First Ascent Announces Be First Sponsorship Recipients: Round 2

Awhile back, gear manufacturer First Ascent announced the first round of recipients of their Be First sponsorship program, with some very worth candidates picking up cash to help fund their expeditions. Today, the company has added more names to that list by announcing the second round of winners as well.

There are five winners this time out, with some very diverse projects to follow in the weeks and months ahead. The recipients include the following, which I pulled directly from the First Ascent Blog:

Expedition 2 Endure
On June 28th, Larry McKurtis begins his solo ride from Alaska to Argentina, approximately 16,000 miles on bicycle, unsupported. Taking trails and side roads, he will be pushing the limits of his equipment and his own determination. For approximately nine months Larry will be hard at work on this amazing adventure, so make sure to keep checking in on his progress.

Winter Denali Ascent
Confined to a snow cave for 12 days by a blizzard during her last attempt, Christine Feret is making another push to be the first woman to summit Denali in the winter. With an extensive background on Denali, Christine and her climbing partner Artur are already underway on training. With their sights set on February 1st, 2011 we’ll be able to follow them through their training and into the big climb.

88bike’s VILLAGES
88bikes has a very simple goal: to provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people who have been challenged to be their own heroes due to poverty, war, disease, conflict and other regional hardships. Throughout the summer of 2010 they will be reaching out to rural parts of Lesotho, Mongolia, Tanzania, Latin America and the Navajo Nation to give away approximately 1,000 bikes.

Idaho Speed Traverse
Truly a multi-sport endeavor, Steve Graepel, Christopher Minson and Jason Quinn will attempt to pioneer a variation of the Idaho Centennial Trail during a 15-day South-to-North traverse of Idaho. With more than 840 miles to cover by foot, raft and bike, they will need to average 56 miles per day. We will be highlighting their training over the next year building toward the final push in 2011.

Ski Across Alaska for PTSD
Combining a great adventure with a great focus, Michael Ferrara brings attention to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as it affects civilian ski patrollers, guides, firefighters, and many more who watch over the safety of others in the mountains and beyond. Joining him on this epic ski expedition are ski patroller Isabelle Day and avalanche search dog Lhotse.

Each of these sounds like quite the expedition, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more about them all in the future. The first to get underway is the Expedition to Endure, which kicks off in just a couple of weeks, with cyclist Larry McKurtis riding his bike from Deadhorse, Alaska all the way to Ushuaia, Argentina. A distance of 16,000 miles. (Yeah, but is he climbing Denali and Aconcagua in the process? ;))

If you'd like to apply for a Be First Sponsorship, click here to submit your next adventure. Then check out the video below for more information.