Times they are a changing- winter to spring means glacier climbing school

With full packs and food for sev­er­al days Stpe­hen along with three guests head­ed up the slopes of Mount Rainier, intent to learn crevasse res­cue and solid­fy their skils to climb the moun­tain on their own, with­out guides. They joined us on our Mount Rainier Prep Course to help them reach that goal.

As the pow­der days of the incred­i­ble Cas­cades win­ter we had this year come to an end, the moun­tains become a bit more hos­pitable for climbers to get back to the glac­i­ers and high peaks. If you want to train on the real deal, there’s no place bet­ter than the Cas­cades. Over three days Stephen and his team enjoyed some great weath­er, gained some new skills, and kept their plan alive to get back on the moun­tain lat­er in the sum­mer when the win­ter’s snows have melt­ed away. (All pho­tos by Stephen Heath)

While the land­scape in April this year is still cov­ered in a win­ter won­der­land, soon the sun will come out and the snows start to melt, the rivers will rage, and the access to the high peaks will get bet­ter each day. For ear­ly sea­son train­ing lots of options exist for get­ting some instruc­tion in before the glo­ry days of sum­mer arrive. For short­er trips the Intro­duc­tion to Moun­taineer­ing on Ruth Moun­tain is among the most spec­tac­u­lar and only a two day course cov­er­ing the fun­da­men­tals. Or a longer course with a focus on get­ting you out on your own, like the Alpine Lead­er­ship Course. Lots of options!

We hope that social dis­tanc­ing soon becomes once again the idea of get­ting out in the moun­tains to enjoy some peace and qui­et, learn some skills, and gain some sum­mits, not stay­ing away from our friends and fam­i­ly due to covid. So whether you’re look­ing to the future to climb Aconcagua, Mount Bak­er, or mix it up on the Fish­er Chim­neys on Mount Shuk­san, the time is here to start the prepa­ra­tion. We hope to see you soon.