On behalf of Alpina Watches and the American Alpine Club, Hayden Kennedy and Kyle Dempster have been selected to receive the first annual Alpina AAC Cutting Edge Award for their outstanding 2012 accomplishment in establishing two new routes in Pakistan's Karakoram, the east face of K7 and the south face of Ogre I.

The Alpina AAC Cutting Edge Award will be presented each year to one climbing team who, with the aid of an AAC climbing grant, demonstrates excellency in skills and accomplishment in cutting edge climbing objectives and who upholds the values of the American Alpine Club, acting as world-class ambassadors to American climbing both domestically and abroad. Hayden and Kyle's 2012 achievements in Pakistan were funded in part through the AAC's Lyman Spitzer grant.

Read about the ascents.

Honoring the deep traditions of style, ethics, and the “Brotherhood of the Rope,” The Alpina AAC Cutting Edge Award will recognize one climbing team who, with the aid of an AAC climbing grant, demonstrated excellence in climbing, upheld the values of the American Alpine Club and Alpina Watches, and acted in a manner befit a world-class ambassador to American climbing both domestically and abroad.

“Alpina is a great partnership for this new award. Both the AAC and Alpina believe in high standards of performance and promoting those climbers who employ exceptional style both on and off the mountain,” said Phil Powers, CEO of the American Alpine Club. “The Cutting Edge Award celebrates great climbing achievement with an emphasis on admirable camaraderie within the team, and a real respect for the environments which they travel.”

“Climbing has no boundaries and no nationality. Climbers from all over the world share the same human, ethical and sports values, because the mountain demands and deserves them” says Guido Benedini, Alpina Watches CEO. “Being a Brand born in the Swiss Alps in 1883, since more than a century, we regard it as our responsibility to support mountaineering values and the protection of the Alpine environment. We are therefore extremely proud to give our contribution to the AAC by supporting the Alpina AAC Cutting Edge Award and by becoming their Official Watch”.