Advice for starting out/mountaineering programs
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Hey everyone - new to the forum (and climbing) and was hoping to get some advice from some of you. I live in NY and aside from a good amount of backpacking/camping experience (much in winter) I've taken a 3-day intro to mountaineering course on Mt. Washington, 2-day intro ice cimbing course, Presidential Traverse (winter), and I've done 3 14ers out in CO (summer, though). Of course, I'm reading Freedom of the Hills and everything else I can find. Basically, this winter/next year I'd like to take things up a notch with a more comprehensive program and do 1 or 2 shorter glaciated peak climbs w/guides. I'm 25, getting into this a little late obviously, so I'm really just trying to get as much bang for my buck training wise as possible and as soon as I can. I think my end goal would be competent independent alpine climbing in the Cascades and Canadian/US rockies. |
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Sounds like a pretty decent plan to me, and you're far from too old to get climbing. Most people I see on harder bigger routes are older than me (31). It wouldn't hurt you to do some rock climbing. Getting familiar with rope work and maybe learning how to place gear. I guess it kind of depends on the kinds of routes that you want to do, but alot of the tricks I learned rock climbing help me in the mountains. |
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Make sure to add "Extreme Alpinism" by Mark Twight to your reading list. |
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Instead of dropping like 2K on a flight to rainier and a 6 day course with RMI |
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also +1 on learning how to rock climb. |
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Appreciate the quick responses. I've taken some rock climbing classes too and I'm in NYC so I got the Gunks pretty close by, I'll be sure to make that a priority as well. |
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Sounds like you have a decent plan in place for achieving your goals. Depending on your long term objectives, I may suggest you look into the American Alpine Institute. Specifically their Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership program ( aai.cc/ProgramDetail/mounta… ) I think this would give you a better all around instruction (not too mention a summit attempt of baker) within the discipline of rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering (alpinism). |
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Rather than dropping big bucks on expensive but not that technical destinations like Rainier, stay local and focus on technical skills like rock climbing. The basic skills you'll learn from multipitch trad leading will take you a lot farther than some intermediate mountaineering course. When I started out in climbing, I made the mistake (and it is absolutely a mistake) of signing up for mountaineering classes, thinking that would make me a climber. |
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Dave77 wrote:Sounds like you have a decent plan in place for achieving your goals. Depending on your long term objectives, I may suggest you look into the American Alpine Institute. Specifically their Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership program ( aai.cc/ProgramDetail/mounta… )This program would definitely be an exception to my statements above about mountaineering classes being a mistake. I climb with a guy who took this, and it sounded like an awesome experience. |
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I would tend to agree with Scott O. Once you learn it on rock you can apply a lot of the same stuff to ice/snow (it is a completely different medium) but the general idea is the same. |
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Staying locally and supporting your local guides/climbing schools is great. If learning to climb in glaciated terrain is the goal, and you have the means, then there is no substitute for actually getting on a glacier. |
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you could/will learn more climbing in huntington ravine on mt washington this winter, then you ever will on a guided summit climb on rainier. They arent going to teach you much you wouldnt have already learned ina basic intro course. |
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superkick wrote:you could/will learn more climbing in huntington ravine on mt washington this winter, then you ever will on a guided summit climb on rainier.Hmm. Yes you can learn ice-climbing technique in Huntington Ravine, but it doesn't have any glaciers or crevasses. Or 10,000' of altitude gain. To echo BGardner's point, if you want to learn how to climb in the Cascades or the Canadian Rockies you really have to be there. Most of the routes in these areas aren't all that difficult in technical terms. But they're big, steep, exposed and precarious mountains. What you'll need to develop is the ability to move rapidly with sparse protection on that sort of terrain. |
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check out bigcitymountaineers.org/sum… |
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The Appalachian Mtn Club (Boston Chapter, and maybe the NH Chapter too) usually does an Alpine Skills workshop in early Spring that you could check out if you haven't found the time to do a full glacier travel course by then. For about $100 or so (cost of food and lodging for the weekend), you will get to learn and practise some basic skills including self-arrest, rope-line travel, ice and snow anchors, high altitude medicine, and crevasse rescue techniques (including some self-rescue). It's nowhere near (and should not be considered a substitute for) a full, week-long course like AAI offers, nor do they have any glaciers/crevasses in NH (at least not strictly speaking), but you can use it as a starting point or an inexpensive way to get a quick refresher of commonly used skills. |
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Martin le Roux wrote: Hmm. Yes you can learn ice-climbing technique in Huntington Ravine, but it doesn't have any glaciers or crevasses. Or 10,000' of altitude gain. To echo BGardner's point, if you want to learn how to climb in the Cascades or the Canadian Rockies you really have to be there. Most of the routes in these areas aren't all that difficult in technical terms. But they're big, steep, exposed and precarious mountains. What you'll need to develop is the ability to move rapidly with sparse protection on that sort of terrain.Lots of good posts on this thread, but I especially like this one. You'll most definitely learn more by staying local and working one-on-one with guides, but there's something to be said for getting on the terrain you're aiming for. By all means, get on Rainier this year, get a sense of what those mountains are like and what it takes over there. That might fuel your inspiration and imagination, so you can push your boundaries closer to your own back yard with motivation and ideas about what you want to tackle. Local NE mountains offer some great challenges, but getting over to the NW can whet your appetite for those sort of peaks. |
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None of these classes are necessary. I got into mountaineering when I was living in NYC, so it can be done on your own. I had a solid base of rock climbing and a motivated partner, but you need these things anyway to ever do more than go hiking in the mountains. |