Kris McDivitt Tompkins to Keynote 2020 American Alpine Club Annual Benefit Dinner in Denver, CO

May 22, 2019

Golden, CO (May 22, 2019) — The American Alpine Club, the country’s oldest and largest climbing advocacy organization, is thrilled to announce that the club’s 2020 Annual Benefit Dinner will be returning to the Denver area with conservationist Kris McDivitt Tompkins to keynote the event. The weekend event is scheduled to take place March 13-15, 2020 with the Annual Benefit Dinner scheduled for Saturday, March 14th.

Following graduation from college in 1973, Kris joined friend Yvon Chouinard to help grow and manage his small climbing equipment business into Patagonia, Inc., one of the world’s largest makers of outdoor equipment and apparel. As CEO of Patagonia, Kris guided the company toward becoming both a leading outdoor retailer and a force for social good.

Kris retired from Patagonia in 1993 and married climber/entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins— co-founder of The North Face and Esprit. Together Kris and Doug embarked on a new mission to restore and re-wild landscapes across Chile and Argentina. Most recently, Kris completed the largest private land donation in history, with over one million acres donated towards creating or expanding ten national parks across Chile. To date, Tompkins Conservation has helped conserve more than 14.2 million acres.

The American Alpine Club’s Annual Benefit Dinner always promises to be an inspirational and fun gathering of the climbing community to celebrate achievement, reflect on our values, and raise money for on-going work to protect climbing landscapes, build and nurture community, and support the advancement of climbing.

For more information and to save the date, please visit:

https://americanalpineclub.org/annual-benefit-dinner

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB

The American Alpine Club has a storied legacy of funding climbing, conservation, and research projects in North America and around the world. AAC grants have been responsible for encouraging thousands of climbers to dream big and push their limits; for pioneering hundreds of cutting-edge new routes of remote and major peaks around the world; for improving infrastructure at climbing areas across the country; and funding scientific research expeditions that have contributed valuable information to our understanding of the worlds mountain ecosystems. The AAC gives more than $150,000 annually to projects that support the betterment of the climbing community and environment. Join us at: americanalpineclub.org