Mountain Training

It's been a while since I've been able to write much, so I'll have ot combine this weekend and last weekend in one. On June 3rd, my climbing class did our self arrest field trip at Mt. Rainier. We spent most of the day at on the mountain learning to travel roped, identify avalanche hazards and self arrest with an ice ax. The weather was horrible and completely sunny. I didn't get sunburned because I lathered on sunscreen every hour almost. I also had a lot of fun glissading. On the drive up to Paradise I saw a red fox on the road, which I've never seen before and may never see again. On June 7, was the classroom portion of the crevasse rescue training. It was a great experience to climb up the inside of the college snack bar. This is what college shold be all about. On June 10, we headed back to paradise for the field training in crevasse rescue. It was the longest day trip I've ever spent in the mountains, since we spent 12 hours on the mountain and I was away from home from 0500 to 2230. Despite being tiring, I had a great time. I love every minute that I spend in this class and these field trips are no exception. We spent some more time practicing basic climbing techniques and then we roped up and headed out on the Nisqually glacier to find a crevasse. The snow was thick, so it took us some time to find even a small one. It was 1200 by the time we got to it and started the main event for the day. For the next 4 hours, the students took turns roping up and dropping into the small crevasse and thing climbing out on prussik slings. Both of the times that I've done this training, I've been nervous at the start because I'm afraid of heights. When my turn came I tied in, hesitated for a moment and then swung out and started to climb.

After I climbed a few feet, and instructor told me that I had started in the wrong spot and need to restart a few feet to my left. So with some trouble I untied and moved a few feet to the left so that I would be on two anchors and then restarted. The overhanging edge of the crevasse was very difficult to climb up because the rope was tight against the ice wall and I could not get the rope away from the wall enough to move the knots on the prussic slings up the rope. The instructor offered me another sling to help me climb up the final five feet, but I wanted to try to do it on my own first. I tried to clip in a carabiner to the rope at about chest level to use as a handhold, but that didn’t help me much. After sitting back in my harness for several minutes and thinking, I finally had the idea to take my ski cap, fold it up and put it under the rope to get it off the ice and enable me to move the knots up. By doing this a few times, I was able to get up another 2 feet and from there I just clawed my way up the last 5 feet to the top. I was proud of doing it by my own resources, but sad that the best part of the day was over. I walked back down to the rest of the class, dug myself a hole in the snow, lay down on my pack and went to sleep. Later on a few of us played hide and seek with the avalanche beacons. The weather was beautiful all day. It was warm, but not horribly so, and there was scattered cloud cover that made it beautiful. I’m climbing Mt Baker with the class in 4 weeks and I can’t wait.

More pictures to follow in a few days…
And Here they are...
This is me at the training on Thursday June 7. Never had more fun at a college.