StLT travelblog:2010_cascade_range

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:2010_cascade_range

2014-03-18T17:45:11+02:00

====== 2010: Advanced Mountaineering and Technical Leadership ====== Lets start in the beginning. Or at least a beginning: While being deployed in the middle east I was looking for a cool way to spent time and money while learning to get up mountains and practice english. In one of my short chances to get on the internet I stumbled upon the AMTL courses by the "American Alpine Institute". The Itinerary sounded something like Glacier, Snow, Summits and some Rock climbing. Which was exactly what …

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_01

2014-03-18T17:45:15+02:00

====== AMTL Day 1 ====== **0600** Breakfast **0700** Meeting at AAI (American Alpine Institute, the company that does the AMTL courses) * I had already met Chris and Shivesh the day before, now I also met Brigitte, Andy, Cary and Tristam. And of course our guides Alistair and Erin. * We spent the whole morning checking our equipment and getting ready for the trip. Everyone had to rent at least some equipment like plastic boots, crampons, snowshoes... The goal for the first days was to spen…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_03

2014-03-18T17:45:11+02:00

====== Day 3 ====== * Day 3 was crevasse Rescue day. If you don't know why one would want to rescue a crevasse you may be in over you head here. {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl1_019.jpg?800|}} * So there were lots of things to learn, like using rope to travel on a glacier, falling into crevasses and getting other people out: The left picture shows me building a pulley system to get Cary out of the right picture. {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl1_023.jpg?400…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_05

2014-03-18T17:45:14+02:00

====== Day 5 ====== * Finally, aber four days of learning how not ot kill ourselves we finally got to climb the biggest mountain in the Mt Baker area. Which is, rather unsurpising, Mt Baker. * Climbing a Mountain over alpine terrain usually means to start early. There are various reasons for that, the most important is usually to prevent being on (or below) snow while it heats up at noon. To make it easier we had prepared everything: ropes for glacier travel, backpacks, food and so on. An…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_07

2014-03-18T17:45:12+02:00

====== Day 7 ====== * Lets call it "Multi Pitch day on goat wall". That explains it ok, I think. * But first things first. After a late arrival on day 6 we put up camp on some USFS campground, our base for the next days. In close driving distance are several nice rocks and the famous western theme town of winthrop. * Back to climbing: {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl1_079.jpg?800|}}\\ The Goat Wall {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_andy_223.jpg?800|}}\\ myself climbi…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_09

2014-03-18T17:45:15+02:00

====== Day 9 ====== * On the menu today: South Early Winter Spire: {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl1_086.jpg?800|}}\\ * In order to get to the rock part we had to do some snow stomping. We made good time and got up in about 2h, mostly thank to Carry breaking trail. {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_andy_259.jpg?800|}}\\ * Finally at the spire we started climbing. The climb is a 5.4~ but was made difficult by us wearing heavy duty boots and having frozen fingers. It …

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_11

2014-03-18T17:45:13+02:00

====== Day 11 ====== {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl1_andy_366.jpg?800|}}\\ the morning after.. * There are certain factor that increase avalanche danger. Near the top of that list is a lot of new snow. Kinda like you see on the picture above. Which meant that our herolike expedition to silverstar mountain had failed before it really began. * So we dragged ourself off the mountain, back to the van and drove back to Bellingham. Somewhere along the way the idea was born to use the ch…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl2_01

2014-03-18T17:45:13+02:00

====== Day 1 ====== * New course, new people: Justin and Kurt as guides. Julius, Ben, Brat (only for the first half), Chris (the same Chris as in the AMTL1) and I as ~~guidees~~ people being guided. Our first three days are easy to summarize: if the weather was good we went climbing, if not we did skills. {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl2_006.jpg?800|}}\\ Training to lead on rock. {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl2_016.jpg?800|}}\\ Rapelling fun after a mul…

travelblog:2010_cascade_range:amtl2_08

2014-03-18T17:45:10+02:00

====== Day 8-12 ====== * After thorough planning and preparations we were ready for the final part: The Expedtion to Mount Whatchamacallit. Western.. TV Series.. a yes: Bonanza Peak. * To get there we had to go into the middle of nowhere to take a ferry to, well, nowhere. From there a shuttle bus took us to a lutheran church camp, called "Holden Village" {{:travelblog:2010_cascade_range:usa_2010_amtl2_019.jpg?800|}}\\ Bow down in awe of Justin's Mountain Guide muscle. {{:travelblog:2010_ca…