North Cascades Alpine Climbing Course

The skills taught dur­ing for this com­pre­hen­sive snow, rock, glac­i­er, and ice climb­ing course are com­plet­ed in the high, mag­nif­i­cent North Cas­cades and is designed to give indi­vid­u­als a sol­id foun­da­tion in a vari­ety of alpine moun­taineer­ing tech­niques. It includes ascents of a glaciat­ed peak and alpine gran­ite spires, each with its own diverse and unique challenges. 

The 8‑day course includes two days of rock climb­ing instruc­tion in the Ici­cle Canyon area of Leav­en­worth, Wash­ing­ton, North Bend, or Mount Erie. Stu­dents then put their rock skills to use on the high alpine rock peaks in the Cas­cades. Next, the course moves to a high alpine envi­ron­ment where the focus shifts from rock skills to snow, ice and glac­i­er climb­ing tech­niques. Stu­dents will apply all the new skills on a sum­mit climb on a dra­mat­ic glaciat­ed peak in the Cascades. 

This course pro­vides moti­vat­ed begin­ning climbers with the inten­sive hands on expe­ri­ence nec­es­sary to move com­pe­tent­ly and effi­cient­ly over a wide range of climb­ing ter­rain and includes crevasse res­cue. Com­ple­tion of this course helps pre­pare climbers for expe­di­tions to such peaks as Denali, Aconcagua, the Mat­ter­horn, Mont Blanc, and many more chal­leng­ing ascents in the Cas­cades and in the greater ranges of the world. 

An option­al four day exten­sion allows par­tic­i­pants to take part in the deci­sion-mak­ing process, lead a climb, and eval­u­ate their abil­i­ty to go climb­ing on their own, with­out the need for a guide. Learn more here Alpine Lead­er­ship Course