Urs Kallen wins Summit of Excellence award

Calgary’s Urs Kallen has been awarded

the prestigious Summit of Excel lence Award for his lifetime of achievements, contr ibutions and mentorship in the world of climbing. Kallen was born in Switzerland in 1943 and was an accomplished mountaineer by the time he ar r ived in Canada in 1965. He moved to Calgar y and over the last 45 years has been involved in al l aspects of climbing. He established dozens of route including the f irst ascent of Mount Fay and Mount Stan ley’s north faces, the f irst ascents of Yamnuska’s cmc Wall and Yellow Edge and early repeat ascents of the Bugaboos’ Beckey/Chouinard and the east face of Babel. Urs recently philosophized, “The early climbs, when you just get into climbing, are the most impressive ones. Later on, you go climbing looking for that same feeling, but you don’t really get it any more. You know too much, and the only way you can get that kind of exper ience is by pushing the dif f iculties.”