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Phil Powers at an American Alpine Club Benefit Dinner with Doug Walker, a former president of the AAC who died in an avalanche in 2016. [Photo] Jim Aikman

American Alpine Club CEO Phil Powers to step down in summer 2020

American Alpine Club CEO Phil Powers announced yesterday, October 1, that he plans to retire after 14 years. He will remain CEO until this winter, then he will step back and continue working with the organization as a senior advisor until next summer. The goal is to transition to new leadership by summer 2020.

The Pugilist at Rest (5.10 A3 M5) follows the long center rib in the middle of the photo. The Wilford Couloir is the gully just to the left. [Photo] Mark Wilford

1998: The Pugilist at Rest

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Barry Blanchard relives a couple of new routes that he explored with Mark Wilford in 1998 on Mt. Alverstone in the St. Elias Range. He recalls one particular moment: “I lay raw and exhausted, shouldered to the mountain and anchored to it…. Our ledge was two feet at its widest and nine feet long. Strangely, I felt secure, as if I belonged there, as if I’d been in land like this at some time in the past.”

Jack Tackle on Pitch 11 of A Pair of Jacks/Arctic Discipline, Mt. Kennedy. [Photo] Jack Roberts

1996: The Wall of Arctic Discipline

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Jack Tackle writes about his time on the north face and north ridge of Mt. Kennedy, which culminated in a freezing epic with Jack Roberts in 1996 when they lost a crampon and spent nine days on the wall waiting out storms. “Years later, I still reflect upon the solace, joy and suffering we experienced together,” Tackle writes.

Wendy Teichmann, Andrea Rankin, Gertrude Smith and Helen Butling assemble at camp as they prepare for an attempt on the unclimbed Mt. Saskatchewan in 1967. [Photo] Courtesy Andrea Rankin

1967: Summer on Mt. Saskatchewan

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Andrea Rankin recounts the women’s expedition to climb Mt. Saskatchewan in 1967, which was Canada’s centennial year. Rankin writes: “The Alpine Club of Canada coordinated with local and federal governments to organize the country’s largest-ever mountaineering endeavor, with more than 200 climbers attempting peaks in the Steele Glacier area, and 52 climbers attempting first ascents in the St. Elias Mountains.” Rankin’s team was one of four that was assigned to each of the thirteen unclimbed peaks in the Centennial Range.

The author linking moves on Magnetar (5.13d) at Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado, last May. [Photo] Karissa Frye

Lowa Rocket: climbing shoes made for heel/toe hooking

After extensive testing, Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz reports that the Lowa Rockets are best suited for toe- and heel-hooking, with a secure fit that ensures they won’t slide off the heel. Franz had trouble finding a size to fit his foot comfortably, however, and there is some bagginess over the top of the big toe. Three stars.

The north buttress of Mt. Kennedy as seen during the 1935 National Geographic Society Yukon Expedition. At the time, Bob Bates wrote that he hoped the peak would be called Mt. Washburn. It was known as East Hubbard until it was renamed for President Kennedy in 1965. In his years as director of the Boston Museum of Science, Washburn hung an enlarged version of this photograph on his office wall. [Photo] Bradford Washburn, Bradford Washburn collection, Museum of Science

1972: Rivers that Flow Back to Mountains

In this Mountain Profile essay from Alpinist 67, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store, Anna Chiburis documents some of the Indigenous cultures and stories associated with the St. Elias Range, specifically within the area of Mt. Hubbard, Mt. Alverstone and Mt. Kennedy. “Areas such as Wrangell-St. Elias were not an empty wilderness devoid of civilization,” she writes. “Indeed, the Tlingit had developed a culture that had layered their land with profound meaning.”