Re-Cap of the 12 Day Mountaineering

May 27^th Today was the first day of the trip and honestly I’m a little tired just coming off the last trip. My few days off were consumed with office work and getting things ready for the season in general especially with the new integration of the WEA curriculum into the IWLS curriculum. In any case we met up with all the students early this morning, took care of our final outfitting and were on our way to the airport by noon.

The ski planes in Haines are down for repair at the moment and because of that we had to take a helicopter up onto the Garrison Glacier. It took a couple trips of ferrying students and gear but eventually we were all up on the glacier and setting up Camp I.

May 28^th

Today we were in camp getting all the technical skills that the students will need to travel safely on the glaciers for the next 12 days.

May 29^th

Travel day!. We have so much gear that we needed to ferry half the food and gear up toward the ice falls at the entrance to the Casement Glacier. Unfortunately we got just below the first ice fall when one of the students started having chest pains that were consistent with vital signs that meant that he needed to get out of the field immediately. He was evacuated by a helicopter. The rest of us returned to camp and tried to get some other work done for the days that were coming up.

May 30^th

We woke up this morning to total white out conditions. The clouds were rolling in and over the glacier pretty quickly so every couple hours or so we’d hit a break between the clouds and get a glimpse of the range. We did some more classes today and got a lot of rest. Tomorrow we are planning to head up to the cache.

May 31^st

We woke up to a totally blue sky, packed up camp and started heading up toward the cache under the first ice fall. It was a long hard day hauling both heavy packs and heavy sleds. Once we got to camp Kevin and Brian continued up to scout the ice falls and the group and I stayed to set up camp. The group built this awesome snow shelter for us to sleep and after a few lessons we headed to bed.

June 1^st

Up over the ice falls today! Huge elevation gains and steep terrain and we decided to do it in one push instead of having to tackle the two ice falls twice. The students were up for the challenge and we had a great day. Once we were up ontop of the icefields things were beautiful and the skyline was beautiful.

Ice Falls behind the Garrison Glacier

June 2nd
We woke up this morning to rain on the Casement Glacier, but after a morning of some lessons the student leaders of the day decided to push on and do some ice climbing anyway. The skies cleared up in the afternoon and they had a great time doing climbing some vertical ice on an ice fall a few miles down the glacier.

June 3rd
The end of the trip is on the horizon, so today we packed up the sleds and packs and did an 8 mile traverse of the main ice field over to an area called "the nob". The light was super flat which made it difficult to do route finding in the broken up areas of the glacier. It was a long day and a late night into camp, but I think everyone was excited to get it done in one day and save us having to set up a snow camp somewhere in the middle.

Rope Team on the Traverse of Ice Field

June 4th
Again another day of wonky weather. We had a chill out morning for people to do some relaxing and some people climbed up on top of the nob. (I had to stay in camp to get evals done and some other fun paperwork stuff.... woot.) After that we did peer midcourse evals and early to bed to get ready for the bushwack in the morning.

June 5th

Today we started our decent down to the water for our pick-up. We exited over the Harley Glacier and down over the ablation zone of the glacier. After we got off the glacier and the moraines we started the crazy bushwacking. Seriously one of the most fun bushwacks I have ever done. Granted it was 6 miles and 12 hours with our packs on, and bushwacking with packs that have big orange sleds strapped to them isn't the greatest conditions, but it was really cool to get to walk out of the black and white world of the moutains and glaciers and down into the thick and dense rainforest.

Toe of the Harley Glacier

June 6th
Today was the second day of the walkout. We had made it down to the beach and the delta where the river from the Harley meets the ocean. Today we walked up the beach about 5 miles to Glacier Point where we will catch a boat in the morning. The hike to Glacier Point was nice, and it was great to be on the beach again. About half way to Glacier Point there was a river crossing that looked deep and pretty fast. So Dave, Kevin, (the other guides) and I decided to rig up a Tyrolean Traverse to get over the river, that all the students really enjoyed getting to see done in the field, and we all stayed dry!

Tyrolean Traverse

June 7th
We got up super early and headed out to the dock to catch the boat back over to Haines. After the boat ride it was a quick clean up and interviews with the students and then to a shower!