The American Alpine Membership has introduced the 2024 Slicing Edge Grant recipients. The Slicing Edge Grant continues the Membership’s 120-year custom by funding people planning expeditions to distant areas that includes unexplored mountain ranges, unclimbed peaks, tough new routes, first-free ascents, or related world-class pursuits.
5 recipients have been awarded a complete of $20,000 for this cycle, with aims that includes a low-impact type and leave-no-trace mentality seemed upon with favor. Black Diamond Gear is a proud sponsor of the Slicing Edge Grant and a key associate in supporting cutting-edge alpinism.
“This yr we’re additionally grateful for the help of huge wall luminary John Middendorf,” the membership stated in a press launch. Under are the 5 recipients of this yr’s award.
Chantel Astorga will obtain $4,000 to aim the Direct East Face of Mount Shivling (6543m), situated within the Gangotri Valley of the Garhwal Himalayas of India. Astorga and her group had tried the route in 2023. Astorga has beforehand acquired the Slicing Edge Grant and McNeill-Nott Grant, and has put up the primary ascent of the southwest face of Nilkanth, additionally within the Central Garhwal. She is understood for her first ski descent of the Seattle Ramp variation to the West Rib of Denali, and her first feminine solo of the Cassin Ridge.
Dane Steadman will obtain $3,000 to aim the primary ascent of Yashkuk Sar, within the northern Karakoram, from its north facet. The target was the product of a powerful want to climb within the Karakoram, particularly a technical route on a mid-elevation peak within the much less traveled areas, coupled with Google Earth wanderings and web scouring. The group, which advanced over time because of accidents, now consists of Steadman, his major climbing associate, Cody Winckler, who additionally lives in northern Wyoming with Steadman and shares his ardour for winter climbing, and August Franzen, a resident of Valdez, Alaska, who Steadman has but to share a rope with however whom Steadman and Winckler have been desirous to climb with for some time. In 2023, Steadman was a part of a Slicing Edge Grant group that put up a brand new route on the northeast face of Pik Alpinist, Kyrgyzstan.
Sam Hennessey will obtain $4,500 to aim the north face of Jannu East, an alpine large wall rising 2400m from schrund to summit. It has solely been tried twice (by Hennessey’s group), and the height is unclimbed by any route. In 2022, Hennessey was a part of an astonishing record-breaking pace ascent of Denali’s Slovak Direct in 17 hours and 10 min.
Chris Wright will obtain $4,500 to aim the north face of Chiling II, which Wright calls “some of the good-looking unclimbed north faces on the planet.” Wright met his climbing associate Stian Bruvoll whereas guiding in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, the place they rapidly linked over an enthusiasm for the actual type of Arctic alpinism, which is nothing if not an acquired style. They began dreaming up larger issues, and are excited for Chiling II, which ought to provide nearly 5 thousand ft of remarkable, exhausting climbing in light-weight, alpine type. In 2019, Chris Wright, alongside Graham Zimmerman, Steve Swenson, and Mark Richey, completed the Piolet D’Or profitable first ascent of Hyperlink Sar, a 7,041-meter peak buried deep within the Pakistani Karakoram and lengthy thought of one of many world’s biggest unclimbed mountains.
Ethan Berman will obtain $4,000 to aim the Southeast Pillar of Ultar Sar (7388m), situated within the Batura Muztagh Karakoram, Pakistan, and also known as the “Walker Spur” of the Karakoram. As Colin Haley put it after his 2007 try, “With the route correct greater than 3100m tall, it makes the North Ridge of Latok 1 look small by comparability, and whereas not as technical it’s nonetheless sustained actual climbing—little or no easy slogging.” It has been tried by a number of sturdy events since 1992, with a excessive level of ~6500m by the Giri-Giri Boys in 2011. Moreover the sheer scale of the route, the primary difficulties shall be sustained combined climbing from 6500-6900m. Berman has beforehand acquired an AAC Reside Your Dream Grant. In late 2022, Berman and Maarten Van Haeren put up the primary ascent of the northeast face of Khang Karpo (6,646 meters) in Nepal.
