American Alpine Club/The North Face Live Your Dream Grant

Some of you may know that I spent the last nine days on a climbing trip to Joshua Tree National Park - an overwhelmingly awesome experience that I cannot wait to write about as soon as I collect all of the pictures. In the meantime I want to talk about one of the most exciting things to happen during the my time there despite it being only loosely connected to the J-Tree trip.

Last Wednesday, after three straight days of climbing, my climbing partner Jay and I headed into town for a rest day. Aside from showers and flush toilets, this meant access to cellular service and all its attendant modern-day e-goodies. Missed calls, missed texts, and full inboxes lit up our individual smart phones. Aside from the chance to talk with my wife and son, I was most excited about a waiting e-mail from the American Alpine Club (AAC) and a voice-mail from a Denver number.


On March 1st, 2014, I applied for an American Alpine Club/The North Face Live Your Dream Grant and had been patiently waiting since then to find out whether or not I had been awarded a grant. The AAC said a response would come by April 15th, so I was sure (last Wednesday was April 16th)  the e-mail header I saw from the AAC in my inbox would contain news about the grant. It did and so did the voice-mail from Denver. The news was that I had indeed been awarded a grant and just needed to contact the AAC in order to accept. I immediately called the contact number and got a voice-mailbox. Then, I quickly fired off an e-mail explaining that I was in town for a rest day and in a few hours would be heading back into the park, and therefore unreachable for several days. My phone rang almost instantly, it seems the AAC knows climbers pretty well.

I do not have the words to express how excited I am to be a part of this program or how grateful I am for the opportunity! Check back here often for more information on the trip my friend Phil and I are planning, as well as details on our training and planning. For now I will leave you with one teaser shot from the J-tree trip - look for a full trip report later in the week!

Jay Knower on Cryptic (5.8)