Friday, May 17, 2013 - Wet Weekend...

This weekend is the Glacier Travel Fieldtrip @ Stevens Pass. Here are the objectives, according to the 2013 Syllabus:

Student Learning Objectives, Expectations, & Skills Checklist:
 How to properly manage the rope while traveling roped up - traversing, changing directions, crossing crevasses
 How to set up your own tent, establish a neat and well-functioning camp site
 How to team-arrest from varying positions
 How to perform a quick belay
 Working knowledge of how to use pickets and ice axes in anchoring systems. The dead man is the preferred anchor system in the course; knowledge of it will be essential.
 How to use prusiks to climb up a rope
 How to rappel and belay
 How to travel while wearing crampons

This is going to be a blast! The forecast is for 60% chance of rain, so it is going to be a wet and cold weekend. I'm looking forward to trying out all my gear that I haven't had a chance to use yet - tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, snow shovel, cookstove, new boots, crampons, headlamp... The list goes on and on. :)

I picked up a snow shovel at the Outdoor Research sale yesterday. I was planning on getting one at the REI Anniversary Sale, which starts today, but someone posted a blurb on the OSAT Facebook page yesterday about a tent sale at the SODO OR store. This store is only two blocks away from work so I took a walk down there during lunch and did some shopping. I think OR wanted to get the jump on the REI sale. They did have some great deals but I resisted the urge to get another puffy or hardshell and settled on the shovel, a nice Gore-Tex widebrimmed hat, and a Smartwool neck gaiter (funny name, but very functional and cozy).

As Chris F and I will be tent-mates, we have been doing a lot of planning for this weekend. I've picked up some things for the tent to make it snow-worthy. It is a 3-season tent, which means Spring/Summer/Fall. Not Winter. This thing isn't designed for alpine use so it will take some special prep to make sure it doesn't blow away or collapse in the high winds at altitude. Since we're camping at about 5,000', it won't be too windy, or too cold, and this will be a great opportunity to try out a few things to make it truly worthy of spending the night at 11,000', which is where basecamp will be for Rainier. One approach will be to tie in a few extra guide lines on the tent and the rainfly and stake them out using snow stakes.

Chris has planned out all of our meals. He works at a very high-end restaurant and knows food well. He has some good meals planned for us, so we will certainly be well-fed.

It will be fun to put all of these things together for this weekend. The actual climbing shouldn't be too hard, so that will allow us to focus on dialing in the equipment. Another fun thing about this weekend is that everyone is supposed to bring one piece of firewood or presto log for a bonfire up in the snow Saturday night. We won't be staying up very late though because we will be getting up around 3:00am Sunday morning to pack up and attack the summit. Cool!