AAC, New England Section. Our Section continues to grow, and in 2002 membership increased to 510 from 486 in 2001. Eighty people attended our Seventh Annual New England Section black tie event. We brought our Henderson Film Fund to $4,000, enough to begin serious work on our plans for archiving and distribution of the motion pictures of the New England technical and ice climbing made by the late Kenneth Henderson in the 1930s. Andy Tuthill of Hanover, New Hampshire, gave an elegant and humor-filled account of his 30 years of climbing from Pawtuckaway (a boulder pile in southern New Hampshire, known to all beginners) to the Karakoram (much more than a pile and experienced only by the intrepid few).

Our Rick Merritt (with Nevada’s Bill Guida) climbed in Ecuador, where they reached the summits of Pasachoa, Guagua Pachincha, and North Illiniza, only later to be stormed off Cotopaxi. In the Sierra Nevada’s Evolution Range Paul Dale and Rick Buirkle climbed Mt. Darwin by the northeast ridge on a 10-day outing without encountering any other member of their species. In the Khumbu region of Nepal, Tom Boydston reached 20,000 feet on Ama Dablam (22,411') as a member of a successful multinational team led by Dan Mazur of Summit Climbs. Eric Engberg and his son Zeb climbed Mt. Hood with a few days at Smith Rocks in Oregon and, back home, with many more days at our local Rumney, where Dad led an “easy,” he says, 12b/c. Finally, Nancy Savickas, Trish Adams, and Dick Doucette met in Switzerland to try the Eiger’s Mittelegi Ridge, but owing to generally foul weather had to be satisfied with a climb of the Monch and later the rainy day amenities over in Chamonix.

William C. Atkinson, Chair, and Nancy Savickas, Vice Chair