GMC - August 3 - Azimuth Mountain

On the Silvertip glacier looking toward Silvertip mountain.

The Adamant glacier looking toward
Adamant range from Azimuth.

This, our final climbing day had a couple of rope teams heading for Azimuth. Jan was on Jeff's team, while I was on Brenda's together with Renee (back-country cook extraordinaire!) and Angelika. Our team took things a little more leisurely than Jan's ;)

Brenda leading Renee, Angelika and Inga up the ridge.

The route to Azimuth included that same snow field and steep scramble on loose rock to get to the Silvertip glacier. Then we crossed the crevassed glacier and got onto the long rock ridge. There were a few climbing moves, lots of exposure and awesome vistas. The weather again held up, despite a few moments of dark clouds swirling in. In the mountains weather can change dramatically in either direction: toward scary or toward gorgeous.


The benefit of being on different teams - pictures.
This one of my team near the summit.

Jan's team included Alisen, Julius and guide Jeff. A couple of
minutes after these pics we were all on the summit :)

Julius and Alisen, part of Jan's rope team,
 doing the Azimuth summit dance.

GMC - August 2 - Rained out

I could have titled this post REST DAY!, but really with rain much of the night and day, no trip went out. Instead Jeff and Jen, the pro-guides reviewed additional safety and rescue scenarios. Crevasse rescue set ups were shown and demonstrated. Some participants wanted to know why a fallen climber wouldn't "just ascend" the rope if they were not hurt.
The guides set up a demonstration where participants practiced ascending a rope. The drying tent made for a fine set-up and resulted in about 3 or 4 feet of actual ascend. Using minimal gear, the exercise demonstrated quickly how difficult ascending (even in a staged scenario free of any danger or stress) can be, and in particular how slow and exhausting it is.

Jeff demonstrates key skills: How to free oneself from a fully
loaded system, setting up a drop-line to a fallen climber,
rappelling, ascending.

Julius has a captive audience. His lovely interactive presentation
style and self-deprecating humour made for a memorable
and informative session.

We also had the benefit of one of the participant's bear expertise. Julius generously and interactively lectured on bears. Part 1 was mostly how to recognize different bears, basic evolutionary information to help us understand different bear behaviours. Part 2 dealt with human-bear encounters and how to be safe in bear country. This was an awesome value add. Thanks, Julius.

Here's a link to his Grizzly Bear Ranch operation.

The next day, woudl be our last opportunity to get out and climb a mountain. Most people were pretty excited to get out there. During dinner Friday, we were offered "climbers' choice". The guides basically liste a bunch of objectives and people could indicate thier interest. We opted for the very first one Azimuth, a long rock ridge, with a regular 6 am wake-up.

GMC - August 1 - Silvertip Mountain

I was contemplating a rest day, but Jan's infectious enthusiasm meant I signed up with her for Silvertip.

Peter was leading our rope team. Inga in second is
happy to be out on the ridge. Jan was last, which meant on the
return trip she got to do all the down-climbing first :)

To get to this mountain, we ascended through a short snow field and scree right above our tent and then headed to the Silvertip glacier. While the distance we needed to travel was less than the previous day's, the steepness was considerably greater.



Rope team number 2, led by Chucky, with Eric, Alisen
and Bruce. On the summit ridge.Yeah.

Another notable difference: Silvertip is a mix of rock and snow, with a good length of rock ridge to get to the summit. And a moat. That we had to jump across. We did.

Jan, happy on the summit of Silvertip (2,880 m)




While I had no trouble with exposure on rock ridges, even those with lots of loose, rotten rock, I do need to take a moment to gather myself when it comes to jumping across deep seemingly bottomless chasms. Notwithstanding the rational mind's knowledge of being on a rope, with skilled belayers providing protection, the emotional mind seems to get distracted by deep, dark space that must be crossed. I did manage quite a funny re-enactment during the nightly story-time.

View from Silvertip Mountain includes Alpina Dome (2,695 m)
and, in the background, Cital Mountain (2,923 m)
and its snow ridge.

We did get to put to use our self-arrest practice on the way out. There's a short section of steep snow we had ascended in the morning, The snow was quite good. By the time the sun had worked on it all day, we discovered that that section had turned slushy; within my first few steps I felt the snow give way underneath me and I went sliding down. I quickly got into self-arrest position, and watched as my ice axe just sliced through slushy snow rather than being held by it. I dug my boots in ever deeper. While I slid I yanked Jan from her footing and she quickly zoomed past me and Peter lost his footing, too (I have greater mass than both of them ;) It was amazing to feel the velocity we rached when all three of us were sliding; and we each felt the urgency to stop as at the bottom of this section is a band of solid rock. We stopped above it and got ourselves extracated from this situation without any injury. We were quite pleased with ourselves for putting the Snow School training to such good use and remaining calm and collected throughout.




Blackfriars - 2 teams led by Jeff and Andrew, total of 6 people
managed a long ascent on this rock route. They left camp at
5:30 am and returned tiredbut happy 15 hours later. This mountain
was in our view all day and we even spotted them at one point
on the rock.

The weather held even though there were plenty of clouds swirling up from the Adament range and around Sir Sandford on the other side.

Blackfriars was at times total engulfed in cloud and then completely clear. When our camp compatriots climbed it they had good views most of the day, but they got to the summit during a brief period when it was completely in the clouds without any views at all. And so, even hard fought for summits can go without glorious vistas from the top. The accomplishment remains.

GMC - Map

Here's a map of the Sir Sandford area. The red dot is where the camp was located. The red lines are the approaches and climbs. The green highlights are the four mountains Jan and I ascended during the GMC. This should give a bit of context. You'll note the similar approach for the two first mountains via the Haworth Glacier and the very different distances traveled to attain the first two summits described in the two previous posts.

GMC - July 31 - Citadel Mountain

The TNF group went to Citadel Mountain on their first day, when we took snow school. Their practice included kicking a set of beautiful steps heading up a steep snow arete on Citadel Mountain. We knew that today would be the last time this objective would be on the list, so we signed up. Despite the 4:30 am wake up, 5 am breakfast and 5:30 am start. (Wow, that's like half a day before my usual get up time!)

The summit ridge on Citadel Mountain. Exposed and exciting.

Angelika posing on the summit blocks.

Jan at the summit cairn :) Well done!

We left just as it started getting light out. A magical time in the mountains. Citadel was also all snow, but the summit was a rock.

It was a long walk over the Haworth glacier to Palisade Pass down to the Sir Sandford glacier and up Citadel. We took the same route back.

The weather was a bit concerning, but luckily it held on this day!

All around a great day was had by both rope teams lead by Andrew and Peter.

One of the impressive, exposed sections during the
ascent on the snow arete. (Photo by Ron Shute)

Threatening clouds rolled in while we were on the summit.
Clouds really do move fast when you are at 2,923 m,
and the weather  can change in a heartbeat.

GMC - July 30 - Summiting Alpina Dome

A typical day at the GMC starts with the 6 am wake up call, 6:30 am breakfast and a 7 or 7:30 am start of a climb. This is at least a 2 hour shift forward from my usual life. When in the mountains, it's usually important to move early and I do adapt in good humour. Each afternoon, 3 objectives were posted from which we could select our first and second choices.

Alpina Dome - you can make out 3 TNF rope teams on
the summit slope. We went around to the left out of the
photo around that rocky summit.

Alpina Dome was our first summit objective of the week. We traveled from camp up the Haworth Glacier and then hung a left to cross Palisade Pass and circumnavigate a rocky mountain out crop. Then up Alpina Dome in a steady climb. 

Rope team number two led by Brenda.
Note the ominous clouds.

Andrew was our rope team leader. Two other rope teams also were on this climb, plus The North Face (TNF) leadership course used it for their training of Alpine Club amateur leaders. When we got to the summit, the TNF group was still there; and the two other rope teams arrived shortly after us, each having taken variations on the route up.

Just as we got up there, the skies opened with hail and thunder started to move in, too. We got off the summit in a bit of a hurry; but not in such a hurry that we didn't take a slightly longer way down, via the Redan Pass. It was a bit of a scramble (on snow), and just as we regained the Haworth glacier for our final descent to camp, major lightening was right over our heads. It all worked out fine as you can see.

We got the rain gear out as we headed for camp to protect from the hail and keep warm as the temps dropped considerably. 

TNF group with their three instructors: Cyril, Dave and Matt.
These 10 leaders underwent an intense training week,
including plenty of classroom time plus long days outside.
An impressive group from ACC sections across Canada.

They always say be prepared for any weather in the mountains and especially quick changes in weather and temps. That's we we all carry these quite large day packs with rain gear, down jackets, gloves, food and drink, while our guides usually also carry some extra gear, in case the group runs into any trouble.

Click on any picture to see a larger version!

GMC - July 29 - Snow and Rock School

The team assembles for rock school on a glacier-polished cliff
15 minutes from our camp.

We have travelled on a glacier exactly once. It was in Bolivia, while ascending our first summit over 6,000 m, Huayna Potosi, in November 2010. Thus we were eager to take snow school to learn more about snow anchors, self-arrest (that came in handy a few days later) and walking on ice with crampons and in a rope team under the guidance of pro guide Jeff Bullock, Alpine Air Adventures, and Chucky, an ACC amateur leader.

Snow school was informative. We got reminded of some basic knots some we know super well (like the Figure 8) and others we found the reminder useful because we haven't used them as much, like the Munter and Clove hitch.

Inga and Jan quite intent on building a T-slot snow anchor
well. Jeff's providing the oversight. (Photo by R. Shute.)

Snow school was also fun: we got to hurl ourselves down the snow slope with a running start for the self-arrest with mountaineering axe practice. We practiced sliding on the back, head first, butt first. And we got to see just how to arrest such an unintended slide.

The afternoon was spent climbing on rock. It had been a while and reminded us how much we love it. Our next Adironodacks trip will see us back at the Beer Walls near Chapel Pond or on the slabby pyramid on Notch mountain with views of Whiteface!

A close up of the end of the Silver tip glacier. This huge
ice fall is located just up from the climbing cliff. 

GMC - July 28 - Arrival

We'll put up a separate post with highlights from each day of the General Mountaineering Camp. On Saturday, July 28, we drove from Golden to the heli-pad down the logging road at Kinbasket Lake. It was our first time in a helicopter. Exciting.

First look at the helicopter. It takes 6 passengers, plus pilot and
naturally everyone's gear and lots of food for the week.

Arriving at camp.




Our home for the week. We were in the "Eastern block" - the
furthest from the dining tent and the horn alerting us to wakeup
and meals. We spent the week living right by the
glacial run off (almost lake) from the Haworth glacier. The tents
were huge, compared to our own 2-person tent.
We had a luxurious amount of space for gear and sleeping.

In the centre of this photo is our camp seen from the edge of
the Silvertip Glacier. The white tents are the communal tents
for dining, tea, gear drying, kitchen, supplies.



Getting the horses ready

The team's getting ready to head out to Yoho this morning. Jan's giving a hand grooming these fine  horses we'll take out. We are going out with our guide and an assistant; two additional horses will be pack horses to carry tents, food etc.

Getting excited - and a bit nervous - now.

Bear Corner Bed and Bale

Yes, that is what our trail riding outfitter's called. Here's Jan at our cabin (we'll be here tonight and again once we come out of the backcountry). And in this shot you might see some of Al's horses way in background.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Yoho National Park, up Ottertail Trail and set up our backcountry camp. Should be interesting. Al and his helper are both retired Park Wardens. Those folks have a lot of backcountry know-how that we'll be sure to benefit from.

Now, we settle in and I'm hoping my single bar for cell reception will suffice to get this post through.