Our Glacier training continued at St Mary's Glacier. We went up a couple of times in the spring and practiced 'self-arrest' where you learn how to stop yourself when you fall on a steep icy or snowy slope. Then on June we got all of our rope gear together and practiced hiking up the glacier while being roped together. To the right is a pic of St Mary's Lake and below is a shot of the three of us up on the glacier.
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To the left is a shot of Ski and Crash as we are just getting off the glacier, and below is a shot of me after we hiked back to the truck and changed clothes. St Mary's Glacier is near the town of Idaho Springs, so we dropped in there for buffalo burgers and ice cream after a hard day training on the snow.
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We went back to St Mary's on July 3rd for last minute preperations before the trip to Washington. This time we were fully packed for a 3 day adventure just like we would be on Ranier. Our packs weighed around fifty pounds a piece, so it was a good experience to carry them up to the glacier (about a mile), and then hike roped togehter on the snow to the top of the glacier. Above is a panoramic shot of the lake, looking across from the bottom of the glacier. To the left is Ski all geared up and ready for action. Below are shots of me and crash, and then me and Ski as we took a breather on the way down.
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