Five Cutting Edge Grants to the Greater Ranges Awarded in 2025

Every year, the Cutting Edge Grants awarded by the American Alpine Club and Black Diamond encourage the best alpine-style expeditions attempted by U.S. climbers. In 2025, the five successful applicants will head for Kishtwar Shivling and Latok III in India; Ultar Sar and Rimo lll in the Karakoram, and Dorje Lhakpa in Nepal.

The 120-year-old American Alpine Club uses a total of $25,000 to support exploratory alpinism “to remote areas featuring unexplored mountain ranges, unclimbed peaks, difficult new routes, first free ascents, or similar world-class pursuits.”

The jury especially favors low-impact, leave-no-trace expeditions. The 2025 grantees are:

Kishtwar Shivling

Vitaliy Musiyenko will receive $6,000 to attempt a new route with Sean McLane up the southwest face of 6,000m Kishtwar Shivling in Kashmir, India.

Kishtwar Shivling. Photo: American Alpine Club

Over the last decade, the Kishtwar range has drawn front-line climbers, including Musiyenko, who climbed White Sapphire (6,040m) with Christian Black and Hayden Wyatt in 2023.

However, Kishtwar Shivling has been rarely summited. Stephen Venables and Dick Renshaw reached the main summit in 1983. No other parties have reached the top since then. Andreas Abegglen, Thomas Senf, and Stephan Siegrist of Switzerland reached the East summit in 2014, and Italians Tomas Franchini, Silvestro Franchini, Nicola Binelli, and Luca Cornella reached the top of the East Pillar in 2015. At the time, the East Pillar was considered one of the hardest unsolved problems in the Himalaya.

Rimo III

Michael Hutchins, also awarded $6,000, will attempt the 1,600m southwest face of Rimo lll, together with Stefano Ragazzo and Piolet d’Or winner Chris Wright.

Southwest face of Rimo III. Photo: American Alpine Club

This remote peak lies in the eastern Karakoram, India. Hutchins and Chris Wright discovered it when Wright caught a glimpse of the Rimo peaks after a 2012 expedition, the AAC reports.Stefano Ragazzo recently rope-soloed Eternal Flame on Nameless Tower in Pakistan; Wright received the Piolet d’Or in 2020 for his team’s ascent of Link Sar; and Hutchins has climbed six of the seven major peaks in the Fitz Roy massif.

Latok III

The third grant of $4,000 will allow leader Tad McCrea and partners Jon Giffin and Thomas Huber of Germany to return to the Choktoi Glacier and the north side of the Latoks, from which they previously attempted Latok I. This time, the goal is the unsummited southeast pillar of Latok III (6,949m).

Latok III has been summited five times before:

•⁠ 1979 (Japanese, Southwest Ridge)
•⁠ ⁠1988 (Italian, Southwest Ridge)
•⁠ ⁠2005 (Spanish, Southwest Ridge, Alpine style)
•⁠ ⁠2007 (French, Southwest Ridge, Alpine style)
•⁠ ⁠2011 (Russian, West Face)

Huber is currently working on a new route on the North Face of the Eiger.

Latok III with rock faces and a snow-capped summit ridge

Latok III from the Choktoi Glacier. Photo: Thomas Huber

Ultar Sar

Speaking of new opportunities for unfinished projects, there’s $5,000 for Ethan Berman, Maarten van Haeren, and Sebastian Pelletti to try again the mind-blowingly hard southeast pillar of 7,388m Ultar Sar in the Karakoram. Berman, van Haeren, and Pelletti launched three attempts at this so-called “hidden” pillar in 2024. Each time, they reached a bit higher up a highly complex route. Finally, they turned around at a hanging glacier at 6,000m due to dangerous snow conditions.

A climber on an overhanging mixed section of a face.

The 2024 attempt on Ultar Sar. Photo: Ethan Berman

“The route is a striking 3,000m line, with the lower half of the route consisting of 1,500m of steep snow and ice climbing with a couple of mixed steps, and the upper half consisting of a 1,500m stunning rock pillar that cuts a line through the sky all the way to the summit,” the AAJ reported.

Dorje Lhakpa

Finally, Alaska resident and regular climbing and skiing partners Zach Lovell, Joseph Hobby, and Nepal-born Japhy Dhungana have a $4,000 grant to attempt a new route on 6,966m Dorje Lhakpa in the Jugal Himal. The peak is in the Langtang region on the border with Tibet but just 55km northeast of Kathmandu. On clear days, it is visible from the Nepalese capital. A Japanese team first summited the peak in 1981.

Dorje Lakpa with the ridges leading to the summit covered in corniced snow

Dorje Lhakpa. Photo: Nepal Peak Profile

The team has not detailed where they plan to open the new route, but the AAC notes that the climb “will involve over 1,000m of technical climbing from 5,900m to 6,900m.”

Mikel Zabalza, Mikel Inoriza, and Iker Madoz of Spain made the last important climb on Dorje Lhakpa when they completed the first route on the peak’s south side.

To receive a Cutting Edge grant, you must be a U.S. citizen and a member of the American Alpine Club. The application period goes from October 1 through the end of the year. Read more here.