Avalanche Course at Mt. Baker.

I just completed two field days with an AAI avalanche course in the Mt. Baker back country. Overall we had a great course despite some pretty challenging weather. We did get a few turns in down Swift Creek which always makes for a great day. Here are a few photos...

AIARE Avalanche 1 Course with American Alpine Institute.

I just got done teaching my third AIARE Avalanche 1 course of the season.  these courses have one classroom day in Bellingham followed by two days in the Mt. Baker ski area backcountry.  For the most part the weather has been pretty cooperative, and despite the low snow pack, we have managed to get in a few good turns.

Route finding in the backcountry.

Terrain trap.

Navigation in poor weather.

Skinning uphill

Rimmed trees.

Rimed trees at Herman saddle

Not the best skinning conditions.

The weather for this last class was forecast to be awful (mid 30's and raining).  Saturday turned out pretty nice.  Sunday had such a bad forecast I made the decision to not take my camera out.  Turns out it was a pretty nice day also.  All these photos are from near Artist Point on Saturday.  

Skinning toward Artist Point.

Erin's Group on the ridge getting ready to head down.

Erin, showing us how its done.

Kurt

Nice turn!

Skiing off Artist Point.

Mt. Baker Glacier Skills Trip with American Alpine Institute

At the beginning of last week I led a glacier skills trip on Mt. Baker.  Despite the bad weather forecast it turned out to be a pretty good trip and we managed to get a lot accomplished.  I was a little worried we would not be able to find a crevasse to do crevasse rescue in due to the huge snow year.  After a short time of searching for a hole we found an almost perfect spot just outside of our camp.  Each person got to fall into a crevasse and each person also got to arrest a real crevasse fall with the weight of a real person.  If you spend a lot of time on glaciers and you have not had the chance to do this you should.  Its a lot more difficult than "rescuing" a backpack.

Here are some photos of the trip.

Mt. Baker Skills Climb for AAI

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of summiting Mt. Baker with a fun group of Canadians, one of which lives in Surry, BC and has been looking at this peak for many years.  He decided that for his birthday he wanted to climb the mountain.  So he did.  Below are some photos from the weekend.

Mt. Baker Skills Weekend.

Here are some photos from a three day Mt. Baker skills weekend from a month ago. It was a late season trip to Mt. Baker and turned out to have some amazing weather.

A fattened Marmot ready for winter.
White Tailed Ptarmigan starting to change color for the coming snows.
Kate and her cup of coffee.
Setting up the rope for glacier travel.
Kate and the blue sky. It is not this blue very often in Washington.
Smiles all around.
A desperate skier makes for a good photo, but what must have been some pretty crappy turns.
The clearest day I have ever seen on Mt. Baker.
Using our new skills to negotiate the glacier.
More crevasses.

Liz
Kate
Sunset on Mt. Baker.
Ice climbing.
Ice Climbing