Rainier – Crevasse Rescue Course

There’s always at least one good lesson learned for every trip I go on. It’s only appropriate then, that when a few of us went out for the trip of our Glacier/Crevasse Rescue course, the lessons we learned from our AIARE course were one of the most important things reinforced that weekend, in addition to how to rescue myself and my team out of a crevasse.

On Friday night, five of us somehow packed all of our touring gear, ourselves, and three-days worth of groceries into Brad’s Xterra. We could have called the trip there, as that was pretty epic in and of itself:

A couple hours south of Seattle, we took a pause at Rocky Point campground to grab some snapshots on the lake as the sun was setting.

We thought this would be the last of the good weather for the weekend, and mentally prepared ourselves for a wet and cold weekend of practicing crevasse rescue systems.

But that weather never showed its face on Saturday. We practiced different self arrests and snow anchors, and wrapped up the day with iterating on the different rescue systems.

That evening we settled back in our cabin, where we hung out in total vacation mode: hot tub, whiskey, Christian’s famous chili, and getting along famously together recapping the day.

The next day was a different story.

The day started with the weather we expected: moody, cold rain. When we arrived to the Paradise lot, around 7am, Rainier was socked in clouds and we were getting word of high chances of Thunderstorms and snow/rain. The plan for  the day was to head up to the Nisqually Glacier to practice our rescue skills in an actual crevasse.

After some deliberation by the instructors, the call was made to skin up to Glacier Vista (el: ~6700 ) and make a call as to whether to keep going based on our point observations.
At the meeting point,  we were a group of ~40 students and instructors, in a whiteout, with low confidence in the weather and many of who were unfamiliar with the route. The call was made to ride back down and practice our systems on the steep snowbanks in the Paradise lot.

Some of us got done in the early afternoon, and we escaped the worst of the rain. For Kyle and Brad, not as lucky:

Lessons learned/reinforced:

• Whether it’s for a class  or not, a tour is a tour, and thus groups should always review the route, the plan, weather/risks/hazards, and have a backup plan.
  • Had we met as small groups and had these discussions, there would have been more confidence both from instructors (many of whom were new) and students

• Effective, clear, and calm communication is always critical in the backcountry.
  • In decision making, it makes our travel safer and builds trust between team members
  • In rescue systems, it reinforces the correct steps in rescue protocols, allows for better and faster management of unexpected changes in the situation, and reduces errors.

Overall it was a great weekend with tons of learning both directly and indirectly related to our class.