About an hour before the team was to get up for their alpine start on summit day a large serac about the size of a small house, precariously perched along the up-hill edge of a massive expansion zone crevasse, fell into the depths with a thunderous crash. This crash was both heard and felt by everyone and those who had managed to actually fall asleep were awaken for good. Sleep was hard enough to embrace anyway what with summit day excitement. Crawling out of their tents the team saw a plume of snow particles falling lazily through the still night air — a testament to what had just occurred. After some initial excitement the team focused on the task at hand, clipping in, getting ready to…
Whoops, wait, while this is a true story it’s the wrong story. What really happened on this particular day was a training exercise to prepare for a big mountain experience like the one described. Specifically the team consisted of a single student taking our Glacier Skills course. The training was led by Redline Guide Will Murphy with Debra McCown shadowing. The training site, used with permission (thank you), was Black Mountain Ski Area in Jackson. What follows are some photos from both guides of the day (shown in a random order).
