New England Section

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The New England Section of the American Alpine Club has over 800 AAC members in Eastern Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Annual Section events include our Annual Dinner in the Boston area and two BBQs—one in June and the other in October—both held annually in northern New Hampshire. We always welcome any suggestions for club activities to bring our far-reaching community together.

We are lucky enough to boast of having Bill Putnam and Mark Richey, both former AAC Presidents, as chapter members. Jed Williamson, also a New England section member, is not only a past president of the club but also the editor of Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Current AAC board members in our section include Bruce Franks and John Kascenska. We also cannot neglect boasting about one of North America’s best known climbers, Henry Barber, who is a longstanding member.

While we don’t have the big peaks or big walls our western counterparts do, New England is proud of having Mt. Washington, which comes in at only 6,288 feet but boasts some of the planet's most severe weather and retains the world record for wind speed, 231 MPH. This fine peak serves as a training ground for several hearty New Englanders, including the members of the successful New England Everest Expedition led by our own Rick Wilcox in 1991.

Interested in becoming an AAC Ambassador for this section? Community Ambassadors are climbers who live and are active in their local climbing communities. Like Section Chairs, they promote the AAC in their area. Local communities consist of climbing locales, population centers with significant numbers of climbers, and special interest groups like ice climbers, women or boulderers. Communities are best served by multiple ambassadors, those with time and energy to coordinate with Section Chairs and rally climbers in the area. Interested? Contact Dana at drichardson [at] americanalpineclub [dot] org for more information.

Section Chair - Nancy Savickas

Coming Soon.