HMC To Name Nine Peaks

When the Harvard Mountaineering Club (HMC) turned 80 this past August, it celebrated the occasion with a landmark climbing expedition in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Now, the group hopes to carve its niche in posterity with some tributes of mountainous proportions.

The club, which was the first American group to explore the Central Borkoldoy range of these mountains, is allowed to name all nine peaks they mounted, in accordance with mountaineering tradition. The names they have tentatively assigned range from Peak Harvard to Peak Adventure—with one peak bearing a title that holds sentimental value for one particular member.

“The expedition was a manifestation of the growing years of the club and an encouragement for posterity,” said HMC President Lucas T. Laursen ‘06.

“Being somewhere no one in the world had ever been felt like being the first man on the moon,” said expedition member Corey M. Rennell ’07, who is also a Crimson editor.

The group is currently preparing an official report to the American Alpine Club, the Kyrgyzstan Alpine Club, and the International Mountaineering Federation in order to make their names official. The report will include the elevation and geographic coordinates of the mountain peaks.

“Legal naming of the mountain peaks might never happen, but the goal is to get approval from the mountaineering community,” Laursen said. “The naming of the mountains would also serve as identifiers for mountaineers who want to climb the mountains we climbed.”

For some, the newly bestowed names have a personal significance. Rennell said he hopes to name one peak after a mentor he had at a scout camp who died shortly before the club undertook its anniversary trek. Scott Powell instructed Rennell as a scoutmaster at Camp Gorsuch in Anchorage, Alaska, but died in a fire at a national Boy Scout jamboree shortly before the group embarked for Kyrgyzstan.

“If there is anyone who influenced my life, who I’d want to name this mountain after, it would be Powell,” Rennell said. “I’m giving back to someone who I thought I could never give back to by immortalizing the person through a 15,000-foot-high peak. [His] spirit deserves to be beyond the clouds.”

Laursen said the HMC supports Rennell in this dedication.

“Corey’s action speaks of the importance of Powell to the international scouting community and serves as a great gesture to Powell’s parents,” Laursen said.

Powell’s parents, Edward and Caroline Powell, said they are deeply touched by this gesture.

“Scott would have loved it; in fact, he would have loved to climb it,” said Powell’s mother.

The HMC will have a free slideshow presentation featuring images from its Kyrgyzstan expedition on Nov. 17 at 8:00 p.m. in Emerson Hall.