some very serious climbing.

Incidentally, this same Patagonian peak was the scene of an award-winning film by AAC member John Catto, who filmed his teammates Charlie Fowler, Pete Gallagher, and Max Kendall as they completed the first ascent of La Escoba de Dios in 1992. You can get a taste of the film via this old National Geographic Explorer clip at YouTube. Meanwhile, check out Pete Rhodes’ superb film of the 2010 expedition:

The striking upper northeast face of Mt. Ambition in British Columbia. McNeill-Nott Award winnes Nate Farr and Blake Herrington will attempt the north ridge, visible along the sun-shadow line in upper right. Photo by John Scurlock

The AAC has selected three expeditions to receive 2010 McNeill-Nott Awards. These annual grants, cosponsored by Mountain Hardwear, preserve the memory and spirit of Karen McNeill and Sue Nott, who died on Mt. Foraker in 2006. This year, three grants totaling $5,000 have been awarded to small teams planning adventuresome new routes.

In late spring, Nate Farr of Camas, WA, and Blake Herrington of Denver, CO, will attempt the north ridge of Mt. Ambition in the remote Spectrum group of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains. This peak has had only one previous ascent, and the mile-long, mostly technical north ridge likely has never been attempted. The majority of the mountains in the area are unclimbed, and if the two climbers have time they hoped to attempt the first ascent of other peaks.

In April, Clint Helander and Seth Holden of Anchorage, AK, will return to the Revelation Mountains in Alaska, where they’ve already done the first ascents of the Ice Pyramid (2009) and Exodus (2008). This summer, the duo hopes to complete the south ridge of the Angel, a line attempted six times by the well-known climber David Roberts; the peak has only been climbed once. They also may attempt an unclimbed peak called the Apocalypse (the highest unclimbed summit in the Revelations) and the first ascent of the west face of Mt. Mausolus.

Mike Ybarra of Woodland Hills, CA, and Seth Timpano of Lewiston, MT, will attempt the southeast face of Singu Chuli (“Fluted Peak”), a 6,501-meter mountain in the heart of the Annapurna Sanctuary of Nepal. Although this peak has four known routes (only one of which has been repeated), the direct route up the fluted southeast face is believed to be unclimbed.

Created with the support of Mountain Hardwear, which sponsored both Karen McNeill and Sue Nott, the McNeill-Nott Awards seek to preserve these two climbers’ spirit by funding amateur climbers exploring new routes or unclimbed peaks. Special attention is given to projects that have strong exploratory and adventuresome mountaineering components. Click here to learn more or download an application.

Renan Ozturk below the "Missing Tooth," the high point of his 2009 attempt on the "Tooth Traverse" above the Ruth Gorge. Ozturk will return in 2010 with the help of a Spitzer Award from the AAC. Photo by Zack Smith.

The AAC has selected five expeditions to receive its 2010 Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Awards. A total of $12,000 will be divided among the five small American teams, which will attempt lightweight, state-of-the-art climbs from Alaska to China.

“We had a really great applicant pool this year, including for the first time several all-women’s teams,” said Paul Gagner, chair of the Spitzer Awards Committee. “The AAC is psyched to be supporting such impressive expeditions.”

Lorna Illingworth from Portland, OR, is teaming up with Madaleine Sorkin from Boulder, CO, and Emily Stifler from Bozeman, MT, to attempt the first complete free ascent of the Original Route (VI 5.9+ A3) on the southeast face of Mt. Proboscis. Avoiding a previous free-climbing team’s traverse to a neighboring route, the three women expect to add several pitches of 5.12 climbing to the remote 2,000-foot wall in Canada’s Logan Mountains.

In early fall, Dylan Johnson of Santa Monica, CA, will travel to Sichuan Province, China, with Josh Wharton of Rifle, CO, aiming for the first ascent of Seerdengpu (5,592m) via its north buttress. This striking line ascends a 1,200-meter granite buttress, followed by 600 meters of alpine terrain. The two men plan to attempt an ultra-light, single-push ascent.

Renan Ozturk from Boulder, CO, is returning to the Alaska Range with Zack Smith from Boulder and Freddie Wilkinson of Madison, NH, hoping to complete the “Tooth Traverse” above the Ruth Gorge. Ozturk and Smith attempted this traverse in 2009, starting at Espresso Gap and crossing over the Sugar Tooth and Eye Tooth. If the three men can make it over Bear’s Tooth this May, they will need to ascend the unclimbed south face of Moose’s Tooth to complete the traverse.

Cory Richards of Red Lodge, MT, will join teammates Stephan Siegrist of Interlaken, Switzerland, and Graham Zimmerman from Edmonds, WA, to attempt the north face of Chamlang (7,319m) in Nepal. This 2,000-meter face has only been climbed once, when Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott reached the lower east summit. In the autumn of 2010, the American-Swiss expedition will attempt the direct central spur to the main western summit.

This fall, Freddie Wilkinson of Madison, NH, will attempt an alpine-style ascent of the south face of Nuptse (7,800m) with his longtime climbing partners Ben Gilmore from Jackson, WY, and Kevin Mahoney from Madison, NH. The team will attempt either a new route on the left side of Nuptse’s enormous south wall or an alpine-style second ascent of the route Moonlight Sonata on the southeast spur.

Winners of the annual Lyman Spitzer Awards are chosen by a committee of three veteran climbers with vast experience in first ascents and expeditionary climbing: Paul Gagner (chair), Jared Ogden, and Jack Tackle.

The Spitzer grants are made possible by a generous donation from longtime AAC member Lyman Spitzer Jr. To learn more about the Spitzer Awards or download an application, click here.

Jed Brown, Kyle Dempster, and Bruce Normand (L to R) in front of the north face of Xuelian West. Courtesy of Jed Brown

A huge climb in northern China by Kyle Dempster and teammates Jed Brown and Bruce Normand is one of five nominees for this year’s Piolets d’Or. Dempster received a 2009 Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award from the AAC for this expedition, which also included American Jared Vilhauer; the team completed several major new routes in the Chinese Tien Shan.

As their final climb of the trip, Dempster, Brown, and Normand did the first ascent of Xuelian West (6,422m).  The three men completed an alpine-style ascent of the 2,650-meter north face during a five-day round trip. Their route, the Great White Jade Heist, went at M6 WI5 5.7 R. Xuelian West is a satellite of 6,627-meter Xuelian, which has only been climbed once.

The remaining four climbs nominated for the Piolets d’Or are:

• A new route on the southeast face of 8,201-meter Cho Oyu in Nepal by Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko.

• First ascent of the direct north face of Chang Himal (6,750m) in Nepal by Britons Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman.

• First ascent of Peak 6,134m in the Minya Konka (Gongga Shan) massif of China, by Russians Mikhail Mikhailov and Alexander Ruchkin.

• New route on the north face of Peak Pobeda (7,439m) in Kyrgyzstan, by Russian climbers Vitaly Gorelik and Gleb Sokolov.

The 18th annual Piolets d’Or ceremony and festival will be held April 7–10 in Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy. To learn more, visit the Piolets d’Or website.

Each year, the AAC grants a total of $12,000 through Lyman Spitzer Cutting-Edge Awards for lightweight attempts on new routes in the world’s greatest ranges. Winners of the 2010 awards will be announced this week.

Jim Goodwin on his first peak, at age 9.

American Alpine Club member Jim Goodwin, who joined the club in 1938, will celebrate his 100th birthday on March 8. Goodwin lives in Keene Valley, New York, in the heart of the Adirondacks, where he did his first climbing and enjoyed much of his life in the mountains.

As a teenager, Goodwin completed what was probably the first winter ascent of Gothics, one of the Adirondacks’ most challenging peaks. That summer, he began rock climbing with John Case (later president of the AAC), and Goodwin eventually did numerous new routes in the Dacks, including chopping steps up the famous Chapel Pond ice slab for its first ascent in 1936. He also hand-built trails and worked as a guide in the High Peaks. Goodwin climbed throughout the American West and in the Canadian Rockies, and his famous climbing partners included Fred Beckey, Fritz Wiessner, and AAC honorary president Bill Putnam.

During World War II, Goodwin taught climbing to troops of the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale in Colorado and Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. He served as a medic in Italy during the mountain troops’ famous assaults on Riva Ridge and Mt. Belevedere.

Goodwin by a plaque commemorating his cutting of the Porter Trail in 1924, at age 14.

Lyndy Burdet, who joined the AAC in the mid-1950s with sponsorship from Goodwin, still talks to him every few weeks. “He is so amazing and so sharp,” she said.

Goodwin’s son, Tony, and his brother have published their father’s memoirs, called And Gladly Guide: Reflections on a Life in the Mountains. Copies are available for $25 (post-paid), with all proceeds benefiting the Adirondack Forty-Sixers and other nonprofits supported by their father. To get a copy, send a check to Tony Goodwin, 26 Bark Eater Way, Keene, NY 12942.

Bradford and Barbara Washburn atop Mt. Bertha in 1940.

Bradford Washburn will be inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame on February 25. Washburn, who died in 2007 at the age of 96, was the pioneering mountaineer, photographer, mapmaker, and museum director for whom the American Mountaineering Museum in Colorado is named.

During his many expeditions to Alaska, Washburn led the first ascent of the West Buttress of Denali (now the standard route up North America’s highest peak), as well as the first ascents of Mt. Sanford, Mt. Hayes, Mt. Bertha, Mt. Silverthrone,  Mt. Dickey, and other major summits. His remarkable aerial photographs of Denali and other peaks are still used by climbers to plan new routes.

Along with Washburn, the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame will be inducting three-time Iditarod sled-dog race winner Lance Mackey, World Eskimo Indian Olympics champion Reggie Joule, and Olympic snowboard medalist Rosey Fletcher.

L to R: Renan Ozturk, Cedar Wright, Conrad Anker, Jennifer Lowe-Anker, Pete Athans, Matt Segal, Sam Elias, and Emily Harrington. Photo by Dan Gambino

When I received my invite to the AAC Annual Dinner, my initial thought was, “Do I belong?” I was under the impression that I had no place attending a fancy dinner with some old crusty climbers. Then I started thinking about what it would mean to be in a room with some of the most influential climbers in history. Royal Robbins, Lynn Hill, Conrad Anker, the list goes on. These were the people who established and defined the sport, the ones who paved the way for my generation to push our own personal limits and take the sport even further. I decided that this event would be a wonderful opportunity for me to meet some of these legends and open my eyes to the historical aspects of the sport I have made my life out of.

The experience was eye-opening, to say the least. I was overwhelmed and humbled by the presence of such great individuals. Jim Collins, the keynote speaker of the night, gave an inspiring and captivating speech about the values and ideals that we cherish as climbers. He emphasized the importance of partnership and humility, two key ingredients to being successful, not only in climbing or business, but also in life. He spoke about the AAC in terms of an organization that brings us all together as climbers and supports our common goals to succeed, while promoting the importance of community. I was inspired by what he had to say, and I began to think about the need for these ideas to be translated to the younger generation.

The AAC is doing great things for our sport in terms of conservation, education, and advocacy. It is important that this organization reach out to the younger generation of climbers in order to further instill these ideals. I am pretty sure that I was the youngest one at the dinner. It was a wonderful experience, but I am hoping to see more young climbers at next year’s AAC dinner. This event can become cross-generational and bring together climbers from all age groups to share and promote the principles that founded our sport. We, the younger generation, need to look to those who came before us, learn from their mistakes and triumphs, and continue to progress the sport with the same passion from which it began.

Emily Harrington, 23, is a 5.14 climber and multitime national champion in sport climbing who lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Beautiful red granite on El Marinero. Photo by Wagner Machado

Ryan Huetter, who received a 2009 Mountain Fellowship Award for young climbers from the AAC, has climbed a 1,000-foot new route in El Cajón de Arenales in Argentina, with Brazilian partner Wagner Machado. Huetter climbed the North Tower of Paine earlier this season and then traveled to Arenales, where he and Machado completed the all-free new route. You can read his trip report at the AAC website.

Mountain Fellowships are awarded twice each year to climbers 25 and under to help them complete climbs or expeditions they might not otherwise be able to attempt. To learn more or download an application, click here.