Our Work
Founded in 1902, the American Alpine Club delivers resources that advance climbing knowledge, safety, inspiration, and access. Our work includes documenting cutting-edge climbs and analyzing accidents, preserving climbing history, advocating for public lands and climbing access, and providing direct support through rescue benefits, grants, and lodging facilities. This page highlights the programs and initiatives through which the AAC actively serves climbers and the places we climb. Our work spans across core areas that support climbers, protect climbing landscapes, and preserve climbing knowledge.
Advocacy
Advocacy for climbing access, public lands, conservation and recreation policies, and protecting our climbing experience is a critical part of the AAC’s mission. Our advocacy team is constantly hard at work activating and educating climbers on advocacy issues affecting climbing, as well as working with legislators, land managers, and other decision-makers to help inform decisions with climbers in mind.
Publications
The American Alpine Club publishes world-renowned books including the American Alpine Journal, Accidents in North American Climbing, and the quarterly Guidebook, delivering trusted climbing knowledge, analysis, and storytelling that documents the year’s most significant climbs, examines accidents and risk, and reflects the stories climbers care about most.
Lodging
The AAC’s lodging facilities are a launch pad for adventure and a hub for community. Whether you need to cozy up at night during prime sending temps in Hueco, or want to join the stretching session in the pavilion at the New River Gorge Campground, our lodging facilities are the place to rest up, connect with new and old adventure buddies, and plan out your next climbing day.
Grants
The AAC’s grants program awarded over $200k in 2023 and is designed to support all members in their climbing pursuits—whether they’re gunning for cutting edge first ascents or everyday climbers seeking out an adventure on their own terms. We also fund research grants, supporting scientific research expeditions that contribute valuable information to our understanding of the world’s mountain ecosystems.
Grief Fund
When we lose someone to the mountains, it can come with trauma and alienation as we struggle not only with grief, but how that grief can impact our own relationship to climbing. The Climbing Grief Fund is dedicated to providing support to climbers and other mountain recreationists experiencing grief, through our Mental Health Directory and Climbing Grief Fund Grant.
Library
The Henry S. Hall Jr. American Alpine Club Library houses one of the world’s finest collections of mountain-related artifacts, archives, rare books, maps, and media. A climbing bibliophile’s dream, the library contains more than 60,000 books and all the information you could ever want on mountain history, mountain culture, climbing routes, and more.
Community
Passion for climbing is what brought us together, and that same passion is what drives many of our members to become even more deeply engaged with the AAC. You can get connected to like-minded AAC members through our local chapters, who gather members together for climbing meet-ups, films, and more
Explore AAC Stories
