Glacier School

Introduction

What is Glacier School?

Glacier School is a 2-day (weekend) course intended to teach safe and efficient means of traveling over glaciers. The School is divided into two courses:

Glacier 1 is designed for beginners to snow and glacier travel. It is expected that you have previous backpacking and camping experience.

Glacier 2 is for students with previous glacier experience that want to learn more advanced skills or to climb a peak.

How much does it cost?

In 2009 we sold prussics for $5 to those who needed them (sold 23). We did not print a handout. We charged all students to Glacier 1, $15, to cover the cost of 8 liters of red wine, poo bags, and compensation to the Flavelles for the use of their outhouse (though perhaps nobody used it). The leaders are entirely volunteering. They don't get paid. They don't pay. You will be expected to chip in $25 or so for gas to and from Vancouver. If you borrow gear from the club a hefty per item deposit will be collected, but you’ll get that money back.

What Happens at DRY SCHOOL?

Please bring CASH for all expenses (preferably small change). There will be a brief introduction to glacier travel before we outline what’s to be expected for the weekend. Then, we’ll arrange transportation, stove and tent groups, collect your fee, sell prussik cords, possibly lend out VOC gear if there's any left (max of 4 items each), and finally we’ll teach a few rope skills that will come in handy on the weekend. If we can find a suitable place (tree) we'll practice prussicking.

Expectations Students should expect to learn the following skills:

• Knots for mountaineering
• Traveling over snow and ice with crampons
• Self Arrest
• Snow and ice anchors
• Crevasse rescue
• Belaying techniques for mountaineering

The prerequisites for being a student at glacier school are minimal. Students must have overnight backpacking experience. Some rope skills (such as belaying, common climbing knots, etc) are desirable but not absolutely necessary.

Instructors for glacier school are club members who volunteer their time, and are not professional guides. If you don't feel comfortable taking responsibility for your own life in the context of an informal course advised by VOC instructors, you should take a mountaineering course offered by a professional guiding service.

2009 Planning

We discussed several locations for G1, but once again settled on Anniversary Glacier. Baker would have been a better choice but border problems would stop some of our Members, and we are limited to 12 people on the Coleman Glacier side. G2 climbed Baker, and they were happy with that.

The weather was terrible Saturday, but nice and sunny on Sunday. If we could hold it a week earlier, we might get better weather, at least statistically. The Flavelles were doing their firewood/hut reno on our weekend so we didn't use their Hut at all, so our $200 payment to them was perhaps over-generous.

Because it was a low snow year there was no soft snow to practice ice axe arrests. The crevasses were fine for crevasse rescue trials.

2009 Handout

In 2009, the Veenstras totally revised the handout which we supply to students of G1. Unfortunately it runs to 18 pages and needs a color printer to adequately show the knots. This document is excellent and should perhaps be printed and sold to participants rather than having them print their own, because lots of people don't have color printers or they are lazy or they want to save money. You can find it at Info Booklet

2009 Budget

Prussics were sold at $5 each to those who wanted them. We bought 30 with staff discount at MEC, and we sold 23, so we lost a little money and gained a few prussics. We need to charge more if we don't get the staff discount.

Glacier 1 students were charged $10 each, or $300 total. This went $70 for 8 liters of cheap red wine, $200 donation to the Flavelle Hut, $15 for spices and sugar, and $15 profit to the Club. We survived on 4 liters of wine, chiefly because it's hard to find people to carry it. Glacier 2 students were not charged anything.

Gear List

See Info Booklet.

Past Events

September 2009

Glacier School 2009 was held at the Anniversary Glacier. Glacier (2) was at Mt Baker.

The Anniversary Glacier was pretty well snow-free, making bad conditions for practicing ice axe arrests. The weather was atrocious on Saturday but Sunday was sunny and warm. We had 40 people camped below the glacier. The Hut was being renovated and re-supplied with firewood, so we were not welcome there.

September 2008

Glacier School 2008 was held at the Anniversary Glacier. Glacier (2) was at Joffre Lakes. Weather was somewhat miserable both days.

15th-16th September 2007

Glacier School 2007 was held at the Anniversary Glacier.

16th-17th September 2006

Held at Anniversary Glacier. Photos are available on the VOC Gallery.

17th-18th September 2005

Mt. Baker (Easton Glacier). 3+ hour drive SE of Vancouver. Dry conditions, and no snow patches for instruction and practice off the glacier. Weather was cold and wet.

11th-12th September 2004

Glacier School was held at the Anniversary Glacier near Joffre Lakes. In inclement weather conditions, most people stayed in Keith's Hut. There are only a handful of decent camping spots nearby the hut. This would have been a problem had the weather not been so bad that there were no members of the public wanting to use the hut. Despite dry conditions on the glacier, there were good snow patches below the SE face of Joffre.

September 2003

Glacier school was held at the Easton Glacier on Mount Baker.

September 2002

Glacier school was held at the Coleman Glacier on Mount Baker for the third consecutive year. We were fined by the US National Forest rangers for having a group larger than 12 people.

September 2001

Held at Coleman Glacier.

September 2000

Held at Coleman Glacier.

September 1999

Held at the Anniversary Glacier. We camped at the glacial lake formed by the terminal moraine, out of sight of Keith's Hut. Since the winter had seen record breaking snowfall, the glacier was still in "spring" conditions. I am not sure how good of a venue this would have been otherwise (where to self arrest when all you have is ice?).