WESTERN MICHIGAN CHAPTER
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Email: westmichiganchapter@americanalpineclub.org
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Meet Your Chapter Leaders
Kathryn Kelly
Chapter Chair
If you ask Katie when she started climbing, she'll say, "Well, I was four years old the first time I got stuck in a tree..." Always a climber, Katie started rock-climbing at an indoor gym when she was 27. When she found the sport, she started finding herself. Climbing was the first time she ever felt graceful and says she finally found a use for her "Monkey arms and man hands." Climbing has been a gift and now she enjoys introducing new climbers to the sport in hopes they experience the same joys. Katie is a mom to an awesome adopted son. She works full time in marketing and part-time as a virtual health and fitness motivator. She lives in Grand Rapids, MI and travels every chance she gets!
Danny McGee
Chapter Co-Chair
I started climbing in high school at Carder Rock outside of Washington DC in 2002. I have more or less stuck with the sport since then; climbing with really amazing people across the country. After college I spent 4 weeks backpacking in WY as part of a NOLS mountaineering course. The course included my first multi-pitch climb, and I was hooked on my favorite type of climbing, long, sustained, easy, multi-pitch rock climbs. In 2010 I moved to Cheyenne WY, and to pass the winter in Wyoming I explored ice climbing in Cody, Ouray, and Estes Park; Let it be known that ice climbing is NOT my favorite type of climbing. My favorite climb that I've done is Hallet's Peak in Estes. My favorite area is Red Rocks in NV. My favorite local crag is Veadauwoo, WY or Carder Rock, MD.
Charlie Hall Treasurer
I began climbing in 2006 during my freshman year at Western Michigan University. Since then, climbing has been a deciding factor in almost every facet of life. Bouldering is my primary focus but I don't let that take anything away from my love of spending the night in a bivy in the alpine, grinding up some huge Red Rocks sandstone walls, or fighting the pump on the overhanging walls of the Red River Gorge. Development of the community and climbing education are also very important to me, whether it's helping to create climbing infrastructure in local parks or offering instruction to new climbers, I love to see climbing grow!