AAC Announces Spitzer Grants

[dougald]

AAC Backs Four Expeditions

 

Four teams of climbers have won the American Alpine Club’s Lyman Spitzer Climbing Grants for cutting-edge climbing, funding expeditions from Alaska to Uzbekistan. The annual Lyman Spitzer awards provide some of the largest grants available to American climbers who are pushing the frontiers of mountaineering and exploration around the globe. The four teams in 2006 will split $12,000 in cash and $10,000 worth of equipment donated by Cascade Designs, makers of MSR, SealLine and Therm-a-Rest.

 

• Mike Schaefer, Micah Dash and Eric Decaria will make an alpine-style attempt on the direct east face of Uli Biaho in Pakistan, after pioneering a 2,000-foot wall just to reach the base of their main objective.

 

• Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes will tackle the 5,000-foot north ridge of Pakistan’s Shingu Charpa, a stunning line that has seen several attempts in recent years.

 

• Mike and Andy Libecki will explore and climb in remote valleys of Uzbekistan, where photos of the unclimbed granite walls and pyramids caused Libecki to exclaim, “God must have created this part of the planet just for obsessed climbers.

 

• Will Mayo and Canadian Maxime Turgeon will attempt an unclimbed line on the south face of Mt. Foraker in Alaska.

 

For more information, contact Jason Manke at the American Alpine Club: jmanke@americanalpineclub.org or 303-384-0110, ext. 19.

[Chad_A]

Very cool; good to see that new activity is happening in the Alaska Range.

 

They're all inspiring, indeed.