Itinerary
Alpine Ice Itinerary
Please keep in mind that this is a standard, yet loose, itinerary. It is subject to change depending on conditions, weather, group dynamics, pace, and summit strategies.
Program Details
Alpine Ice is a 6-day comprehensive course designed to introduce climbers who already have a background in mountaineering to the fundamentals of alpine ice climbing. The course is broken up into 3 segments, the first being a seminar reviewing foundational mountaineering, snow and ice climbing concepts, the second being a practicum that covers new and more advanced technical skills, and the third being a skills application summit attempt of Mt. Baker via one of a number of technical ice routes.
Itinerary
Day 1
rendezvous at the American Alpine Institute equipment shop
Plan to meet your fellow climbers and instructor(s) at the AAI Equipment Shop promptly at 7:00am. Your guide(s) will take the time to go over equipment, finalize rentals and purchases, review the itinerary, and ensure everyone is adequately prepared.
As soon as the rendezvous is complete, we will make the roughly one-and-a-half-hour drive to the North side of Mt. Baker. The trailhead starts at 3700 feet, and the hike to our base camp location is anywhere between three and a half and five miles, landing camp between 5600 feet and 6000 feet.
Once basecamp is established, we will spend the remainder of the day reviewing the concepts of glacier travel, glaciation, mountain weather, and geology and discussing the schedule for the following days.
Day 2
Field Seminar and Basic Ice Climbing Concepts (6000ft/1829m)
We spend the second day on the Coleman Glacier covering and building upon concepts of climbing and belaying on snow and ice in its various forms and degrees of steepness. Once we have wrapped up the day we will return to basecamp to discuss the next several days.
Day 3
Field Practicum
Again, we will hike up to the Coleman Glacier to an ideal location to cover protective systems for ice climbing, leading sequences, application of ice climbing over difficult terrain, and technical climbing in an icefall zone. Glacial structures, hazard evaluation, principles of glacier travel and crevasse rescue are also covered on this day.
Day 4
Field Practicum
Day four will look very similar to day three, touching upon and continuing concepts from the previous day. We try to focus on allowing students ample opportunity to practice the skills that are being taught throughout the practicum phase.
Day 5-6
Application Climb
The final 2 days culminate in a summit attempt of Mt. Baker via one of several intermediate ice routes where we will take the time to apply what we have learned over the past four days. We also cover summit strategies, route finding and navigation, and route logistics. Routes are chosen for each team based on the proficiency demonstrated during the seminar and practicum portions of the course and at the guide’s discretion. After the summit bid on the final day, we descend to camp, pack up, and drive back to AAI headquarters. We aim to be back at the shop between 3-7pm.