In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
> How did you go about getting such impressive funding for your expedition?
>
> Could you give other young alpinists out there some hints and tips.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mick
Hi Mick,
British Mountaineering is really well supported by a number of very generous grants. Getting them is quite straight forward if one for fills the requirements. As a young team with an ambitious, technical, yet exploratory objective we ticked all the boxes. However we have put the work in, between the three of us we have filled out an awful lot of paper work and sent out a lot of emails. Although our efforts have paid of massively.
Before we begin applying for grants, funding and gear we compiled a short dossier on our expedition - a sort of expedition proposal. This had details of who we were, what we'd climbed, our objective, a picture, a quote from Sir Chris, a budget and details of our media arrangements. This was saved as a two page PDF and sent out with covering email/letter to everyone we applied to.
This was a two page document (don't make it any longer), which summarised us and our trip succinctly.
Also, when approaching companies be realistic, as much as they may think your trip is amazing, most companies simple cannot afford to throw gear at you. Be clear in what you can offer them in return and ask sooner rather than later. Marketing department's budgets get eaten up very quickly.
I'd meet Sir Chris Bonington in 2008 and when I interviewed him for the BMC's Summit Magazine. During the earlier stages of expedition planning I got in touch with him asking for advice. He was very happy for us to use his name as patron and has been extremely helpful and supportive.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.
Cheers,
Tom