Kari Medig, winner of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival 2008 Pro Photographer Showdown, is among this year’s Shipton-Tilman Grant recipients.
The Canadian team of Steve Ogle, Medig and Dean Wagner were awarded $5,000 to attempt the Darwin Range Traverse. They will venture to a part of the globe where the Ice Age is still in full effect. The Darwin Range, located in the Tierra del Fuego region of Patagonia, thwarts most attempts at exploration with its moody weather, unpredictable snowpack and broken glaciers. The team plans to ski across a formidable 120-kilometer portion of the Darwin Range between Chili and Argentina. This will be the first recorded traverse of this major range.
The recipients of the 2008 Shipton-Tilman Grants plan the ascent of new summits, prepare to cross glaciers or dig deeper into inhospitable jungle. To help these small teams pursue their goals, W. L. Gore & Associates, inventors of GORE-TEX® fabric, is once again awarding grants totaling $27,000 to help finance the expeditions.
The annual Shipton-Tilman Grant program was established by Gore as a tribute to the spirit of adventure embodied by legendary explorers Eric Shipton (b. 1907) and Bill Tilman (b. 1897). Now in its 18th year, the program provides funds to be divided among expeditions that are most in harmony with Shipton and Tilman’s philosophies.
Applications are accepted from small, unencumbered teams of friends with daring and imaginative goals. The expedition team must plan to accomplish their feat in a self-propelled, environmentally sound and cost-effective way.
“Exploration requires a great deal of resolve, bordering on stubbornness, whether the goal is a virgin summit or a new solution to meet the needs of consumers or industry,” said Cynthia Amon, Gore spokesperson. “Gore is proud to support teams that share our passion for pursuing adventure and the undiscovered.”
The teams with “unfinished business”:
Beka Brakai Chhok: Take 2, awarded $4000
In 2007, Patricia Deavoll was part of a two-woman team of New Zealand mountaineers that attempted to reach the unexplored peak of Beka Brakai Chhok (BBC) in the northern territory of Pakistan. Conditions and dwindling supplies forced the pair to turn back less than one kilometer from the peak. Deavoll will return in 2008 with partner Malcolm Bass to complete the “unfinished business” of reaching the 6,940-meter summit of BBC.
Paititi Expedition, awarded $4000
Expedition leader Greg Deyermenjian and his team return to the high jungle area of southeast Peru to continue their exploration of camino de pierdra, the ancient Incan road of stone. This area is not only unexplored, it is a blank on the map. The team will pick up the ancient trail where they left it in 2006 and move deeper, each step taking them farther than anyone since the Incas themselves. The expedition will also investigate the legend of Paititi, the fabled ultimate refuge for the Incas and attempt to confirm its existence and location.
Tordrillo Range High Traverse, awarded $2200. In 2007, Joe Stock and Andrew Wexler were unable to overcome the Great Wall, a 14-mile, 2,000-vertical-foot wall running east to west along the Tordrillo Range in Alaska. The team intends to return to the region and climb and ski the 85 miles and 30,000 vertical feet of the Tordrillo Range that proved unreachable. A new route and experience for the previous expedition will help them achieve this goal as well as the planned summiting of four peaks in the range—Mount Spurr, Mount Torbert, Mount Talachulitna and Mount Gerdine—all 11,000 feet or greater.
The new expeditions:
First Ascent Dojitsenga SE Tibet, awarded $4000
Micah Dash and Jonny Copp head to South Eastern Tibet to attempt the first ascent of Dojitsenga, a triangular peak standing 5700 meters between Rawu and Lhagu in the Kangri Garpo range. The peak has never been attempted, let alone reached by climbers. The region is one of the most remote and least explored of the world. This will continue a string of first ascents for the team including the Shafat Fortress (1,000 meters) in the Zanskar Range of India.
Oxford University/Tian Shan Expedition, awarded $2500. The spirit of adventure and exploration that has historically gripped Oxford University continues as a group of six students plans an expedition to the Tian Shan region of Kyrgyzstan. The Khrebet Borkoldoy Range remains largely unexplored and was closed to western teams until the country’s independence in 1991. The team will explore the southeast portion of the range and will attempt to be the first to set foot on the summit of Peak 5169.
UK/Canadian Distaghil Sar, awarded $4000
Distaghil Star is the 20th highest peak in the world, located in the remote Hispar Range in the far northwest of Pakistan. This summer, climbers Bruce Normand, Peter Thompson, Ben Cheek and Don Bowie will attempt the first ascent of the 7,883-meter summit along the unclimbed North Ridge. They will climb in a lightweight manner without oxygen or porters on the mountain.
