Back to Main

David M

August 03, 2006

-----Original Message-----
From: David May [mailto:dmay@marmotmountain.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:14 PM
To: Doxey Kemp
Subject: Re: [BUSHWHACKERS] Initiatives for 2007

Hi Doxey -

I will attempt to give you some quick comments off the top of my head to your proposals.

* Leadership Course
I took a similar course at B.C.C, then helped teach it after that. This can be a fun course, but requires a lot of coordination and execution by the instructors. The instructors need to be HIGHLY motivated to pull this one off....otherwise, it can be kind of be a dud.

* Cragging Course
Would probably either need to be a small group of students, or require a large amount of instructors. I am a big believer in one-on-one instruction for rock climbing skills. Otherwise, the students don't really get enough out of it other than a general overview.

* Crevasse Rescue Clinic
A refresher crevasse rescue clinic is a good thing to do every season. I lot of folks seem to want to get more comfortable with 2 person rope travel.....this might be a good thing to focus on. It is easy to try to cover too much at one time for people to remember if you cover too many techniques at once.

* Guide Tricks for Climbers
I am not a big fan of guiding, so I don't know exactly what you mean by this one. I am a believer that everyone in a party should know what they are doing and be able to take control in different difficult scenarios that might arise. I am sensing that some folks may be inclined to go on a trip that they may not be ready for with the hopes of relying on the other person to deal with any problems that might come up.....and, they might not even really know if the other person really knows what they are doing.....people tend to assume that just because someone has successfully climbed a number or routes or is a good sport crag or gym climber that they are a competent alpine mountaineering type of climber.....not always the case.

If folks want to do alpine rock climbing type trips, then they should learn the appropriate techniques for self-rescue....this might be something to focus on (escaping a belay, ascending a rope, doing an assisted rappel, passing a knot on rappel, etc.) rather than so-called "guide tricks".

* Conservation
You probably just have to poll the club on this one to see what the interest level is.

* Avalanche Awareness
This type of course is usually worthwhile......Might be best when paired with some type of winter travel skills class involving field outing in the mountains.

* Scrambling/Cross Country
Seems to be a fair amount of interest in this type of activity out there. Might be a good way to draw more folks into the club if that is what you are interesting in doing. Maybe just a basic backpacking course as well.

*Alaska Mountaineering Outing
Seems like you have never had any trouble getting folks interested in this type of trip!

*Intermediate Glacier Climbing Course
See above comments about crevasse rescue clinic. Maybe a little ice cragging on the Nisqually or the Coleman.

Hope you find this useful. Looking forward to seeing you and the family sometime soon!
- David