AAC, New England Section. The highlight of formal activity was the Section’s Sixth Annual Dinner, a black-tie event attended by 93 members and their guests. Everyone, as seems usual, had a good time, and we increased our Henderson Film Fund to $3,000. This is enough funding to start serious planning for archiving and distribution.

John Middendorf from Flagstaff, Arizona, and of big wall Fame, gave an exciting digitally displayed account of big wall climbing around the globe. John was conveniently available at Harvard attending the Graduate School of Design. Hardie Truesdale of the Gunks exhibited many of his beautiful digitally rendered photographs of “The Gunks and Beyond.” We auctioned off one photo, and Hardie was happy to have sold several others.

Signed copies of Ed Webster’s Snow in the Kingdom were available for sale, and a special- expedition-signed edition was auctioned. Phil Erard of New York was the high bidder for what he deemed a real steal. He told us he would take it to his next New York Section Dinner and “auction it there for five times the price—and that’s called arbitrage’,” he said.

Other items of interest to report for the Section, which increased by 54 members in 2001, included remembering our own Kenneth Henderson, who died at age 96 in September. He was celebrated in Lebanon Center, New Hampshire, on October 13. Representing the AAC were Jed Williamson, Sam Streibert, and Bill Atkinson, who offered remembrances.

Al Hospers of North Conway continues to e-publish and seeks subscribers to his weekly up-country climbing report at www.neclimbs.com. Out West our Rick Merritt, with New York’s Bill Guida, reports having climbed Idaho’s highest, Mt. Borah (12,662'), by the “Chicken Out” ridge where smoke from wild fires compromised the summit view. Eric Engberg, characteristically, flashed an all-encompassing 10-day California trip with his son Zeb, taking in Lover’s Leap, Tuolumne Meadows (Fairview Dome), Yosemite Valley (Royal Arches), Rock Creek, and the Buttermilks near Bishop.

Nancy Savickas, Makoto Takeuchi, and Dick Doucette met Isabel Bey in Switzerland and together explored the Jungfraujoch and climbed many limestone routes in southern Switzerland. I (Bill), with the patient support of Brian Fulton, elevated my old bones to 3000m on the Aiguille du Moine (3412m) from the Couvercle Hut and to the summit of the Aiguille du Tour (3542m), in the Chamonix area.

Bill Atkinson, Chair, and Nancy Savickas, Vice Chair