Polartec Challenge Grant winner Greg Hill

Are you the kind of person that thinks climbing and skiing two million vertical feet in one year sounds like fun? How about climbing the Seven Summits, all before you turn the age of 18? What about riding your bike for months on end, along the ancient (and potentially perilous) Silk Road through Asia? If you’ve got a dream for big adventure, Polartec wants to hear about it – and potentially help you make it happen with the annual Polartec Challenge Grant. Since 1991, Polartec has assisted over 100 expeditions around the world.  We builds fabrics to withstand every kind of climate and we want to support adventures that put our products to the test.

16-year-old Jordan Romero on his Seven Summits quest

The deadline for the annual Polartec Challenge Grant is just over a week away (Jan. 15) and we’re still on the hunt for good applications.

“The Polartec® Challenge Grant seeks to assist frugal, low impact teams who respect the local culture and environment and serve as role models to outdoor enthusiasts worldwide. Applications are evaluated on the basis of vision, commitment, educational and cultural value.” Apply for the grant here. Read a press release about the selection process here. Tell your friends!

Kate Harris, who is a recipient of a Polartec Challenge Grant this year along with Mel Yule, is one of the four WINGS winners this year.

Kate, at only 27, has an impressive academic resume, combined with a unquenchable thirst for adventure. Her undergraduate degree is from UNC, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar in biology. After graduation in 2006, she retraced Marco Polo’s travels along China’s Silk Road. On this trip, she and two friends traversed the Aksai Chin in western Tibet, a contested territory between India and China, and in the process biked near the Siachen glacier on the Indian-Pakistan Line of Control. The notion that these sublime wildernesses were venues for military occupation and violence, because of arbitrary human borders, was shocking. This experience sparked her interest in the geopolitics of transboundary wilderness conservation. After this expedition, Kate went to the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She wrote her Master’s dissertation on the potential for transboundary science and environmental conservation to resolve conflict and cultivate peace between neighboring nations. Her work explored the prospects for establishing a peace park on the Siachen glacier in Kashmir, and drew on historical precedents for science-for-peace initiatives in Antarctica, Outer Space, and transboundary protected areas in Africa, South America, and Asia.

Kate just completed her Master’s degree in geobiology at MIT and is now taking a year off to complete an ambitios project called Cycling Silk, a year-long, all-woman bike journey that will cover more then 10,000 kilometers of the Silk Road between Tibet and Turkey, and study six case studies for cross-border conservation along the way.

Congrats Kate! We’re all looking forward to reading your upcoming updates from the Silk Road!

The first grant recipient is climber and writer Kelly Cordes. Cordes, who is a member of Polartec’s Athlete Advisory Board, and his climbing partner Kyle Dempster will travel to Pakistan’s Charakusa Valley, home to massive technical peaks including K6 and K7, along with scores of unclimbed rock and ice objectives, to attempt the first ascent of an unnamed rock spire. The 6,200-meter spire, near K7, has been attempted several times and its virgin summit remains an objective that requires the rare combination of high-end rock skills, tenacity and high-altitude mixed-climbing.

The second grant is awarded to Kate Harris and Mel Yule for a bike expedition along the ancient Silk Road. During their year-long ride from Nepal to Turkey, Harris (a Rhodes scholar with a Master’s from Oxford and M.I.T.) and Yule (an environmental scientist with a Master’s in international development) will use their scientific, environmental and sustainable development training to investigate the natural and social impacts of six unique transboundary protected areas. The goal is to raise awareness about environmental conservation across borders as a peace-building endeavor in transboundary wildernesses along the Silk Road and beyond.

The third grant will go to renowned ski mountaineer Greg Hill, who will attempt to climb and ski over two million vertical feet in 2010. Hill, who set a world record by climbing and skiing 50,000 feet in 24 hours, plans to seek out and explore new ski descents on mountains in Canada, the U.S. and South America over the course of the year. Throughout his quest, Hill will film and document each climb and descent, offering viewers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of backcountry skiing.

The final grant recipient is Jordan Romero from Big Bear, California who, at the age of 13, has climbed the highest peaks on six different continents. This spring, Romero intends to climb Mt. Everest and later this year, Mt. Vinson in Antarctica. In his attempt to become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, Romero has become a role model and mentor to other children, speaking at schools about climbing, exercise and the outdoors.

“The Polartec Challenge celebrates our heritage as a technical outdoor company by supporting dreams for big adventure,” states Global Director of Marketing, Nate Simmons. “Kelly is a terrific ambassador for the climbing world and his goal is truly ambitious; Kate and Mell will use their journey as a powerful tool for conservation; Greg is a machine on skis; and Jordan inspires a whole new generation of mountaineers.”

In addition to the grant money, all of this year’s Polartec® Challenge winners will be fully outfitted with Polartec® garments, designed to keep them warm, comfortable and dry in the harshest of climates.

About the Polartec® Challenge Grant
The annual Polartec® Challenge Grant seeks to assist frugal, low impact teams who respect the local culture and environment and serve as role models to outdoor enthusiasts worldwide. Applications are evaluated on the basis of their vision, commitment and credibility. Past recipients of the Polartec® Challenge Grant include outdoor pioneers and adventurers such as Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Steve House, Marko Prezelj, Andrew McLean and John Shipton.