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Alpinist’s Editor-in-Chief Recognized for Literary Excellence

Katie Ives on the summit of The Spearhead (12,575′), in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, after climbing its North Ridge (5.6, 7 pitches, Schobinger-Soby, 1958). July 2010.

[Photo] Chris Weidner

Yesterday afternoon, a few before days from completing our latest issue, Alpinist 53, an email came across my desk stating that the Editor-in-Chief of our magazine, Katie Ives will be recognized for excellence in climbing literature at the 2016 American Alpine Club (AAC) Annual Benefit Dinner on February 27.

It stated: “Katie Ives has brought thoughtful analysis, brilliant writing and finesse to climbing literature since joining the Alpinist team in 2004.”

The honor, previously called the American Alpine Club Literary Award, was renamed in recent years to the H. Adams Carter Literary Award in memory of a professor at Milton Academy, in Milton Mass., who died on April 1, 1995. For four decades, Carter was editor of the American Alpine Journal. “He made it what it is today,” AAC CEO Phil Powers said over the phone. “I would get these letters from him typed out saying ‘I hear you were in Pakistan, tell me your story.’ Getting those letters in the mail was really special. That was back in the days of typewriters. At the time, getting in a magazine or the American Alpine Journal was the only way to get recognized as a climber. We renamed it for him two to three years ago

“I think where Katie expresses herself so eloquently goes beyond her editorials and articles to include her role as an editor,” Powers said.

Previous recipients include:

Jon Krakauer: 1986

Greg Child: 1987

H. Adams Carter: 1988

Ed Webster: 1990

David S. Roberts: 1992

Jeff Long: 1993

Elizabeth Hawley: 1994

Allen Steck: 1995

Steve Roper: 1995

Jonathan Waterman: 1996

Broughton Coburn: 1997

Michael Kennedy: 1998

Audrey Salkeld: 1999

Rick Ridgeway: 2002

Tami Knight: 2003

Galen Rowell: 2003

Brad Washburn: 2003

Mark Jenkins: 2004

John Sherman: 2005

John Long: 2006

Alison Osius: 2007

John Harlin, III: 2008

Maria Coffey: 2009

Doug Robinson: 2010

Royal Robbins: 2011

Bernadette McDonald: 2012

Duane Raleigh: 2013

Freddie Wilkinson: 2014

Jeff Lowe: 2015

Sources: American Alpine Club Executive Director Phil Powers, americanalpineclub.org