Our “Climb-munity” gatherings continued to be popular and well attended throughout the year. These included ice climbing in Cold Stream Canyon near Truckee, rock climbing at Pinnacles National Park, a June weekend on Donner Summit, and our much-loved Pinecrest event with Royal and Liz Robbins and Tom Frost. An outstanding presentation by Freddie Wilkinson highlighted our annual holiday dinner in Berkeley. Freddie’s “Mountain/Story” wove tales of his own adventures with stories of the Sherpas at the heart of the 2008 K2 tragedy and Bradford Washburn’s legacy of work in the Alaskan mountains.

The section’s conservation activities included a weeklong stewardship project with the National Park Service in Tuolumne Meadows and hosting the Western Regional Fall Highball Craggin’ Classic in Bishop. With national sponsorship from C.A.M.P. USA, this ever-popular event drew more than 250 attendees and contributed more than 400 volunteer hours to cleaning up the Buttermilks. At the climbers’ reception hosted by New Belgium Brewing, over $8,000 was raised for Western Region Live Your Dream grants. The party featured a joint slideshow by Matt Segal and Will Stanhope, as well as the 2013 Reel Rock Film Tour. 

Members, rangers, and climbers alike enjoyed our free climbers’ coffee every Sunday morning in Yosemite. As part of the climbers’ interpretive program, AAC Yosemite Committee Chair Linda McMillan and her husband, Tom, continued to lead the free Saturday evening slideshow series in Yosemite, generating goodwill and exposure for the Club.