Mountaineering School at Wedgemount

I had the pleasure of organizing the Intro to Mountaineering course for the Island section of the Alpine Club this year. I thought Wedgemount Lake might be a good place to head, as there is plenty to do up there, and more variety than the traditional Mt. Baker destination (not to mention the lack of border hassle which is nice too).

We had a great, enthusiastic crew of five participants, and Russ and I as instructors. It was great having Russ along. He took part in the North Face Leadership training with the club a few years ago, and is up on the "latest" techniques. It was a great learning experience for me having him along as I picked up a lot on the standard mountain guiding (ACMG) practices. Made me feel a bit old school.


We spent the first day practicing knots, roping up, and a review of crevasse rescue techniques.



On the second day we ended up wondering around a bit on the Wedgemount Glacier. I have never seen it so snow-free and icy. Wedgemount Glacier has been receeding at a pretty significant rate in recent years (it has retreated a noticable amount since my first visit to the area 15 years ago).

Practicing crevasse rescue. I had practiced about 8 different versions of setting up haul systems before the course, only to find that there was some significant differences from those and the ACMG standard.

Looking up the west couloir on Wedge Mountain. This couloir had become a popular ski-descent in recent years (normally there is more snow in it than right now!). Mike Guite and I climbed up this route back in the day.

Originally we though we would try to climb Wedge via the north arete (the ridge facing in the upper centre left). It ended up being pretty thin for snow cover, and we ended up deeming the route "out of condition". So we ended up speding our third day going through practicing lowering, belaying, and setting up rock and ice anchors.

Rethel Mountain




Day 4 was the final day. Half the crew headed down early to try to catch a reasonable ferry back to the Island. Tawney, Rory and I headed up for an early hike (or plod as the guidebook describes) up Mount Cook.

Tremendous amount of smoke from forest fires in the area. There were a couple burning in the Pemberton Valley, and apparently one right next to us on Blackcomb (though we didn't see it). Smoke filled all the valleys around, and we could just see the peaks poking out above it.