On The Ice

Last weekend I got to spend 3 days at Mt. McKinley's base camp to get some glacier safety training that I have been after for a few years now. I have to set up monitoring equipment on glaciers, and above snow line it can be a bit tricky. The snow covers up big cracks in the ice called crevasses, and when you walk over them, the snow can give way underneath you leaving you to die in a deep, dark, icy hole. No fun! To travel on the glacier safely, you need to have a team of people roped together and properly spaced out, so that if you fall through they can pull you back up. This is what the class was all about.

We started by learning knots and how to properly use all the equipment, like pulleys, harnesses, snow probes, prusiks, snow anchors, ice axes, and carabeaners. Mostly new to me. Then on the second day we all got a chance to jump into a crevasse and get hauled out, as well as haul out our friends. Going in was scary, and once down in the hole, it was kinda spooky and unnerving. You just have to hang there until your team can set anchors and work up a pulley system to get you out, which took about 30-40 minutes. Not for the clostrophobic. The last day we roped up and went on a trek up the glacier and got some instruction on route finding in a cravasse field.

The weather was beautiful, and I got a good sunburn in spite of my oft-applied SPF 45.

Cheri arrives from Hawaii on Saturday for some Alaskan fun. Will report back.

Jared

Unloading the gear after arriving at base camp.

Traveling by a large open crevasse.

Some fun sledding around camp.

Tucker (our instructor), Jess, Joe, and I on our glacier trek.