Arriving in Las Vegas is always a sight for sore eyes. With the Cascades being so wet and miserable, I was relieved to be hitting the desert! For the next two weeks, I worked two AMGA rock guide exams; one with Dale Remsberg and the other with Mark Chauvin and Tom Hargis. We were fortunate to have great participants! I think all told, I was guided up 200 pitches of climbing in ten days………damn those guys work hard! And the good news; they all passed! The weird thing for me, is that being a guide, I’ve top-roped more pitches in Red Rock than I’ve lead…fancy that?! Anyhow, below are some photos from just two routes over those then ten days: Epinephrine IV 5.9 and Bird Hunter Buttress IV 5.9. Hope you enjoy!
Over the last four years, I seem to find myself in the North Cascades teaching guiding training programs for the AMGA. This year I was co-teaching with Jeff Ward and despite some of the worst weather I’ve seen in the North Wet, we still managed to get a lot in over the ten days. On this particular day we climbed Mount Shuksan; one team climbed the North Ridge and down the South, while the other team climbed the Southwest Ridge and circumnavigated the peak. Both teams then met on the upper Curtis Glacier and practiced crevasse rescue. Below are some images of it and a movie of the North Ridge shot a few years ago.
Martin Volken a fellow instructor and examiner for the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) put together this amazing video of what it takes to get an alpine certification. Check it out!
June 24-26 John Spezia, Sung Baek, and Peter Huber all took the Single Pitch Instructor course (SPI) with Keith Garvey and AMA. The course is geared towards entry level guides, putting the focus on top-rope site management and guiding single pitch rock climbs. We spent the three days in Boulder Canyon at various crags, all having great challenges for our course.
Day 1 we spent at Castle Rock discussing important guiding topics like; professionalism, equipment selection, knots and hitches, and belaying. After our quick lunch break we reviewed natural and artificial anchors as they relate to top-rope climbing. Then spent the rest of the afternoon construction complex anchors and talking about philosophies revolving around these set ups.
Day 2 we headed to Happy Hour Crag and worked specifically on sling shot top-rope set ups. After a number of ropes were hung we climbed various routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.8 on the beautiful well featured Boulder Canyon granite. The team then worked on the important rescue skills of getting a stuck climber down. This entails ascending the rope to the stuck or injured climber, putting a friction hitch on their rope and safety rappelling with them back to the ground. These guys did a great job!
Day 3 we headed to the Boulderado Crag right off the road in Boulder Canyon. We got an early 7:30am start to beat any Friday traffic as this is a very popular top-roping crag. Today our focus was on top-managed sites, working on station management, lowering, rappelling, and assistance skills. First, I demoed a lead climb modeling safe and efficient lead practices. Next we headed to the top to make anchors and begin top managed skills. Since a Spot Climbing Gym group came and they had many kids at the base, we decided due to the loose rock above to use only a small portion of the crag, leaving the best and safest climbs to those kids. Just before we finished with the rappelling lesson a violent thunderstorm hit, so we frantically packed up and headed to the Rio Grande. Here we talked about a few last guiding topics, did the end of course debriefs and enjoyed basket after basket of chips while washing it all down with beers and margs. Thanks to the guys for all your effort in the course and good luck on the two day exam!
