American Alpine Club Grants
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