Thank you for choosing Island Alpine Guides for your mountain skills training. The following information is intended to help you prepare for your course. We hope it answers most of your questions, though please don t hesitate to contact us if you have others. COURSE OVERVIEW Our course takes place in an alpine setting with snow, glacier, and rock all in easy reach. On the first two days of the course, we ll cover movement on snow, use of ice axe, snow anchors, improvised belays, end roping and short roping, glacier travel and crevasse rescue amongst other things. On day three, we ll put it all together by climbing a peak with students leading to practise newly-learned skills. We recommend that students have taken our Intro to Rock course, or have equivalent training or experience. While this is not essential, it does help to have some fundamentals in place.
BE PREPARED The best training for hiking and climbing is to go hiking and climbing. Regular hikes going uphill with a load on will get you in shape for this trip. Given that we are flying to a base camp on this trip, it is of course less demanding than a hike-in trip. If you have not taken our Intro to Rock course or a similar course, or you re not at least familiar with basic knots, we ask that you learn to confidently tie the following: figure 8 follow-through; figure 8 on a bight; overhand on a bight; double overhand; double fisherman s; clove hitch; prussik; and munter hitch. Check out this video for more on the muter hitch: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfraoc2gnuy. All of the remaining knots can be found here: http://www.animatedknots.com. Comfort with these knots will make for much more efficient use of our time in the short three days we have together. MEETING TIME AND PLACE Unless informed otherwise in a pre trip email from IAG, please plan to meet at the E&B Helicopters Gold River base at 8.30am on the first day of the course. (Take Muchalat Drive off the Gold River Hwy into the Western Forest Products yard. Continue through the yard to the heli base on the right side) We'll aim to return to the base by about 3-4pm on the last day of the trip. Please note that there is no cell coverage in Gold River or indeed anywhere en route after you leave Campbell River. If you are looking to camp in the area before or after the trip there are two pay campsites near Gold River or a free camping location just out side Strathcona Park a few kilometres from Gold River here. FOOD LOGISTICS If IAG is catering your trip, you won t need to do anything except let us know about any specific dietary needs you may have, and to bring your vessels and utensils. Note that not all IAG trips have a catering option. Check with our office if your trip has this option. If available the cost is $60/person/day. If you are catering the trip yourself, you may want to share some food logistics with other participants. IAG will contact you shortly before the course to organize logistics with you and to share the contacts for other participants.
GROUP GEAR LOGISTICS Your guide will bring along the ropes and group technical gear (the rack). You are required to bring the technical gear listed lower down in this document, though IAG can provide any of this if you let us know in advance what you need. Tenting and cooking equipment is organized between the participants. Again, IAG will contact you shortly before the trip to organize these logistics with you. PACKING FOR A BASE CAMP STYLE TRIP Our base camp is a short three minute walk from where we land the helicopter, so it s feasible to bring along some luxuries if you wish. Things you might consider are a lightweight tent for yourself rather than sharing, more wet food rather than all dry, and even some wine or beer. Please be aware that there are limitations in that each person should have no more than about 18kg of luggage to be within the helicopters lifting capacity and everything should be packed in such a way that you could carry it downhill a significant distance in the rare instance that weather precludes the helicopter picking us up where it dropped us off. EQUIPMENT LIST A list of personal equipment is below. As mentioned above, camping and cooking logistics/ equipment will be organized between participant, facilitated by IAG. The temperatures you will encounter on this trip could range from -5 C at night to the 20s by day. The list below should work for these conditions. Clothing:! Poly-pro, wool or silk under wear top and bottom, one set! Wool sweater or fleece or pile jacket! Wind and waterproof jacket and pants! Wool, fleece or pile hat! T-shirt or long-sleeved cotton shirt (white or other light colour)! Light weight hiking trousers of nylon or similar! Ski gloves or similar, 2 pairs Footwear:! Mountaineering boots (these need to be stiff enough and with a sharp enough cutting edge on the sole to effectively kick steps in snow. Hiking boots with a sole that flexes and/or having a rounded edge are not effective at kicking steps in hard snow)! Wool, fleece or pile socks, 2 pairs! Poly-pro or silk liner socks, 2 pairs (optional)! Gaiters that fit easily over your boots (optional if pants stay over boots with elastic cuff)
Sleeping:! Sleeping bag that will keep you warm to minus -5! Thermarest or other sleeping pad Technical: All of the following can be provided by IAG. Please let us know at least three days in advance of your trip which of these items you would like us to bring along for you:! Helmet UIAA approved and adjustable! Crampons simple, ten point general mountaineering crampon (either step-in or strapon are fine depending on your boots)! Ice axe general mountaineering tool, 50-80cm depending on your height! 3 locking carabiners at least one should be pear shaped! 4 regular carabiners ideally two of these are D-shaped and made from flat stock! Harness a simple, lightweight alpine harness! Belay/rappel device simple plate or tube type device (no auto devices)! 7mm accessory cord 2 x 5m lengths! Double shoulder length (1.2m) sewn sling should be rated to 22kn Packs:! A backpack big enough to carry all of the equipment on this list (this is important in case weather prevents us flying out from our campsite and forces us to hike to a lower elevation for pick-up)! A day pack for daily activities, big enough to carry your rain gear, fleece, water, lunch and some of the group technical gear and ropes Other:! Sun hat! Sunglasses which block 100% UV! Sunscreen (high factor for lips and skin)! Water bottles! Eating vessel and utensils! Headlamp (much better than hand-held flashlight for early starts)! Spare prescription glasses! Pocket knife! Camera! Walking sticks (optional)! Toothbrush and small container of toothpaste! Bug repellent
Packing tips: MOUNTAIN SKILLS FLY-IN Everything that must stay dry (particularly sleeping bag and clothing) should be packed in stuff sacks lined with plastic bags. Place the plastic bag inside the stuff sack, fill it with the contents and then use the plastic bag to squeeze all of the air out. Then twist shut the plastic bag tucking the end inside the stuff sack and draw closed the stuff sack. This method will compress your gear, waterproof it effectively and the stuff sack being on the outside prevents you from putting holes into the plastic bags which would render them useless for waterproofing. Please be sure that all clothing and equipment is in good repair and functioning properly with crampons fitted properly to boots. Malfunctioning equipment uses up precious time for all participants. Please come properly prepared. Finally a reminder that you will be required to sign our standard waiver on the first day of the trip, which you would have seen and agreed to at the time of registration. Please let us know if you would like a copy emailed to you prior to your trip.