Archive:Glacier School 2009
Date
September 19th - 20th, 2009
Mandatory dry school on Wed September 16th at 7pm in BUCH B213
General Information
What is Glacier School?
Glacier School is a 2-day (weekend) course intended to teach safe and efficient means of travelling 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.
Expectations
Students should expect to learn the following skills:
- Knots for mountaineering
- Travelling over snow and ice with crampons
- Self Arrest in snow (if there is any snow)
- Crevasse avoidance
- Snow and ice anchors (picket, t-slot, snow and ice bollards, v-thread, etc)
- Crevasse rescue
- Crevasse self and team rescue
- Belaying techniques for mountaineering
The prerequisites for being a student at glacier school are minimal
Sign up early as group size will be limited to ensure low student/instructor ratio and minimal environmental impact
Students must have overnight backpacking experience and a good attitude. 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, nor are they certified by any recognized school or association. 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.
How much does it cost?
The instructors at glacier school are all volunteers, but there are still minor expenses that need to be covered like the information booklet you receive at Dry school. Also you will need to pay your driver gas money, which can vary depending on how many people you are in the car and what kind of car it is. If you need to borrow gear from the clubroom a deposit is needed, but this will be returned to you again when you return the gear. Please bring CASH for all expenses (preferably small change). Prussik cords and the VOC expenses need to be paid at the dryschool, gas money are paid to your driver on the trip and gear deposit needs to be paid when you pick up your gear either during gear hours or at dryschool.
$5 for two prussik cords, unless you already have them.
$10-15(TBD) for VOC expenses: Photocopying/booklet, beverages, poo bags, donation to the Flavelles, etc.
$25 typical gas money, negotiated with your driver.
$0-200 deposit for gear rental, refundable when the gear is returned.
What Do I Need?
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The VOC has some of this stuff and will lend it out to students for a minor deposit. See gear list for details
A tent and/or stove will be very useful. If you don’t have one you can arrange to share with others at the MANDATORY DRY SCHOOL.
If there’s not enough VOC rental gear to go around, some borrowing, or renting from MEC will have to fill the voids. Please reserve rental gear early to ensure the gear you need will be available for the weekend.
Last, you’ll need 2 “prussik” cords (Don’t worry if you have no idea what that is). We’ll be selling it for $5 per set at DRY SCHOOL.
Locations
TBD
Dry School (Mandatory!)
When and Where?
Wednesday, September 16th @ 7pm, Buchanan B-213
What Happens at Dry School?
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 $5 fee, sell prussik cords, lend out VOC gear (max of 4 items each), and finally we’ll teach a few rope skills that will come in handy on the weekend.
What do I Need to Bring?
Glacier 1 students and other wishing to practice crevasse rescue, please bring your harnesses, biners and prussiks.
IMPORTANT: Bring your boots and crampons to ensure they are adjusted correctly if you have not done so previously or are unsure.
Glacier 1
This course is for glacier novices. Instructors will teach the basic glacier skills such as:
- Roped travel
- Self arrest
- Crevasse rescue
- Knots
Instructor sign up
Please post your name here along with any skills you feel comfortable teaching. There will be an instructor meeting (time TBD). There is a limit on the number of instructors as well, to be determined.
Student sign up
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Signup Closed |
| This is the sign up and organization page for an old trip. It already happened on 19-9-2009. Please do not sign up for it. |
Waiting List
Priority will be accorded to first people in the following list if any participants above drop. Please only put your name down once on this page, you can't sign up for both G1 and G2. If you are qualified for G2, you are not suitable for G1.
Come to Dry School!!! Waitlist people can usually be accomodated at Dry School.
Glacier 2
This course is for people who have taken Glacier 1 or have previous glacier skills, but aren't fully comfortable route finding on a glacier. This group will work on more advanced skills or climb a nearby peak with an experienced leader. Probably at a different location than G1
Instructors
Please post your name here along with any skills you feel comfortable teaching.
There will be an instructor meeting TBA. There is a limit on the number of instructors as well, to be determined.
Participants
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Signup Closed |
| This is the sign up and organization page for an old trip. It already happened on 19-9-2009. Please do not sign up for it. |
Glacier 1 Vehicles
Drivers please post your names here along with your vehicle capacity and departure info. If you have one, great. If not, no worries, rides will be arranged at DRY SCHOOL.
- Name (X spots) (Time of Departure from Vancouver - Time of Arrival to Vancouver)