![This image shows the five books that are on the shortlist for the 2020 Boardman-Tasker award. [Image] BoardmanTasker.com](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/boardman-tasker-shortlist-2020-750x620.jpg)
Five books are on the shortlist for the Boardman-Tasker Award this year, and Alpinist Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives is concluding her two-year term limit as a judge. There were 22 entries this year from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. The award will be presented at the Digital Kendal Mountain Festival on November 21.
![Chris Weidner sends the last pitch (5.12d) of Gambler's Fallacy (5.13b, 9 pitches) on the Diamond of Longs Peak (Neniisotoyou'u), with Bruce Miller belaying on August 9. Weidner's redpoint was the first ascent of the route, to which he and Miller have dedicated 51 days since July 2017. Weidner will soon return to support Miller's free attempt. [Photo] Jon Glassberg/Louder Than Eleven](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/gamblers-fallacy-1-930x620.jpg)
Two new 5.13 routes were free climbed on the Diamond of Longs Peak (Neniisotoyou’u) on August 9. Chris Weidner sent Gambler’s Fallacy (V 5.13b, 9 pitches) with Bruce Miller in support after the partners had spent a total of 51 days on the wall since they started the project in July 2017. Meanwhile, Josh Wharton and Phil Gruber completed Beethoven’s Honeymoon (V 5.13-, 9 pitches).
![The northwest face of Chamlang (7321m) with UFO Line (ABO: M6, WI5, 2500m) marked in red. [Photo] Zdenek Hak and Marek Holecek collection](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/chamlang-1-930x620.jpg)
The Piolets d’Or committee has announced the selection of four “significant ascents” from 2019 that will be recognized on September 19-22 during the Ladek Mountain Film Festival in Poland. Marek Holecek and Zdenek Hak (Czech Republic), Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima (Japan), Mark Richey, Steve Swenson, Chris Wright and Graham Zimmerman (USA), and Alan Rousseau and Tino Villanueva (USA) are all being recognized for their respective ascents of Chamlang (7321m), Rakaposhi (7,788m), Link Sar (7041m) and Tengi Ragi Tau (6938m). Catherine Destiville is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award.
![Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell can be seen standing on the summit of the Sharkstooth (12,630') in Rocky Mountain National Park at sunrise on Saturday, July 18, during their Continental Divide Ultimate Linkup (CDUL). [Photo] Adam Stack](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rmnp-cdul-1-930x620.jpg)
Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold have completed a linkup of staggering proportions in Rocky Mountain National Park. The duo dubbed their route the Continental Divide Ultimate Linkup (CDUL). They stood atop 17 summits and completed 11 technical climbing routes (totaling approximately 65 pitches varying in difficulty from 5.6 to 5.11) and covered about 35 miles and 20,000 feet of vertical gain in roughly 36 hours. “We’re both slightly injured and hobbling around,” Honnold told Alpinist.
Today marks the release of the long-anticipated film, “A Thousand Ways to Kiss the Ground,” directed by Henna Taylor. The film release is in conjunction with a fundraiser for the Climbing Grief Fund (CGF)–from now until July 20, people who donate $15 or more to the CGF will receive access to the film. There is also an online auction from July 7 through July 20, and discussion panels on July 9 and July 14. The film includes interviews with prominent climbers such as Alex Honnold, Lynn Hill and many more. The project’s aim was “to capture the climbing community’s collective experience of grief and loss, and the nuanced wisdom inherent in each individual’s relationship with grief.”
![This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. [Image] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.gov)](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/cdc-coronavirus-graphic-930x620.jpg)
While the number of COVID-19 cases is declining in some areas of the US, allowing more people to venture outside their homes, some other places are seeing dramatic increases in the number of infections. Meanwhile, gyms have been reopening, restless climbers are venturing out of their home bouldering caves, and many people have been asking how they can start climbing responsibly to avoid the risk of spreading the highly contagious coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a potentially fatal illness. Here is the latest information from doctors who are involved with climbing communities.
![Mitsu Iwasaki will assume duties as the new Chief Executive Officer of the American Alpine Club on August 3. [Photo] Courtesy of the American Alpine Club](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/new-aac-ceo-mitsu-iwasaki-930x620.jpg)
The American Alpine Club announced yesterday that Mitsu Iwasaki will take over as its Chief Executive Officer on August 3. Iwasaki is replacing CEO Phil Powers, who announced last October that he would be stepping down this summer after serving for 15 years. Iwasaki is has been working as the Executive Director of the Mazamas in Portland, Oregon, since August 2019.
![A Get Out And Trek (GOAT) climbing event in Kent, Connecticut. [Photo] Courtesy of GOAT](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/goat-1-930x620.jpg)
The Vermont-based adventure company Get Out And Trek (GOAT) announced on May 14 that they are developing the outdoor industry’s first Outdoor Equality Index (OEI) to help companies and organizations improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts targeting LGBTQ+ communities. The group will survey participating companies from June 2020 through June 2021.
![Matteo Bernasconi in his element. [Photo] Courtesy of Matteo Della Bordella](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/matteo-bernasconi-1-930x620.jpg)
As travel restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic continue, climbers around the world connected remotely through Facebook on May 17 to raise their glasses in a toast to the life of Matteo “Berna” Bernasconi, a highly regarded Italian alpinist who died in an avalanche while ski-mountaineering in northern Italy on May 12. He was 38 years old. Bernasconi worked as a mountain guide since 2011, was a prominent member of the elite Ragni di Lecco (Lecco Spiders) club and is credited with numerous first ascents across the world, especially in Patagonia.
![Jagor Koprek and two unidentified volunteers remove a damaged chimney above Vlaska Street in the center of Zagreb, Croatia. Koprek is one of the organizers of the volunteer movement to help clean up dangerous debris from city rooftops after the March 22 earthquake that rocked the country's capital. [Photo] Ivica Sturlan](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/zagreb-quake-4-930x620.jpg)
On March 22, a Sunday morning, Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb was in the end of their second week of lockdown to address the COVID-19 pandemic when citizens awoke to 5.5-magnitude earthquake that was soon followed by an almost similarly strong aftershock. In the aftermath, toppled chimneys and dangerous debris crowded the rooftops of so many buildings that official emergency crews quickly became overwhelmed. Seeing the desperate need and an opportunity to lend their rope-access skills, approximately one hundred Croatian climbers, cavers and high-rise workers have spent more than three weeks clearing rooftops. President of the Republic Zoran Milanovic recently thanked the group for its work.
![A screenshot of the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Fest video. [Photo] Derek Franz](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/online-film-fests-screenshot-930x620.jpg)
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the United States and the world, stay-in-place orders have forced a change of plans for all kinds of public gatherings. That includes film festivals, some of which are now offering free online viewings. Here we’ve gathered some links to free film fests and videos that we think may be of interest to Alpinist readers.
![Adam Howard rappelling into the clouds at the Col du Chardonnet in Chamonix, France, in 2008 as Gordy Skoog looks on. [Photo] Jeff Diener](https://alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/adam-howard-skiing-930x620.jpg)
In the midst of economic uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, Height of Land Publications CEO and President Adam Howard addresses our magazines’ readers, contributors, advertisers and retailers. He writes, “We’ll continue bringing you the great stories, art and photography to which you’ve become accustomed…. We’re cutting checks and taking submissions according to Plan A…. We’re here for you.”
