The VIMFF Coast Mountain Adventure Grant presented by Arc'teryx
Applications are now being accepted for this year’s VIMFF Coast Mountain Adventure Grant presented by Arc’teryx: a grant to enable local explorers and adventurers to undertake their dream expeditions.
The VIMFF Coast Mountain Adventure Grant will award a total of $3000 to local adventurers who have exploratory and human powered objectives in the Coast Mountains of the Pacific North West. Our aim is to support Canadian adventures in our own backyard, while promoting a multitude of outdoor pursuits and bringing the resulting story to the VIMFF stage for our community to enjoy.
The VIMFF Coast Mountain Adventure Grant presented by Arc'teryx is now closed for applications.
2023 Recipients: The Waddington Loop - Ethan Berman & Matteo Agnoloni
The Waddington Loop: High Alpine Circumnavigation of the Waddington Range
The Waddington Range is comprised of the highest and most technical peaks in BC, including the tallest in the province, Mount Waddington (4,019m). The range has a history of cutting-edge alpine climbing, with major ascents dating back to the 1930s. Due to the range’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean, it experiences extreme weather and climbing trips are commonly associated with epic stories. Our main objective is to complete a circumnavigation of the nine major peaks in the range, including the five Serra Peaks, Tiedemann, Asperity, Combatant, and Waddington. These peaks form a horseshoe, and although they have been traversed before twice, no team has ever completed a full circumnavigation, starting and finishing at the same location, as a complete loop. We also plan to climb in the reverse direction as the other two teams, adding some level of new terrain to the traverse. We expect our objective to take 5 days, involving 24 km of complex mountain travel, 4500 m of elevation gain, and climbing grades up to 5.9 WI4 M5.
Ethan Berman
Born in India and looked after by a Tibetan nanny, it was only a matter of time before Ethan found his calling in high mountain landscapes. With climbing roots sewn between craggy outcrops in Thailand and granite monoliths in Yosemite, in recent years he has focused on alpinism, which has taken him to the Himalaya, Andes, Saint Elias, and Alaska Range, and kept him busy at home in the Canadian Rockies. Ethan was awarded the 2021 Piolet D’or for his new route on the Emperor Face of Mt. Robson with Uisdean Hawthorn. His writing has been featured in both the American and Canadian Alpine Journal and he maintains a blog of words and images from his favorite adventures at www.ethanclimbs.com. Ethan also connects to the landscapes that inspire him through researching changes to snow and vegetation dynamics using satellite imagery.
Matteo Agnoloni
Matteo, a rare homegrown North Vancouverite, was introduced to the coastal mountains early on in his childhood through his parents’ adventures. He developed his own passion in the mountains later on in life, and now finds joy in climbing the steep crack climbs on the Stawamus Chief in the summer, chases the often-poor conditions in the local North Shore Mountains during the winter, and dreams of that perfect alpine bivy. When he’s not fighting gravity, you may find him with his wife and dogs on a beach somewhere watching people surf, wishing he could do the same.
