Award for Alpinist And Modern Day Adventurer

Award for Alpinist And Modern Day Adventurer

Every year the Canterbury Mountaineering Club makes an award to an outstanding alpinist, either to honour a particularly difficult climb they have completed, or to celebrate an excellent climbing career.

This year the New Zealand Mountaineer of the Year will be awarded to Canterbury university lecturer and modern day adventurer Paul Knott, in recognition of his long history of high-end mountaineering in some of the remotest mountain ranges of the world.

Between 1990 and 2010 Paul took part in 22 climbing expedition – journeys taking him as far afield as the St Elias Range in Alaska, the Tien Shan Mountains in Central Asia and the Western Hajar Mountains in Oman. More often than not his ascents were of previously unclimbed peaks, and he has been, at times, the first visiting westerner to the area.

Originally from Great Britain, Paul came to New Zealand in 1999 to take up an academic position at Canterbury University. By that stage he had been mountaineering for ten years and had cemented his position as one of the top exploratory mountaineers in the world. Another ten years on and he has maintained a regime of one or two mountaineering expeditions every year, despite a demanding career. His last journey in 2009 saw him make the first ascent of a mountain in the remote Fairweather Range in Alaska, which he named “Fifty Years of Alaskan Statehood.”

Paul writes prolifically on his climbing and has had articles published in most of the alpine journals and publications in the world. He has only climbed Mt Cook once, but it was by the notoriously difficult and seldom climbed Caroline Face. A true modern day adventurer, he is never one to take the easy way.
The NZ Mountaineer of Year Award will be held on18 February at the Christchurch Girls High School Auditorium, Matai St West, 7.30pm, $5 entry

ENDS

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