Appalachian Mountain Club

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The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C. The AMC reported a membership of nearly 90,000 in 2005, who mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with environmental activism. It has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips and activities per year.

The AMC was founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Edward Pickering, who invited fellow Boston academics and vacationers to form a group interested in mountain exploration. The group helped map the White Mountains and in 1888 built the first of eight High Huts in the range, designed after similar facilities in the Alps that gave hikers a place to take shelter.

In 2003, the AMC purchased 37,000 acres (150 km²) of land east of Moosehead Lake and southwest of Baxter State Park, along the 100-Mile Wilderness portion of the Appalachian Trail, as part of their Maine Woods Initiative. They have converted a portion of the purchase to a nature preserve, logged a portion, and are running a sporting camp called Little Lyford Pond camps about two miles away from the trail. They are considering purchasing more sporting camps in the vicinity.

Organization

The AMC headquarters is located at 5 Joy St. in Boston. There is a small paid staff at this address. The activities are run largely by volunteers who are members of twelve chapters which are geographical in nature. The most prominent of these is the Boston chapter, but there are also chapters in New Hampshire, Connecticut, NY-NJ, Washington, D. C. and several other areas.

The High Huts

Main article: High Huts of the White Mountains

The AMC owns and maintains a series of eight alpine huts in the White Mountains modeled after similar huts in The Alps. Hikers can reserve overnight bunks at the huts, which hold from 36 people to 90 people each. At most huts, the reservation includes dinner and breakfast.

Although extremely popular, the huts are also controversial, since they allow thousands of people to enter the back woods and environmentally sensitive areas above tree line. It took four years of effort, including the sort of environmental impact statement more commonly associated with industrial activity, to get the huts' permits renewed by the U.S. Forest Service in 1999.

The Four Thousand Footer Club

A committee of the AMC administers the Four Thousand Footer Club (FTFC). Anyone who has climbed to and from each of the 48 New Hampshire Four-thousand footers is eligible to apply for membership to the club. Members are given a patch and new inductees are invited to attend a yearly celebration dinner. The FTFC also recognizers individuals who complete the New England Four Thousand Footers (of which there are 67) and the New England Hundred Highest.

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