2007-05-19 to 21 Snow and Ice Course

Here is the write-up on my Snow and Ice Long weekend, if you clicky the pictures they get bigger.

Day 1

Day 1 started at the crack of 9am, most of the 16 people on the course were staying at the Icefields Campground which was also our meeting spot so it was a good meeting. We met the guides, signed the waivers, got geared up and carpooled out to the first practise area which was right by Parker’s Ridge. The weather was decent for most of the morning but it didn’t take long to turn into a full on storm!

We practised travel on snow including using our ice axes for stability and we learned two different ways of doing a self-arrest although they were pretty careful to emphasize that the best way to stop a slide was to just not fall in the first place!

After that we created snow anchors out of the axes and tested them with our full weight, it’s amazing how much they can actually hold!

Once we had the basics down the snow was in full force and we moved up the ridge towards a wind-drift where we’d set up for a crevasse rescue demo.

Moving up the slope in the storm

Here is Sean Issac demonstrating pulling someone out of a crevasse; we had a chance to set-up the system after the demo and try it out. Unfortunately the weather was starting to sock-in and everyone was getting pretty chilled so we didn’t stay too much longer.
Day 2

Day 2 started a little earlier than Day 1, by half an hour… we made our way up to the Glacier and stopped to rope-up and put on our crampons.

Hooray for crampons!

We spent the day practising glacier travel, ice-axe use, crampon use and once again lots of crevasse rescue time. We didn’t set up any spectacular systems, just some basic 2:1 pullies to get the concepts through, but it was practise that would prove useful later on.

Unlike Day 1, Day 2 had amazing weather! Sunshine and blue sky for miles.

Rope team set up for Glacier travel (I’m at the end that dissapears off the picture)

View from the Glacier

Travis setting up a crevasse rescue system

Rope teams travelling through the seracs on the glacier

We wrapped up around 3pm again, which was about right since the snow was definitely starting to soften and on the way down I was up to my hips in snow more than once! We all went back to camp with a visible excitement, tomorrow was ascent day and we had high-hopes for Mt. Athabasaca!
That night I had a huge supper of pasta and sausage, prepped my pack for the next day and went to bed at 7:30pm. We’d be up again at 1:30am and I needed the sleep!

Day 3

We met at the trail-head for Mt. Athabasca at 2:45am on Monday morning, everyone stamping around nervously in the pre-dawn chill. With headlamps on and spirits high we fell in line behind the guides and started working our way up the mountain. The first section was great, somone had obviously been up there recently and had step-kicked the whole way, we followed in his footsteps for around an hour before they ran out. Perched on a steep slope without crampons is kind of a bad idea, and so the guides used ice-axes and shovels to create a “highway” for us, with good solid footings. Needless to say once we reached a flat area the crampons and ropes came out. It was amazing to see the line of headlamps snaking up out of the dark and winding up the ridge, small pools of light on an otherwise dark and awsome mountain.

Rope team in the pre-dawn light

We carried on across snow and ice and rock for around 3hrs, the weather varying between clear and white-out conditions.

Jon, Ken and Travis being guided by Tim (taking the picture) and smiling huge smiles!

Somewhere around 6:30am we got to a point where the snow was far too deep and too slabby to continue, the avalanche risk was just too high so the guides turned us around and we began our descent.

Rope teams headed back down

We headed down a different way then we had come up and stopped in a sheltered spot for some food and water

Group listening to James describe the scenery

Me resting

After a good rest we moved further down the mountain and slowly moved off of the huge snow cover and onto more ice terrain. At one point we were watching the lead rope-team move through and area when suddenly the third guy just dissapeared beneath the snow. He had been following the footsteps of the two guys in front of him but apparantly had less luck (or more weight!) since he broke through the snow-bridge covering a crevasse below. He plunged through the snow and the rest of the team dove to the ground to arrest his fall; it worked, and he only went down about 12 feet. Only… strange word to use there, but it seems fitting since crevasses can be up to 80m deep. All of our practise the day before paid off and the rest of his team yanked him out within minutes simply by tugging on the rope; it was kind of surreal to see him climb up out of the ground, and it really emphasized that the things we had learned were important to master.

After that we carried on towards the seracs from the day before and set up a few top-roped ice-routes; if we couldn’t summit Athabasca we could at least have some fun on the mountain.

Ken climbing

Tim belaying

Me climbing

Travis climbing

Sylvain climbing

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Sara climbing

Huge seracs seen from a differnt angle

Once we’d climbed for a while we we’re all pretty bagged, we’d been up since 1am and had put in a solid 8hrs of mountaineering that morning, we cruised back down the vehicles and wrapped it all up!

Overall I was very pleased with the course, the guides were excellent, the material was just right, the pace of delivery was great and there was plenty of time to practise it all as we soaked it in. The guides were wonderful, they were neither condesending nor too laid-back and had a good level of control over the group striking a balance between freedom and exploration, and safety. Even though we didn’t summit on the last day, I know everyone had a great time, we met a lot of new people and shared a passion for the outdoors that will hopefully see us connect up again somewhere in the mountains.

If anyone from the course is checking this out, feel free to leave comments or send me pictures you’d like to see added, I’m sure there are some great ones out there!

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