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Sam Hennesse. [Photo] Seth Timpano

American Alpine Club announces three Cutting Edge Grant recipients

Sam Hennessey, Chantel Astorga and Chris Wright are all receiving American Alpine Club Cutting Edge Grants this year. Hennessey plans to attempt the north face of Chamlang (ca. 7300m) in the Eastern Himalaya of Nepal with Rob Smith, Seth Timpano and Michael Gardner; Astorga will try Pumari Chhish South (7350m) in Pakistan’s Hispar Karakoram with Anne Gilbert Chase; and Wright is aiming for Link Sar (7041m) in the Eastern Karakoram, Pakistan, with Graham Zimmerman, Mark Richey and Steve Swenson.

The author places a Black Diamond Ultralight Express screw in Hyalite Canyon, Montana. [Photo] Jim Menkol

Black Diamond Ultralight Express screws: A versatile screw for a more refined audience

Hyalite Canyon local Todd Preston tested out the new Black Diamond Ultralight Express screws on some of Montana’s classic ice climbs. He concluded, “For…pursuits where weight savings can be critical, the Ultralights are clearly the new gold standard and I would rate them 5 stars. However, several days of climbing frozen waterfalls using both Ultralights and traditional Express screws revealed some design limitations….” Four stars.

Scott Coldiron climbs next to the route Raggedy Man. [Photo] Marlin Thorman

Raggedy Man

After recovering from a severe illness in the wake of the Gulf War, veteran Scott Coldiron returns to his long-abandoned climbing dreams–exploring new ice in remote parts of Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 64, Coldiron traces the formative experiences of his hard-knock childhood, his discovery of what the mountains offered, and how he found his way back to the peaks that first stirred his imagination.

Anders Ax, pictured here with Lumi the dog at Washington Pass, June 2017. Ax began working as an intern for Alpinist in the winter of 2013, but his familiarity with the magazine started much earlier. While in high school, Ax saw a copy of Issue 16 on a newsstand in the Charles de Gaulle airport and was taken by the cover photo: Tomas Bambus Bardas muscling his way up the overhanging sandstone in Teplice. After his Alpinist internship ended in early 2014, Ax moved West to teach outdoor education. He returned to Vermont that winter to work as a snowboard instructor at Smugglers' Notch, just up the road from the Alpinist parent company office, Height of Land. He stopped by the office one day and offered his services as a fact checker and has been working for Alpinist ever since. [Photo] Courtesy of Anders Ax

Q&A with Alpinist Assistant Research Editor Anders Ax

Every story in Alpinist is thoroughly fact-checked. “Fact checking” has become a more common term in today’s digital headlines, as accusations of “fake news” and “alternative facts” abound in our society. In this feature, Alpinist Associate Editor Paula Wright interviews Alpinist Research Editor Anders Ax about the strategy and nuance of exhaustive fact-checking and how he handles the most difficult questions that may not have definitive answers.