Washington D.C. Section
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Email: washingtondc@americanalpineclub.org
Chapters:
Meet your Section Leaders
Piotr Andrzejczak
Chair
Piotr Andrzejczak picked up climbing in the Washington DC area, discovering the Potomac Mountaineering Club and the American Alpine Club – Washington DC Section. As the seasons change so does the climbing on the east coast. Spring, summer and fall were spent at the local DC crags, Seneca Rocks and New River Gorge. Winters were spent ice climbing in the northeast.
Piotr received the Live Your Dream Grant in 2014 taking a team of 4 to the Alaska Range climbing technical peaks around Denali. Since then he has returned to the Alaska Range multiple times. While on a work assignment to San Diego, CA. Piotr and Jonathan established the San Diego Chapter, unifying Southern California climbing community while sending local SoCal crags, high sierra granite and learning to surf. To Piotr it’s about “mentorship, education, conservation and community.” We are excited Piotr has returned to the DC area and part of the DC Section Leadership as the Social Chair.
Elliott Becker
Policy and Advocacy Volunteer Chair
Elliott Becker is also a native of D.C., though he started climbing on the limestone walls of the Greenbelt in Austin in 2012. Since then, he has pursued climbing in all forms and disciplines and has climbed all over the U.S. and the world.
A peripatetic climber, his favorite crag is the next one he is exploring. A member of the AAC for a number of years, he believes absolutely in the critical importance of climbing being an open and democratic endeavor. Regardless, his guiding philosophy remains, "I just really like climbing."
Melissa Rojas (she/they)
Communications Co-Chair
Melissa Rojas (she/they) is a new climber who began climbing shortly before the pandemic in early 2020. As restrictions have lifted, Melissa has taken every opportunity to climb since then. She credits her love of climbing to the welcoming and supportive people she’s met in the climbing community.
Melissa believes that fostering and establishing strong culturally diverse and ability diverse groups within the climbing community is key to true accessibility. In 2021, she created ¡Escala DC!, a climbing group that seeks to make climbing linguistically and culturally accessible to Spanish-speakers in the Washington, D.C. area.
Melissa’s approach to climbing: “Climbing isn’t about getting to the top. Climbing is about pushing past your boundary. The top is wherever you thought you couldn’t go.”
Sean Taft-Morales
Section Education Chair
Born and raised in the DC area, Sean Taft-Morales fell in love with climbing at the age of 12 and never looked back. As a teenager without a car, Sean would trade climbing and belay lessons for rides to Carderock. From the beginning, teaching others how to climb as a way of sharing the experience, has been central to the joy and ethos of climbing for them.
Now with more than a decade of professional experience, Sean holds certifications with the American Mountain Guides Association as a Rock Instructor and Single Pitch Instructor Program Provider, in addition to serving as Director of Sportrock’s Alexandria location and Outdoor Programs. Whether tackling Yosemite big-walls, enjoying mixed routes in the French Alps, or exploring out-of-the-way crags in the highlands of Guatemala or mountains of Afghanistan, they are driven to find the most beautiful climbing venues in the world.
As a queer and Latinx climber, Sean is passionate about removing barriers to access and believes that the trust and community they have found through climbing can help build solidarity and connect communities around the world.
Court Zabel
Social Chair
Pronouns: he/him
Court Zabel is a native of the Washington, DC area who discovered his love of the mountains while climbing with family in the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest. Court first connected with the DC area climbing community through the Mountaineering Section of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) , where he found friends and mentors who introduced him to a wide variety of climbing.
Although the local crags like Great Falls will always be home, Court enjoys climbing all over and all year round: Summers are for cragging from the Gunks, to the New, & Seneca in between; winters are for climbing ice in Ouray, CO, the Northeast, and even Arlington, VA; while shoulder seasons are for training (& mixed climbing).
Court believes in climbing as a lifelong pursuit where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can challenge themselves both mentally and physically while enjoying the simple joy of movement. He is excited to help build a vibrant, diverse & supportive community of climbers in the DC Section.
Diane Kerns
North Fork Valley Advocate
Diane has been climbing since 1989 and been a member of the AAC since 1996. Diane was the first American woman to cross Greenland’s icecap in 1999 and she and her husband Arthur made the first ascent of the Mohawk in the Schweizerland area of the east coast of Greenland in 2001.
Diane has summited Rainier, Elbrus, Gunnsbjornfeld , Dome and Cone, the three highest peaks in Greenland. She has also made attempts on Denali, Ama Dablam, Baruntse, Illimani, Mt Forel, and Rytterknaegen and climbed in the Alps, the Adamants and the Pickett range. Diane is a co-owner of the Seneca Rocks Climbing School and the Gendarme at Seneca Rocks W.V.
Ajeeth Ibrahim
Communications Chair
Ajeeth has been climbing since 2011, after having had his first experience with the sport on sea cliffs at
Pembroke in the UK. He first learned about climbing after picking up a book from the Scholastic Book
Fair in elementary school but didn’t know how to get into the sport until study abroad at the University
of Southampton and joining the Southampton University Mountaineering Club. Since then, he has found
many fulfilling areas within the sport and is looking forward to developing skills and knowledge within
alpine and ice climbing.
In climbing, he has been most grateful for the mix of adventure, pushing of physical and mental
boundaries, and sense of community within the sport. He looks forward to helping people find and
pursue their own objectives within climbing and the community that are meaningful to them.