Zack Martin Team Will Climb And Build Shelters In Pakistan

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The 2009 Zack Martin Breaking Barriers Grant (ZMBB) has been awarded to Clint Estes and Matt Hepp, both from southwestern Colorado. The two men will travel to Pakistan and provide instruction, building plans, and supplies for constructing earthquake-resistant shelters that use affordable local materials. It is hoped that they will complete one of these buildings and document the process, so local people can replicate it.  

For their mountaineering objective, Estes and Hepp will attempt one or more new alpine rock routes in the Kondus Valley in the eastern Karakoram, near the Pakistan-India border. The rock towers of the Kondus Valley are impressive monoliths that stand among peaks rising to more than 6,500 meters.

The AAC awards one ZMBB grant each year to a team that combines humanitarian and climbing objectives, with the former taking precedence. In addition to a cash award, the grantee will receive equipment sponsorship from AAC industry partner Black Diamond, a sponsor of the awards. The ZMBB awards are given in memory of Zack Martin, a climber and past AAC grant recipient who died just before his 25th birthday in late 2002.

For more information on the grants, click here.