Mt Hood, here I come!
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Mountaineering
OMG. I am so freaking sore today. I could barely push my upper body out of bed this morning. I had to sort of roll myself out. I’m thinking about drinking my coffee from a straw because my arm shakes just picking it up. But that’s getting ahead of myself…

I had to meet the class at PCC Central at 7am Saturday morning. We loaded up our gear and headed to the mountain. There were 5 people in the class, the instructor, his assistant and the assistant’s girlfriend who basically just took the class so we could have 3 teams of 2 for various activities. Of the 5 people two were girls and 3 guys. The other girl’s husband is part of the mountain rescue team for Hood so she knew a lot of this stuff anyway. Two of the guys had done a little mountaineering before and the 3rd had about as much experience as me (that would be none).

We get to Timberline, change into our mountaineering boots, put on the snow/wind gear, got our ice axes, harnesses, etc. It was such a beautiful morning. I really wish I had my camera. You could see all the Sisters and Mt Jefferson. There were some beautiful cloud formations with this pinkish/blue sky. Truly amazing. We head over to this little canyon/valley beside the parking lot. It’s probably two hundred feet deep and fairly steep. We are hiking along and suddenly the snow is just ice. More ice than we can kick steps into with our boots. We manage to find a way around and get down to the bottom of the canyon. We begin the instruction with how to do basic steps up a slope in the snow. We start up the other side of the canyon and yep, more ice. The instructor decided we get an immediate lesson in crampons. Woohoo! It’s something he usually waits until the end of the day but he said he has never seen the snow this bad in February before. After we got our crampons on we got to climb up and down the slope a few times which was fun. You have to use your ice axe as an anchor and so there are several ways to do it which we practiced.

Then it was on to self-arrest (which I would have though we would learn BEFORE we climbed but that is just my opinion). Self-arrest is basically what you do to stop yourself when you decide to plunge down the mountain. We practiced the moves on a flat area first but then we had to practice on a slope too. This is where the “fun” came in. In order to practice you basically have to throw yourself down the side of the canyon. Yeah. Had the snow been somewhat soft it wouldn’t have been an issue. This was hard shit. So you launch yourself face forward, ice axe in hand. The point is to jam the pick of the ice axe into the snow and swing your body around so you end up with your feet pointing downward which you then use to dig into the snow to stop yourself along with the ice axe. We also got to practice launching ourselves on our back, head first down the side of the hill. This was actually easier I thought because I couldn’t see where I was going. The whole launching of self where I could see what I was doing was much more intimidating.

Next up was glissading which is basically sitting on your butt sliding down the hill but trying to keep yourself under control using the ice ax and your feet. This was a bit hard on the butt due to all the ice. THEN he whips out these sliders that he invented (basically took those little flexible sleds, cut out room for the legs, tied it around the waist and off you go. Damn, those go fast. That was a bit scary. He said he’s basically slid all the way from the top of Hood to Timberline on one of those. Along with a few other mountains…

Then it was on to working with the ropes. I should mention here that at about this time the weather changed drastically and it was suddenly pouring rain, windy, cold, etc… We did some belaying and rappelling as well as practicing walking on a rope team. I won’t get into all that because it was pretty uneventful. Although it was cool that a snow bollard could actually hold 4 guys pulling on a rope without breaking. We finished up the day climbing out of the canyon and back to the parking lot on a running belay (where the team is all roped and clipped to pickets but still moving along in the case of a fall).

At the end of the day we were all soaked head to toe and for whatever reason I swear it takes twice as long to get back to Portland than it does to get to Timberline. The good thing is that the only part of me that got even remotely cold was my fingers for a short time and my face. The rest of me was toasty warm. Plus, while my outer clothing was soaked, I was totally dry underneath.

Next week is the Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue training which expands a bit on what we learned yesterday plus how to travel with a sled. I think I will wait until that class is over to decide about furthing my mountaineering skills. I did have a lot of fun doing it though (with the exception of tossing myself off a mountain). The Mazama class is more than just snow climbing though as it gets into rock climbing too. Rock climbing has been something I’ve thought of doing for years now but never had the gumption to do it. Maybe now that I’m old and break easier it is the time! Ha ha!

So that was my big adventure for the weekend. Today an old teacher is coming over so we can continue planning the big reunion this summer. I’ve been slacking on my reunion duties though. Bad Michele! Aside from, I plan on doing nothing seeing as how I can hardly move. Every piece of me hurts (except my legs – they seem okay). I guess all that running has been helping!