Administered by the BMC, the Julie Tullis Memorial Award (JTMA) is a grant assisting deserving female mountaineers or any disabled climbers or mountaineers, both male and female, to achieve their climbing or mountaineering ambitions.
Climbers from three separate expeditions received awards in 2013. Early in the year Hannah Baker took part in a seven-member expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula, with a highly successful outcome.
This summer Anna Wells from Dundee will attempt to climb all the 4,000m peaks in the Alps, 82 summits as defined by the UIAA.
Wells, who comes from a competition background and has competed in ice climbing world cup events, is a student, and has from the 1st June to the 7th September to complete the list.
The largest grant was awarded to five women who are current or past members of Glasgow University Mountaineering Club.
Carol Goodall, Olivia Mason, Elizabeth Southgate, Emily Suddes and Emily Ward will visit the Dzhirnagaktu Glacier in the Western Kokshaal-too of Kyrgyzstan, to attempt technical alpine climbs on peaks up to 5,600m.
The glacier basin lies immediately west of the highest peak in this part of the range, Kyzyl Asker (5,842m). It was visited, seemingly for the first time, by a Polish expedition in 2010, although a number of peaks on the eastern rim had been summited in the mid-'80s by Russians from the adjacent valley, including the highest peak of the Dzhirnagaktu, the unnamed Pik 5,632m.
Last year a team from Queens University Belfast, supported by the MEF, operated in the valley, making the first ascents of two prominent, previously virgin summits, two summits of dubious prominence, and six new routes on previously climbed summits.
However, there are still attractive virgin objectives, including a summit dubbed The Monolith by the Irish, on the Chinese border south of Peak 5,632m.
But the JTMA is not only for able-bodied mountaineers.
In 2012 the JTMA went to David Padgen for an attempt on Europe's highest peak, Elbrus (5,642m).
Padgen is already the first European with Cerebral Palsy to climb Kilimanjaro, and had attempted Elbrus from the north in 2010, reaching a point 500m below the summit.
He planned to use lessons learnt for a return match during August 2012, his goal being to summit via a north-south traverse of the mountain.
Padgen felt that being supported by the BMC gave his attempt a real sense of significance and legitimacy,
He joined a commercially organized trip to the north side of Elbrus, and climbed together with two of the company's experienced mountaineers. He also used bottled oxygen above the Lens Rocks (4,700m).
The strategy employed was for the rest of the team to climb from a camp at Lens Rocks to the higher, West Summit, while Padgen and companions would first climb to the ca 5,400m col between East and West tops, where they would spend the night in a recently constructed shelter.
Next day they would head to the West top before descending south.
All went well, albeit slowly, until arrival at the small shelter, where they found their stove to be unworkable. They had a few snacks and flasks of water to tie them over, but the next day, ca 100m below the summit, Padgen hit his limit.
Unable to operate properly, with balance gone, and severe cramps in both arms and legs, the situation could have been serious. However, with the assistance of two additional guides, who had led an early morning ascent from the south, he was able to make it down to the col.
After this, it was a slow but improving descent of the south flank to a collection of huts known as the Barrels, below which a series of chairlifts and cable cars lead down to the valley.
Padgen had reached higher on Elbrus than anyone with Cerebral Palsy, and also made a north-south traverse, which although missing the summit, is the first such crossing by a disabled person.
More information about the Julie Tullis Memorial Award
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