An Open Letter to Ritt Fund Applicants:

Please read the following carefully. Applicants planning their own expedition:
The Ritt Fund Advisory Committee wants students to understand that their expeditions should be responsibly planned and crafted with an emphasis and concern for their own well-being and safety.

All applicants:
Although the Committee looks to criteria to review grant applications and strives to select responsible participants to receive Ritt grant funds, Colorado College and Ritt Fund staff and volunteers do not oversee, supervise or take responsibility for any aspect of the expedition or other activity that participants choose to undertake.

You must understand that, in developing your own expedition, engaging in one guided by an outside organization, or in participating in outdoor education activities, your safety and well-being is not guaranteed. Outdoor or wilderness adventure or educational activities include inherent and other risks that cannot be predicted or controlled, and that can lead to minor or serious injury, property damage, or even death. Expeditions may take place in remote, mountainous and difficult terrain and often involve hiking, rafting, mountaineering, including technical rock and ice climbing, glacier travel and other activities. Inherent and other risks can include high altitudes, difficult terrain, sudden and severe weather, falling rock, and avalanche danger. Even well-planned trips, run by the most experienced guides, can result in accidents, injury and death.

In receiving Ritt grant funds, and/or participating in a Ritt funded trip, you agree to accept responsibility for every aspect of the expedition or activity that you participate in, including the inherent and other risks of those activities. You will also be expected to sign the Participant Acknowledgment and Assumption of Risks & Release and Indemnity Agreement. Please refer to that Document (see the forms page) for a description of some of the risks associated with Ritt Fund activities, and your responsibilities.

Please pay attention to the criteria below and also in the proposal section. The success of your proposal and more importantly your trip, depends on preparing a thorough proposal. We have rejected numerous incomplete proposals in the past. Please sign the agreement as part of your proposal. All CC students requesting funding are required to sign this agreement.

Sincerely,
The Ritt Kellogg Fund Advisory Committee

Additional Notes
Expeditions are typically funded from $800-$1200/person based on a variety of factors and wilderness trainings (NOLS, etc) are funded at $500/person. You are responsible for coming up with additional funding if you are not funded in full.

Trips outside of Canada and the USA will not be funded unless the recipient is taking an educational course or with a legitimate guide service.

We are more apt to fund plane tickets that originate from Colorado Springs and terminate in Colorado Springs. If they originate/terminate from another location we may fund them if the rate of travel is comparable to a ticket from Colorado Springs.

The equipment owned by the Ritt Kellogg Fund is reserved for the use of supervised courses and instruction. The equipment is not available for expedition groups to borrow or rent.