May 3, 2017
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- 2017 Spring Guide Training (Tye Chapman)
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- Guide training. (Emily Johnston)
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- Guide training. (Emily Johnston)
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- Guide training. (Emily Johnston)
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- Andy and Emily taking a look at the upper mountain. (Justin Merle)
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- The Disappointment Cleaver. (Justin Merle)
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- Emily and Andy having some fun. (Justin Merle)
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- Emily and Andy scouting the upper mountain. (Justin Merle)
The IMG Spring Guide training started this past weekend in Ashford. 30 of our guides showed up for one of our three annual training sessions. Guides focused on new updates and techniques in the industry on Saturday and then moved up to Paradise on Sunday for practice on one person crevasses rescue skills. The guides focused on increasing their speed and efficiency at solo rescue techniques.
On Monday and Tuesday, Three veteran IMG guides, Justin Merle, Andy Polloczek and Emily Johnston skied up to Camp Muir and scouted the route to the summit. The guides put in a track of the route and report that it is an excellent early season route, heading straight up the Ingraham Glacier. This is an easier and more direct route then the normal Disappointment Cleaver Route which can only be done in time of good snowpack.
Our new guide training starts today. Our 7 candidates put in two days of training over the weekend, and now start an additional three days of work honing essential guiding skills up on Mt. Rainier. After passing these hurdles, the aspiring guides will shadow climbs under the supervision of an IMG guide supervisor until they qualify as assistant guides who can lead a rope on a summit team. This is an ongoing training process.
Simultaneous to the new guide training is our Muir Set-Up Team. A team of 5 guides (Craig John, Nickel Wood, Kevin Kayl, Rikki Dunn and Harry Hamlin)Â will head up to Camp Muir tomorrow to set up our Weatherport and generally scout out how things wintered up at Muir. They’ll come down with a lengthy list of ‘needs’ that will go up with the first climb.
It’s a busy week but everybody has the same goal, to get ready for the 2017 Mt. Rainier Season!
George Dunn