WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT AMERICAN ALPINE INSTITUTE:
"The best all-around climbing school and guide service in North America."
Jon Krakauer, Outside
Magazine (author of Into Thin Air)
"American Alpine Institute is the top training ground for mountaineers, guides,
and mountain
leaders, but lots of beginners start at AAI too. USA Today
"America's top climbing school." Travel and Leisure
"Excellence in a guide service." Forbes Magazine
"With over 25 years of experience from one end of the continent to the other, AAI
is by far the most experienced mountain guide service in the Andes." Adventure Travel
"The country's most respected and thorough rock climbing and mountaineering courses."
Men's
Journal
"AAI is the Harvard of climbing schools." Matt Mooney, New York Times
"Simply the best climbing school and guide service in America." Backpacker Magazine
A Quick Overview of American Alpine Institute
by AAI's Director Dunham Gooding
Dear Climber:
The American Alpine Institute was founded in 1975, and as we have done consistently in our 28 years, when each person climbs
with us we are dedicated to helping them raise their skills, protect the environments in which they climb, develop good mountain
judgement, and gain both technical and leadership skills so that they can safely access the great mountains of the world.
Though the Institute is especially well known for its leadership training and its expeditions, our international reputation is
based on our dedication to teaching, excellent customer service, and the outstanding technical, teaching, wilderness medicine,
and guiding skills of our staff. Whether on a course or a guided ascent, AAI climbers always go home impressed with how much
they have advanced their skills, judgement, and likelihood of being a consistently safe climber.
Our Commitment to the Environment
While we deeply appreciate that many individual climbers and reviewers in the media have called us the best climbing school and
guide service in the nation because of our accomplishments with climbers in the field, we believe of equal importance is our
work in the areas of environmental protection, public lands policy, and funding for public lands administration.
In addition to incorporating Leave No Trace practices and ethics in all AAI programs since our beginning in 1975, the Institute
was also instrumental in establishing LNT as an independent non-profit organization in 1994, and in that same year led a
successful national effort to get America's guide services and individual mountain guides alike to commit to LNT as their
official environmental ethic and protective practices program.
Additionally, to maintain the public's recreational opportunities in backcountry and wilderness areas (primarily through
provision of adequate staffing levels in land management agencies and adequate funding for the maintenance of roads and trails),
AAI works annually in the federal legislative process to gain Congressional support for National Park Service, National Forest
Service, and Bureau of Land Management annual budgets, as well as for special allocations intended to reduce the massive
maintenance backlogs with which these agencies are burdened.
This is the world of AAI:
- rewarding mountain adventures in six states and twelve countries;
- a dedication to helping beginner and experienced climbers broaden their skills and helping them become safe, knowledgeable,
independent climbers;
- a philosophical and practical commitment to the protection of the natural environment; and
- a commitment to facilitating similar outdoor adventures of personal growth, discovery, and achievement for generations to
come through the expansion, protection, and maintenance of public recreation lands.
We hope you will join us for rewarding work together in all these areas of endeavor.
Sincerely,
Dunham Gooding, Director
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