California Institute of Technology

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Caltech Alpine Club homepage

Founded 1976; 0% fatality rate since May 2007

Upcoming trips

  • 2nd Wednesday of every month is ladies' night at the Arc gym -- women climb free. New student rate of $35/month!
  • We went to the Sierras! We climbed Whitney and Sill.
  • Banff Film Festival -- see below

For more details, and to see all past and future trips, please see our events page.

Banff Film Festival 2007/2008

Banff Film Festival Logo The 2007 Banff Film Festival (2007 films, but shown in 2008) comes to Caltech on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 7:30 PM in Ramo Auditorium. Here is the Caltech Public Events Banff Film Festival site, and information on obtaining tickets.


Backcountry.com sponsorship

Backcountry.com logo Backcountry.com has a deal with the Alpine Club for a variable discount on their products. Much thanks to Nick Stadie for organizing this, and to the folks at Backcountry.com. To use the discount, you must be a member on the email list; see the Feb 7th 2008 email for details.

The club also has, or has had, arrangements with MountainSmith, Outdoor Research, and Evolv. We appreciate our sponsors!

Who we are

The Caltech Alpine club serves the entire Caltech and JPL community and is dedicated to all aspects of mountaineering. We have about 480 people on our email list, ranging from sport climbers to backpackers to cavers to alpinists. This website contains information on upcoming events, local climbing areas and places to buy and rent gear. We also have listed the modest amount of gear and books that we loan out free of charge to members.

If you are new to the community or to this site, you might try joining our mailing list. For specific questions, please email alpine -- not to be confused with the email list, which is alpineclub (all email addresses end in @caltech.edu unless otherwise stated).

About membership: for the past few years, we haven't charged dues, and hence there is no such thing as being an "official member" of the club. To be involved with us, join the email list and check this site for upcoming events.

As of September 2007, the club's membership breakdown is as follows:

  • Staff: 21 members
  • Faculty: 7 members
  • Grad Students: 162 members
  • Guests, Visitors and Summer Students: 17 members
  • Postdocs: 38 members
  • Undergrads: 49 members
  • Unknown Affiliation: 138 members

New website aliases

To help those of us with failing memories, it is now possible to access this site via different virtual hosts, including:

  • alpine.caltech.edu
  • www.alpine.caltech.edu
  • alpineclub.caltech.edu
  • www.alpineclub.caltech.edu
All aliases will redirect automatically to www.its.caltech.edu/~alpine

New online guidebooks from the SMC

The Sierra Mountain Center has some small PDF guidebooks, mainly by S.P. Parker as well as with assistance by Todd Vogel and Andy Hyslop. The following PDFs are available:

Some of the guides are still a work in progress. Much thanks to SP and the SMC for publishing these on the web!

Prodeal with Mountainsmith

Members of the club can recieve a wholesale prices on Mountainsmith products. Contact alpine for details. Much thanks to Mountainsmith! The club has a few other prodeals -- email for details.

SIF grant

Thanks to the Student Investment Fund (SIF), we have recieved $400 to buy new guidebooks in spring 2007. An updated list of all the books in our library will be posted once the books arrive. We have nearly comprehensive coverage of most SoCal destinations, as well as areas such as Bishop, Yosemite and Red Rocks. The SIF also funded our purchase of two ice axes and two pairs of crampons last year.

ASCIT funding

ASCIT, the Caltech undergraduate association, will give the Alpine Club $220 next school year. We received $120 from ASCIT for '06/'07. Much thanks!

Avalanche Course

Thanks to the Moore-Hufstedler fund's generous support, we organized a free avalanche course on March 23-25, 2007. The course was in Bishop, CA, taught by instructors from the Sierra Mountain Center. See course page for more info.

Mt. Whitney trip

Trip page. We ascended the Mountaineers Route in early March 2007 with a group of 15 climbers.

Banff Film Festival 2007

Banff Film Festival Logo The 2006 Banff Film Festival (2006 films, but shown in 2007) came to Caltech on Tuesday March 27th, 2007 at 7:30 PM in Ramo Auditorium. Here is the Caltech Public Events Banff Film Festival site, and information on obtaining tickets. There are 25 films on the tour; we had time for about 11 or 12 of these to watch (a listing of the films is on the public events website).


Climbing class

Held Tuesday evenings at 7:30 at Hanger 18 climbing gym. If you'd like to be part of a carpool, email alpine. This class is normally held every quarter, and you can either be "in the class" (the teacher, one of the Hanger 18 employees, is great), or just climb on your own. Either way, there's a $40 / quarter fee (as of 2007).

New for Aug 2006! Check out upcoming Alpine Club events on Google Calendar

If you have a Google account, you can use Google Calendar beta and add the Alpine Club's calendar to your calendar (don't worry, you can remove it later if you wish). To see the Alpine Club calendar, follow the link below:
google calender button image. If you don't already have a Google account, you can still view the calendar here.
Email alpine if you'd like permission to edit the calendar.

Wilderness First Aid

We are hosting a wilderness first aid course, which will be Fri. evening Oct. 13th through Sun. Oct. 15th, 2006. The course is co-sponsered by the Caltech Y and the Moore-Hufstedler Fund, and will be led by instructors from the Wilderness Medical Institute of NOLS. The course website is here. The application deadline is September 8th (application information on the website).

Caltech is also offering a First Responder course. Information is on the HR website.

Banff Film Festival 2006

Banff Film Festival 2006 logo The Banff Film Festival came to Caltech on March 29th, 2006. Please come back next year!


What's on this website

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In Brief:

Of Note:

  • New climbing gym in Arcadia as of late 2005: Arcadia Rock Climbing, aka "The Arc". $15 per day.
  • Athletic Dept. Rock Climbing class, Hanger 18 gym: email the email list if you'd like to carpool
  • Williamson Rock closed. See this message board or visit Friends of Williamson Rock for information on the situation.

Our '07/'08 Sponsors

Caltech organizations:

Our '06/'07 Sponsors

Caltech organizations:

Webcams

Friends of the Club

The club supports...