North Cascades Intermediate Alpine Mountaineering

Over 5 days you will com­plete a tra­verse in the heart of the North Cas­cades on a small-scale expe­di­tion. A typ­i­cal itin­er­ary will find you up in the Eldo­ra­do zone in the North Cas­cades Nation­al Park. Here the Inspi­ra­tion-Klawat­ti Ice­cap is found, along with mul­ti­ple climb­ing objec­tives, which will pro­vide great route find­ing chal­lenges and a clas­sic moun­taineer­ing experience. 

Stu­dent lead­er­ship plays a key role in the trip plan­ning, route choic­es and deci­sion mak­ing. The goal of this course is to hone your lead­er­ship skills and increase your con­fi­dence with lead­ing small par­ties in an alpine envi­ron­ment. Skills review will be a key part of the course as well before you take on lead­er­ship roles under the watch­ful eye of your guide. This course pro­vides an excel­lent means to eval­u­ate your skill-set, risk assess­ment strate­gies, and more, all in one of the wildest loca­tions in the North Cascades. 

Course cur­ricu­lum includes:

• Review of equip­ment and climb­ing skills such as ice axe and cram­pons use for climb­ing mod­er­ate and steep snow and ice
• Snow and ice anchor place­ment, con­struc­tion, and equalization
• Roped glac­i­er trav­el, rope team man­age­ment, route find­ing, and crevasse navigation
• Basic lead climb­ing tech­niques, inter­me­di­ate pro­tec­tion, and mul­ti-pitch snow and ice climbing
• Crevasse self res­cue and team crevasse res­cue scenarios
• Trip plan­ning and nav­i­ga­tion using a map, com­pass, and altimeter
• Haz­ard assess­ment includ­ing dis­cus­sion of objec­tive vs. sub­jec­tive haz­ards, assess­ment of avalanche dan­ger, crevasse fall, rock and ice fall.
• Prop­er cloth­ing and climb­ing gear for sur­vival in the high moun­tains, moun­tain weath­er, alpine ecol­o­gy, effi­cient and self-depen­dent climb­ing tech­niques, and Leave No Trace ethics