On the first day of my mountaineering course, I went to a coffee shop in Squamish to meet my guide Andrew. It was 8am and I was sitting there in my squeaky new mountaineering boots with my 60 litre rucksack bursting at the seams and a full day pack strapped to the back of it. There was going to be nobody else on the course, so they dropped the classroom section of the course and me and Andrew were going to spend 4 days in the mountains to learn 'hands on'.
He rolled up to the coffee shop, introduced himself, made me unpack all my kit to make sure it was good, then I repacked (tried to squish everything back in) and he handed me an ice axe, a helmet, a bag of ice screws and a 40m rope. And where are these supposed to go?
Once I was vaguely organised, we drove up to Whistler to get the gondola up a mountain - less hiking and more alpine time! We parked quite a way from the gondola and the 15 minute walk nearly did me in, the bag being so heavy and awkward to carry with the small pack strapped to the back.
Up the Whistler gondola, then on the Peak2Peak to get to Blackcomb Mountain, where we walked out onto barren ski runs and made our way slowly uphill, away from the ski area. Hiking uphill with that bag was a challenge! And my new boots felt so strange to walk in! Mountaineering boots have stiff soles and high tops, so it feels a bit like walking in ski boots.
Eventually I staggered behind Andrew to make it to the base of the Blackcomb Glacier. We dropped the bags, put on our glacier gear (sunnies, crampons, gloves, ice axes) and went for a little practice walk. It felt pretty weird walking in crampons but I got used to it enough for us to drag our packs back on and head up the ice.
It was a steep gradient and there aren't too many good resting spots on a glacier, so I tried not to moan and made it to the ice-free col for a rest. Ahead, another glacier. But this one isn't just bare ice, it is snow-topped (a 'wet' glacier), that can hide crevasses. We put on our harnesses and helmets and Andrew attached the rope to us both. Then we put on our slightly lighter bags and set off across the glacier. I went first (because if I fell into a crevasse, Andrew could rescue me, but I wouldn't know how to rescue him) and I had to go around a scary deep hole and step across a narrow crevasse! Then we walked quickly across a rock-fall zone and uphill to the next col.
The col gave a great view of glacier-topped mountains, talus slopes and boulder fields with a blue lake below. It was an incredible scene but it didn't feel particularly inviting... the world above the tree line looks a bit desolate.
The glacier gear went back in the bags (damn) and we had to go downhill to our camping spot by the lake, across boulders and boulders and more boulders. There are no paths up here and if you're not on snow or ice, you're on boulders. I was struggling with the bag and my stiff boots on the loose rocks and it seemed to take me for ever to get down to the lake! Andrew found a sweet camping place and I happily ditched my bag, put on my trainers (ahhh) and we set up camp by a stream and some patches of alpine fireweed.
Once set up, I realised I didn't have my jacket... where did I leave it? It was getting cool as the sun dipped behind the mountains and Andrew started cooking dinner as I headed back up the boulders to look for my jacket. Thankfully I was a lot quicker across the rocks in my trainers with no bag, because I'd left it almost all the way back at the col! But when I got back to camp, tasty pasta was ready and we ate, sorted gear and went to bed early.
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