Since 2007, UK climbers have been able to apply for a Mark Clifford Mountaineering Grant and this year the trustees have taken the unprecedented step of making three awards; one major grant of £1,000 and two smaller grants of £500 each.
The major grant has been awarded to the three-man team of Stu McAleese, Mark Thomas and Twid Turner for their attempt on an unclimbed granite wall in Baffin Island's Stewart Valley.
The north-facing wall, which lies on a summit between the Citadel, climbed by Turner in 1999, and Great Sail Peak climbed by Americans in 1998 and Russians in 2002, sports a super pillar of c1,200m followed by a considerable amount of snow and mixed terrain to the summit.
The pillar has been likened to a super Lotus Flower Tower and will give demanding big wall climbing in a hostile environment. It's hard to think of a team more suited to the job.
One of the £500 awards goes to young climbers Hamish Dunn, Luke Hunt and Tom Ripley, who plan to attempt the North West Ridge of Tahu Rutum in the Pakistan Karakoram. This project has already been described in Young Team receives 2010 Nick Estcourt Award.
The award trustees, Zoe Clifford (Mark's wife), Andrew Denton, Brian Hall and Will Stanton, offered a third grant of £500 to Plas-y-Brenin instructors Keith Ball and Matt Stygall, who plan to make the first ascent of Byeliy (5,697m) in the central section of the Western Kokshaal-too.
Byeily is a coveted peak that has defeated a number of parties. It is arguably the outstanding unclimbed summit left in the granitic section of this superb alpine range straddling the Kyrghyzstan-China border.
The pair also hopes to climb a new direct route up the North Face of Granitsa, and will access both this and Byeliy from the head of the Fersmana Glacier.
The Mark Clifford Mountaineering Grant is supported by Mountain Equipment. Clifford, a climber and marketing manager for Mountain Equipment died of lung cancer in 2004 aged only 34.
The first recipients of an award were Jon Bracey and Andy Houseman for their repeat of the French Route on the North Buttress of Hunter, Alaska.
In 2008 the trustees gave two awards: to James Thacker and Andy Turner for their attempt on a new line up the steep mixed North Face of Pharilapcha in Nepal, and to Felicity Aston and Jenny Pugh for their 30-day south to north winter traverse along the frozen surface of Lake Baikal in Russian Siberia.
In 2009 there were again two awards: a major award going to Steve Fortune, Viv Scott and Tony Stone for an attempt on the unclimbed Z Buttress of Hunter, and a second, smaller award, again to Andy Houseman, this time with Nick Bullock. This pair made a fine first ascent of the North Face of Chang Himal, East Nepal.
This year the list of applicants has been so impressive that the trustees decided to give three grants, which they hope will help the climbers achieve their goals and give them more credibility when applying for further sponsorship.
For full details on how to apply for an award visit www. markclifford.co.uk
Thanks to Andrew Denton for help with this report
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