Adventure Awards

The club has an illustrious history of adventurous ski touring and ski mountaineering trips to all corners of the globe, many of which have been supported, in part, by club grants. Drawing on a donation from Roger Childs and supplemented by Club funds, an annual award is available to assist Eagle Ski Club members (particularly younger members) to organise or take part in ski touring or ski mountaineering tours that may be challenging, adventurous, exploratory or in some way different than a standard club tour. The definition of an adventurous trip is broad and it is emphasised that an adventurous tour does not have to be to a remote or far-away mountain range, though it can be.

• The trip must have been advertised to all club members either as a Club Tour or member-organised activity, and the award must be used for the benefit of all members of the trip (who must all be ESC members).
• All Eagle Ski Club members are eligible and in particular younger members (aged under 35) are encouraged to apply.
• The trip must involve ski touring or ski mountaineering - not just the use of skis to reach a climbing objective.
• Trips will only be supported if they are well researched and have the organisation and leadership in place to stand a reasonable chance of meeting their objectives.
• Recipients of Adventure Awards are encouraged to minimise the carbon impact of their trip and are required to offset the carbon cost of their tour. Advice on how to do this is available at http://www.eagleskiclub.org.uk/low-carbon-travel/offsets
• Successful applicants are required to write a report on the use of the award for publication in the Eagle Ski Club Yearbook and are strongly encouraged to write-up a more detailed expedition report as future reference material for subsequent adventurers.

Criteria

The criteria which will be used to determine whether an award should be granted and the size of the award are listed below. Note that this is a list of factors, and not a scoresheet - it is recognised that different expeditions and trips will focus on some criteria and not others:

• Whether an Adventure Award would make a difference to whether or not the trip went ahead.
• The need for external funding to pay for large costs e.g. hire or purchase of specialised equipment, peak fees, specialised transport costs (e.g. helicopters, yachts etc).
• The innovative or exploratory nature of the trip e.g. if the trip is to a remote or little visited area, or has the potential for first ascents or first ski traverses, or supports an innovative visit to a more well-known area closer to home.
• The prestige value to the club of being associated with the trip (if it meets its objectives).
• How it minimises the environmental and carbon impact
• The number of club members who would have an opportunity to take part in the trip (although obviously there may be practical limits to the size of a team).
• The opportunity for club members who have work and family commitments to take part e.g. by limiting the duration of the trip.
• Does the proposed trip foster independence and leadership in less-experienced members?

Application process

The link to the application form, which includes submission instructions, can be found below. Applications should be submitted by the 31st December prior to the trip however applications may be accepted at other times – please contact the Adventure Officer.  If appropriate, and particularly for expeditions to remote or new areas, attach maps, photographs and plans which would help reviewers assess the feasibility of the proposed trip. The application will be reviewed by a small working group consisting of the Adventure Officer, Tour Secretary and appropriate members of the Committee including, as appropriate, other experienced ski tourers who may have knowledge of the proposed area.

Current Adventure Officer

The current Adventure Officer is Dave Smith who can be contacted at dave563@gmail.com for more information or to discuss plans and ideas prior to making an application.