The financial costs of learning, developing and certifying mountaineering skills can be substantial, particularly for young people. Through the Jim Colpitts Memorial Scholarhip, we aim to help out with those financial costs.

Each year, the ACC awards a scholarship (approximately $500) to an Albertan between 17 and 24 years old to dedicate toward an avalanche, wilderness first aid, mountain leadership, ACMG training or other mountain course.

Jim Colpitts spent much of his youth in the mountain parks of Alberta where he participated as both a student and instructor in the Wilderness Groups of the YMCA. Jim rose to the physical and mental challenges of the mountains and became an avid skier, climber and hiker. He would be pleased with his legacy of providing opportunities for other young men and women to pursue the experiences that shaped his life.

In 1991, The Alpine Club of Canada received a donation from Dolena Colpitts to establish a Memorial Scholarship Fund in the name of her son, Jim Colpitts. Each year, two scholarships are made available as a result of the generosity of Mrs. Colpitts. Applicants to this Fund must be Albertans who are between the ages of 17 and 24 years.

Like many Calgarians, the mountains of Jim’s youth were the Kananaskis and the Assiniboine regions. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Jim was active in these regions with the Y.M.C.A. Wilderness 1 group, both as a student and as a counsellor. The instructors with this group were young and aggressive and somewhat given to the “British hardman” approach to mountaineering. This suited Jim well because he was physically strong and rose to the mental challenge of endurance.

A good day in the mountains was a hard day in the mountains. Like all young men, Jim’s physical abilities were stronger than his judgment and this led to many epics which only deepened his relationship with the mountains. Through his teens and 20’s, Jim was active as a skier, climber and hiker and this was a constant in an ever changing life. “I’m sad that Jim couldn’t have lived longer to see some of the things we’ve done and seen in the mountains since his death, but I’m also glad he hasn’t seen some of the things that are happening now to our mountains.”

Jim would be pleased to know that his “official” legacy to the mountains is an opportunity for someone else to have the intense relationship with them that he did, and to have the experience affect their lives to the great degree it did Jim’s.