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What's the point of the AAC?

Original Post
GhaMby Eagan · · Heaven · Joined Oct 2006 · Points: 385

Besides cheap places to stay (jackson, hueco and patagonia), what's the point? Oh, I forgot they also make books for climbing nerds.

Steve Williams · · The state of confusion · Joined Jul 2005 · Points: 235

Rescue insurance
The Library (members can check out books for free)
They have grants for climbers
They donate to conservation efforts
Their Annual Dinner is a great place to rub elbows
with some of the world's greatest climbers, (then and now).
They put on local shows (at the American Mountaineering Center
in Golden, CO--films, slide shows, etc).

GhaMby Eagan · · Heaven · Joined Oct 2006 · Points: 385

So you're saying there is no point. thank you.

Cor · · Sandbagging since 1989 · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 1,445

What's the point of you asking the question then?

Clint Helander · · Anchorage, AK · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 612

Is that really a serious question? Yes aside from offering cheap places to stay like the Tetons and Hueco tanks they also catalog and publish every significant climb ever done for over 100 years. But above and beyond that they offer global rescue insurance, cheap health insurance, they have a tremendous grant program that funds tons and tons of expeditions every year to both the neofight Climber and the world's best.

Even further, they work with local sections to build maintain and promote wilderness huts. They also work with a variety of organizations including the access fund to to protect and save our climbing areas weather they be local crags or access to wilderness.

Going even further, they house a tremendous library where any member can check out books for free and have the books mailed to them again, for free. This includes guidebooks to nearly every climbing area in North America. Where else can you get that? Oh yeah, and they host climbers from all over the world to promote the sport in their home country and likewise they send North American climbers to places such as Turkey, Europe, South America, etc.

Boy, I could keep going on and on and on but I have to get back to work. memberships are between $40 and $75 per year depending upon your age. So when you figure that you get a tremendous American Alpine Journal every year as well as accidents in North America you pretty much have already paid for your membership. And then when you think about what you were actually supporting and the good that they are doing behind the scenes, it really makes that insignificant amount of money seem like you're almost ripping them off.

The American Alpine club is not just for mountaineers or extreme alpinists anymore. They have worked honestly to adapt to be useful to the Boulder, sport Climber, Travis Climber, Big Well Climber, all the way to those pushing the hardest Alpine style ascents.

So in short, or not so short, join the AAC.

David B · · Denver, CO · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 205

"The American Alpine Club is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that provides knowledge and inspiration, conservation and advocacy, and logistical support for the climbing community. The AAC advocates for American climbers domestically and around the world; provides grants and volunteer opportunities to protect and conserve the places we climb; hosts local and national climbing festivals and events; publishes two of the world’s most sought-after climbing annuals, the American Alpine Journal and Accidents in North American Mountaineering; cares for the world’s leading climbing library and country’s leading mountaineering museum; manages the Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch and Hueco Rock Ranch as part of a larger lodging network for climbers; and annually gives about $100,000 toward climbing, conservation, and research grants to adventurers who travel the world."

splitclimber · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18

Here's a point

Alicia Sokolowski · · Brooklyn, NY · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 1,781

Everything everyone else said PLUS they put on climber's meetups that are basically dream vacations with a ton of people just as excited as you to climb everything.

Oh yeah, and their inclusive approach to membership which mystifies foreign climbers who often build climbing resumes for a decade or more before being let into "climbing clubs" that offer far fewer services and benefits than the AAC.

Cor · · Sandbagging since 1989 · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 1,445

#1 member benefit: Climb/hang with ALICIA @ the International Climbers Meet!

+1 to what everyone has been saying, AAC is awesome!

divnamite · · New York, NY · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 90
Alicia Sokolowski wrote:Everything everyone else said PLUS they put on climber's meetups that are basically dream vacations with a ton of people just as excited as you to climb everything. Oh yeah, and their inclusive approach to membership which mystifies foreign climbers who often build climbing resumes for a decade or more before being let into "climbing clubs" that offer far fewer services and benefits than the AAC.
Can you give an example?
drock3 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 13

All in all, I'm a fan of the AAC. They do a good bit of trail work in my area. However.....

Camping at the AAC campground in the Tetons is not cheap. $16/member or $25/non-member per night camping is ridiculous. 5 minutes down the road is a huge campsite for $21/night (no per person charge). That means that unless your an AAC member camping by yourself it is significantly cheaper to stay elsewhere.

Sorry for the rant, but this has been bugging me.

Hamik Mukelyan · · Palos Verdes, Los Angeles · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 310

I bet some evil marketing exec at AAC posted this thread so that wrinkly old has-beens would lay a trap for impressionable climbing youths.

Ha, just kidding, the AAC is great. There are some obvious benefits even for people who don't want to go to social functions; these are

- rescue insurance
- free copy of the UNBELIEVABLY GOOD American Alpine Journal
- grant programs

For people 28 or under it's $45/year for all that and various other perks like 20% off Patagucci. That is seriously, seriously worth it. Much of the funding for those perks actually comes from donations from the likes of the Chouinard family, not your own membership dues. In other words, your insurance, discounts, AAJ copy, and other benefits are subsidized by donors.

For people who like to chit chat as much as they like to climb, the local AAC events are awesome. I can't speak for other regional sections, but in the Southwest one we have things like slideshows, dinners, trail maintenance projects, and group climbing trips at least once or twice per month. At last year's holiday dinner not only did we get to hear Mark Richey, who was former president of the AAC, talk about his FA on Saser Kangri, but I actually got to climb with him the next day at Joshua Tree. I was pretty psyched about that.

Did I mention that you can apply for grants? Like, free money to go climbing?

Alicia Sokolowski · · Brooklyn, NY · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 1,781
Cor wrote:#1 member benefit: Climb/hang with ALICIA @ the International Climbers Meet! +1 to what everyone has been saying, AAC is awesome!
Also, the AAC will enable you to meet amazing adventure climbers like Cor and his beguiling wifey, Liz. They will teach you to love offwidth. I know, I know, sounds impossible, but you will get off the 165 foot long grovelly offwidth you initially begged to be lowered from and say, "I call next on the wide crack around the corner!"

In all seriousness Cor, you and Liz were easily made the "best of" list of the trip, loved the slide show too!!!!!
Buff Johnson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2005 · Points: 1,145
John Wilder wrote:They buy beer for climbers. Does there need to be another point?
mmmm, beeeer
Alicia Sokolowski · · Brooklyn, NY · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 1,781
divnamite wrote: Can you give an example?
The only example I can give is climbing with a climber from the UK who guides in Nepal as well. He was totally blown away by the AAC and said that UK climbing clubs took years to get into and didn't offer the same types of publications and insurance the AAC does. He made this statement in front of other climbers from the UK and everyone seemed to be in agreement.

That said, to me, it doesn't really matter over-much what climbing clubs are like in other places. I would still celebrate the inclusive nature of the AAC even if every other organzation was the same. I just never ever thought about it until a non-US climber brought it up, which is the only reason I put it that way.
Eric D · · Gnarnia · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 235
divnamite wrote: Can you give an example?
Sure. The AAC was a major sponsor of Forks Fest, a northern AZ climbing festival.

The AAC's rebranding and mission rethink has led to a great organization. Thanks for all that you do AAC.
doligo · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2008 · Points: 264
Hamik Mukelyan wrote: Much of the funding for those perks actually comes from donations from the likes of the Chouinard family, not your own membership dues.
Most funding comes from the endowment. It may be true that nowadays wealthier climbers donate to it, but it's mostly a legacy fund from many many years of being an exclusive Big Boys club headquatered in New York.

The AAC, Sierra Club and AMC - they were all used to be exclusive clubs like Alicia describes. You had to be invited and "sponsored" to join. They realized that that model was not viable so opened up their memberships. That is why there is normally a huge age gap in these organizations - either people over 60 or in their 20s for the most part.
Hamik Mukelyan · · Palos Verdes, Los Angeles · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 310

doligo, that's how endowments work: people or organizations donate to them! That was my point. Much of the money that supports AAC programs does not come from current membership dues.

divnamite · · New York, NY · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 90
Alicia Sokolowski wrote: The only example I can give is climbing with a climber from the UK who guides in Nepal as well. He was totally blown away by the AAC and said that UK climbing clubs took years to get into and didn't offer the same types of publications and insurance the AAC does. He made this statement in front of other climbers from the UK and everyone seemed to be in agreement. That said, to me, it doesn't really matter over-much what climbing clubs are like in other places. I would still celebrate the inclusive nature of the AAC even if every other organzation was the same. I just never ever thought about it until a non-US climber brought it up, which is the only reason I put it that way.
BMC? Most western european alpine clubs are ten times better than AAC.
Also, in case you don't know... AAC membership was never all-inclusive. It's a recent change.
doligo · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2008 · Points: 264

Hamik,
What you described was like rich people were subsidizing average AAC members. That is not how endowments work. It is true people give initial seed capital for the fund, but then it's run by money managers just like a hedge fund and whatever made off it is either spent on administrative costs and/or to re-invest. I personally think AAC membership is expensive and I think it at least covers publishing costs of the AAJ and the ANAM. I hate that they wasted money on that glossy membership guide publication, which is full of typos and grammatical errors.

Mike Grainger · · Waterloo, ON Canada · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 286

What exactly is the point of these cryptically critical posts about the AAC? What is it that you think they should be doing for the climbing community, and where do you think their funding should be coming from? The well of mean-spirited, petty nit-picking posts on climbing boards is very deep indeed.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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