American Alpine Club - History

History

Founded by Arctic zoologist and geographer Angelo Heilprin, the American Alpine Club was established in 1902 and had 45 founding members, including its first president, Charles Ernest Fay, also a founding member of the Appalachian Mountain Club. These original members were primarily from the East Coast, although a handful resided in the Midwest, Washington, and Alaska. The Club was primarily East Coast-oriented for the first half-century of its existence; its headquarters remained in New York until 1993, when the Board unanimously decided to move the AAC to its current location in Golden, Colorado. The Club is housed in the American Mountaineering Center, whose other tenants are the Colorado Mountain Club and Outward Bound.

The AAC is historically and contemporarily associated with a number of other American and International organizations. It was a founding member of the Union International des Associations d’Alpinism (UIAA) in 1930 and the Arctic Institute of North America in 1948.