Sunday Skill Builders - Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue

Activity Notes

• Sunday Skill-builders: Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue
• Sunday Nov 26
• Registration opens: Oct 26 
• Note morning session: 9:00 am sharp - 12:00 noon
• Note location: South end of Normandale Park, NE Portland. 5550 NE Hassalo St. Portland. Intersection, NE 55th and NE Hassalo. Map is here.
• Mazamas members $25, non-members $35
• Recommended experience: Familiarity with basic climbing knots and friction hitches. (Minimum experience level of Mazamas BCEP class is highly recommended.)

The Sunday Skill Builders happen on the second and fourth Sunday of the month, usually from 6 to 9 PM. The second Sunday is more for beginner/intermediate topics, and the fourth Sunday is more for intermediate/advanced techniques.  Registration opens one month before the class. Topics will rotate and repeat, so if you miss one and want to take it, keep an eye out for it again.

Students are generally accepted first-come first-served. Please apply ASAP after the opening of registration to have the best chance of getting in the class.

This class is popular and probably has a waiting list. If you need to cancel, please be courteous and do so early, so we can open your spot to someone else.

Do your climbing goals include Northwest volcanoes such as Rainier, Baker, and many routes on Hood?  You better have your crevasse rescue skills dialed. This will be a dry land (no snow) practice of the basics. (Additional practice on real snow is highly recommended.) 

We’ll cover:

• recommended rescue gear (basic and fancy)
• mechanical advantage systems for crevasse rescue
• snow anchors for crevasse rescue
• rope rigging for three and four person teams
• small team rescue scenarios, based on modern techniques. 

If mechanical advantage systems are new to you, please have a look at the mechanical advantage portion of my website, Alpinesavvy, or consider taking the Sunday Skillbuilder offered twice a year on this topic.

Gear needed: harness, 2-3 locking carabiners, 2-3 snapgate carabiners, a few slings/runners, short friction hitch/prusik loop. If you have any fancier gear like pulleys, a Petzl Traxion or rope clamps like a Petzl Tibloc, please bring those also. If you don’t have this gear, no problem, we can share.

Highly recommended reading before class is the outstanding (and hilarious) cartoon book “Glacier Mountaineering: An Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue”, by Andy Tyson and Mike Clelland. There are a few different editions. Get whatever one you can, they are all about equally good. 

Please read these web links before class. Having a basic understanding of these will make our class time much more effective, hint hint. They are all from my website, alpinesavvy.com.

• My crevasse rescue gear
• ​You don't need those dedicated prusik loops
• Grivel Clepsydra S - the best carabiner for glacier travel?
• Rigging your rope for glacier travel
• Modern crevasse rescue techniques
• Crevasse rescue: "drop loop C" tips

Hope to see you in the class,

John Godino and Andy Nuttbrock, class coordinators