The American Alpine Club has announced two more recipients of its 2026 Cutting Edge Grants. The program continues to back exploratory alpinism in remote ranges, with a focus on unclimbed peaks, difficult new routes, first free ascents, and low-impact style.
The Saltoro Karakoram
Dane Steadman receives $5,000 to attempt the north buttress of 6,621m Gharkun (also spelled Charkun) in the Saltoro Mountains of Pakistan’s Karakoram. The team aims for what could be the first ascent of the true summit.
A 1976 Japanese expedition led by Haruki Sugiyama approached from the east, with varying reports on whether they reached the main summit. Steadman’s team will come from the north, targeting a new line on the prominent buttress.
Steadman will team up with Grant Stewart, Zac Colbran (new route on Mount Huntington, Alaska, 2023), and Cody Winckler.
“This will be [our] first trip together since Huntington,” said Steadman, “after dreaming of climbing in the Karakoram together as budding alpinists years earlier.”
Steadman, who is based in Cody, Wyoming, previously used Cutting Edge Grants for the first ascent of Yashkuk Sar I (north side) in the Karakoram and a new route on the northeast face of Pik Alpinist in Kyrgyzstan.
The Ogre and the Latok groups include some of the world’s most challenging peaks for elite climbers. Photo: Thomas Huber
Ogre II
Ethan Berkeland receives $7,000 to attempt a new route on the 6,960m Ogre II (Baintha Brakk II) on the Choktoi Glacier, in Pakistan’s Panmah Muztagh. This would mark only the second ascent of the peak.
The team will include August Franzen (recent Piolet d’Or recipient), and Vitaliy Musiyenko. They are dedicating the climb to their late friend and partner, Balin Miller, with whom the project was originally planned. Miller, a rising star known for bold solos, including the first solo of the Slovak Direct on Denali, died in a rappelling accident on El Capitan in 2025.
Berkeland is a past recipient of the AAC Mountaineering Fellowship Fund Grant, which supported climbs in Alaska’s Hayes Range.
The new grants follow earlier awards to Chantel Astorga and Tad McCrea.
