Black Diamond Equipment, Patagonia, Climbing Magazine, Mountain Gear and W.L. Gore, announce the recipients of the 2006 Mugs Stump Award. Created in 1992 in memory of Mugs Stump, one of North America’s most visionary climbers, the award grants money to small teams pursuing climbing objectives that exemplify light, fast and clean alpinism.

The seventeen applications submitted for the 2006 Mugs Stump Award made up one of the strongest applicant fields the award jury had seen to date. The several strong alpine objectives proposed made for a difficult deliberation process. In the end, six teams were granted Mugs Stump Awards ranging from $500 to $5000.

2006 Mugs Stump Award Winners:

Maxime Turgeon and Louis-Philippe Menard: Propose a first ascent of the North Face of K6 to its west summit. K6 (7281m) is located in the Charakusa Valley of Pakistan and has been climbed twice before, but no attempts have been made on the North Face.

Jon Walsh, Paul McSorley, Jeff Relph and Dave Lussier: A bid for a first ascent to summit the East Peak of Baintha Brakk (a.k.a. The Ogre). The southeast ridge of Baintha Brakk has been attempted three times and remains one of the more challenging summits in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range.

Jeff Benowitz and Jed Brown: Propose a new route on the North Face of Peak 10,910 in Alaska’s Hayes Range. Peak 10,910 has been climbed twice before from the West Face and the East Face but never on the north escarpment.

Mike Libecki and Andy Libecki: Propose exploration and first ascents of the granite towers on the borders of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a region that has remained largely unseen and unclimbed due to permission closures.

Katherine Fraser and Jen Olson: Propose a first alpine-style ascent of the Southeast Face of Sunrise Spire (2407m) in Alaska’s Kichatna Mountains.

Sean Easton and Rob Owens: Propose a first ascent of the steep, mixed, alpine North/Northwest Face of Mt. Hickson (3171m) in the Waddington Range of British Columbia, Canada.

All of the alpine objectives awarded embody the spirit of the late Mugs Stump. Mugs Stump was best known for his first ascent of the Emperor Face on Mount Robson in the Canadian Rockies and a triptych of brilliant Alaskan climbs – the East Face of the Moose's Tooth, the Moonflower Buttress on Mount Hunter, and a one-day solo of Denali's Cassin Ridge. He sought out striking and highly technical objectives, preferably first ascents, in some of the most remote mountains of the world. Mugs saw climbing as a celebration of boldness, purity, and simplicity.

Applications are reviewed for how they further the legacy of Mugs Stump with climbs proposed in the spirit of adventure and exploration, and that emphasize light, fast, leave-no-trace climbing. Award applicants are evaluated on the strength of their objective, the strength of their team, and on an objective that raises the bar defining what is possible in alpinism today.