American Alpine Club Grants

Publication Year: 2008.

The American Alpine Club provides resources for climbers and explorers to attempt new challenges, conduct scientific research, and conserve mountain environments. The AAC awards nearly $40,000 annually, although the size and number of awards vary from year to year. In 2007, the McNeill-Nott Award was created in honor of Karen McNeill and Sue Nott; the award is cosponsored by Mountain Hardwear. For more information on all the grant programs, please visit www.americanalpineclub.org.

Grant recipients’ original objectives for 2007 are reported below; in some cases, they may have decided to attempt other objectives. Expeditions labeled with an asterisk (*) are reported in this Journal.

LYMAN SPITZER CUTTING EDGE AWARDS (2007)

Jonny Copp and Micah Dash, Boulder, Colorado*

Unclimbed Shafat Fortress in the Zanskar

Mountains of India

$3,000

Scott DeCapio, Estes Park, Colorado*

Attempt on K7 West in Pakistan $2,750

Samuel Johnson, Anchorage, Alaska*

Big-wall route on unclimbed “Latok II ¾” in Pakistan $1,000

Cory Richards, Canmore, Alberta

Southeast face of Huantsán in Peru $1,500

Dave Turner, Sacramento, California*

Solo attempt on new big-wall route on Cerro Escudo, Chile $1,000

Josh Wharton, Rifle, Colorado*

Colin Haley, Mercer Island, Washington

New route on Cerro Torre, Patagonia $400

North ridge of Latok I in Pakistan $2,750

MCNEILL-NOTT AWARDS (2007)

Jessica Drees, Seattle, Washington*

New routes in Fox Jaw Cirque, Greenland $3,000

Joseph Puryear, Leavenworth, Washington*

New route on Mt. Siguniang in China $1,500

Jonathan Sullivan, Castle Rock, Colorado*

Unclimbed 5,000-meter-plus peaks in China $1,500

MOUNTAIN FELLOWSHIPS (FALL 2006)

Michael Bromberg, Crested Butte, Colorado*

New routes and ski descents near the “Backside Glacier” in Alaska $400

Kyle Dempster, Salt Lake City, Utah*

Big-wall climb in the Gran Sabana area of Venezuela

$800 (REI Challenge Fund)

Jessica Drees, Seattle, Washington*

New rock routes in southeastern Greenland $800

Benjamin Venter, Truckee, California

Climbs in Patagonia $800

Erin Whorton, Seattle, Washington*

New rock routes in southeastern Greenland $800

MOUNTAIN FELLOWSHIPS (SPRING 2007)

Brad Cabot, Seattle, Washington*

Unclimbed peaks in western Greenland $850 (REI Challenge Fund)

Ian Nicholson, Seattle, Washington*

New route on the Blade in British Columbia’s

Waddington Range

$800 (John R. Hudson Fund)

Matt Othmer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania*

East face of Cerro Aratiyope in Venezuela $850 (John R. Hudson and Rick Mosher funds)

Althea Rogers, Troy, New York*

Unclimbed peaks in western Greenland $850 (REI Challenge Fund)

Kelly Ryan, Port Potter Valley, California*

Unclimbed peaks in western Greenland $850

Eli Stein, Los Angeles, California

Youth meet in Dolomites of Italy $340

ZACK MARTIN BREAKING BARRIERS GRANT (2007)

Fabrizio Zangrilli, Boulder, Colorado

Attempt on a new route on K2 and work on a new girls’ school in Khane, Pakistan $1,765

2007 RESEARCH GRANTS

The Arthur K. Gilkey Memorial Research Fund, the William Putnam Research Fund, and the Bedayn Research Fund

Teresa Chuang, Berkeley, California

Shifts in species ranges as a result of climate change $1,500

Julie Crawford, Mancos, Colorado

Continuing work on the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA)

$1,400

Jennifer Geib, Columbia, Missouri

How alpine plants’ pollination “niche breadth” may affect their response to pollinator density $1,000

Jeanette Hagan, Santa Barbara, California

Evolution of the central Sierra Nevada frontal fault zone $1,000

Timothy Jang, Sylmar, California

Injury and treatment patterns of Southern

California climbers

$500

Phillip Keating, Bloomington, Indiana

Mapping high-elevation polyepis forests in Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserve in northeastern Ecuador $750

Stephen Matter, Cincinnati, Ohio

Rate of tree-line rise on Jumpingpound Ridge in Alberta, Canada $1,000

Ryan McKeon, Bozeman, Montana

Relationship between Quaternary glaciation and modern topology in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado; implications for an arid “glacial buzz saw” $1,000

Erich Pietzsch, Bozeman, Montana

Wet slab avalanches in Glacier National Park,

Montana

$1,500

Jeremy Shakun, Corvallis, Oregon

Developing a cosmogenic chronology of tropical glaciation in the Peruvian Andes $750