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Mugs
Stump Climbing Award Winners Announced for 2009
17th
Annual Mugs Stump Award Grants Financial Support to Small
Climbing Teams with Light and Fast Alpine Objectives
January
13, 2009: The recipients of the 2009 Mugs Stump Award were
announced at the Ouray Ice Festival in mid-January, at
Ouray, Colorado. The awards, sponsored by Black
Diamond Equipment, Climbing
Magazine, Mountain
Gear, Patagonia, PrimaLoft,
and W.L.
Gore, were created in 1992 in memory of Mugs Stump,
one of North America’s most visionary climbers. The
award annually grants $30,000 to small teams pursuing climbing
objectives that exemplify light, fast, and clean alpinism.
The applications received for 2009 included many strong
teams with objectives in far-flung corners of the mountaineering
world, from Patagonia, to Pakistan, to the Canadian Rockies,
to Alaska. In the end, seven teams with outstanding talent
and objectives were granted awards ranging from $1,500 to
$9,500.
2009 Mugs Stump Award Winners:
- Clint
Helander, the Revelation Range, Alaska; with Seth Holden.
The climbers propose a trip into one of the least-explored
(20 parties have visited since 1966) clusters of granite
mountains in Alaska, to pursue rock, ice, and ridge-running
objectives on three unclimbed massifs.
- Ryan
Hokanson, the southeast face of Mount Logan, Canada;
with Samuel Johnson. The two climbers will make an alpine-style
bid on the unclimbed southeast face, expecting mixed
ground on an exact line TBD tackling a wall two miles
high, one of the largest on the planet.
- Sam
Magro, north face of Broken Tooth, Alaska; with Aaron
Thrasher. The climbers have spotted a diagonalling weakness
on the 1,000-meter north face of Broken Tooth, climbed
to half-height, with difficulties up to M6, on a previous
bid but never completed.
- Jim
Martinello, Mount Bute, British Columbia, Canada; with
Bruce Kay and Jason Sinnes. The climbers look to pioneer
a new free route on Bute’s unclimbed lower buttress
(2,500 feet), and then either free the existing route
on the upper west face (20 pitches; 3,000 feet) or climb
a new line on the upper wall.
- Doug
Chabot, Kuk Sar II, Pakistan; with Bruce Miller. The
pair will attempt the sheer north face of this unclimbed
6,925-meter Karakoram peak, one that’s never been
visited by climbers; the face has locally been rumored
to be “impossible,” as
well as up to 3,000 meters tall.
- Colin
Haley, North Ridge of Latok 1, Pakistan; with Josh Wharton
and Dylan Johnson. The climbers propose an attempt on
this longstanding, oft-attempted (20 attempts) prize
of Himalayan Mountaineering, climbed nearly to the summit
in 1978. They propose beginning on snow and ice beside
the ridge crest, to make quicker progress down low.
- Josh
Beckner, El Lonko, Argentine Patagonia; with Dave Anderson
and Jared Spaulding. The east face of the El Cap-sized,
unclimbed “El Lonko,” in the back of the
remote Pirate Valley, in alpine style; a secondary goal
will be a new route on the North Arête of the nearby
Mariposa (2,220 vertical feet), in the same style.
More
About the Mugs Stump Award
 All
of the alpine objectives awarded embody the spirit of
the late Mugs Stump. Mugs Stump was best known for his
first ascent of the Emperor Face on Mount Robson in the
Canadian Rockies and a triptych of brilliant Alaskan
climbs—the
East Face of the Moose's Tooth, the Moonflower Buttress
on Mount Hunter, and a one-day solo of Denali's Cassin
Ridge. He sought out striking and highly technical objectives,
preferably first ascents, in some of the most remote
mountains of the world. Mugs saw climbing as a celebration
of boldness, purity, and simplicity.
Applications
are reviewed for how they further the legacy of Mugs Stump
with climbs proposed in the spirit of adventure and exploration,
and that emphasize light, fast, leave-no-trace climbing.
Award applicants are evaluated on the strength of their
objective, the strength of their team, and on an objective
that raises the bar defining what is possible in alpinism
today. For more information on the award, past recipients
and their trip reports visit www.mugsstumpaward.com.
Applications are due by December 1 and trips
must be taken between March, of the year awarded, and
the following February. Winners will be announced by January
31st of each year.
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