VOC trips are organized by members like yourself, not professional guides. The trips go into wilderness areas where assistance is unavailable and unexpected events can occur. You could be seriously injured or die. You are responsible for your own actions. Please use caution.
Alpine Skills Course July 15-17 2017 · Sat. Jul. 15th, 2017 - Mon. Jul. 17th, 2017
Warning: This is an old trip - it already happened
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Start: Saturday, Jul. 15th
End: Monday, Jul. 17th
Pre-trip meeting: Wednesday, Jul. 12th, 6:00 pm
Pre-trip meeting location: Aviary
Description:
Hey everyone! The alpine skills course will be running again this year
The feedback and demand for this was incredibly positive 2 years in a row so I'll be doing it again!
Dates are tentative but likely to be July 15-17th. Location tentative but likely in the Pemberton-Whistler area. Additionally, there will be a dry school hosted ahead of time.
One helper from last years trip will be organizing and running the dry school in Vancouver.
This instructive trip is a great opportunity for those:
-Who want to expand on summer mountaineering experience: including scrambling, route finding, glacier travel, placing 'alpine' protection
Participants should have experience with trad climbing, some summer or ski mountaineering and basic glacier travel such as from a G1 or G2 course
If you're unfamiliar with G1 and G2, check out the wiki page for Glacier School. 
How many spots are available?
3 spots for guys
3 spots for girls
Stay tuned, this may change to add an extra 4 spots depending on instructors coming from courses taken from the past 2 years. 
Why such a small group?
In many circles, this is a big group for mountaineering! I feel that usual VOC group size wouldn't benefit anybody. I will have a helper 8 of us total allows me to offer better mentorship to the individuals in this trip. Any larger in size and the group might also be harder for me to manage safely and objectives become harder to execute.
As mentioned above, there is the possibility of a 4 more spots with 2 more instructors. Stay tuned on this. 
So what will be taught?
-Alpine scrambling skills and techniques
-Steep snow climbing skills and techniques
-Crevasse rescue skills
-Risk management
-Gear management and application
-Rope management and applications
-Rappelling
Day 1 will be the approach followed by general skills and/or crevasse rescue.
Day 2 will be an alpine scrambling objective
Day 3 will probably be to climb a classic steep snow objective before returning to the car.
What will you need?
-Sturdy mountaineering boots
-helmet
-overnight gear
-overnight pack
-ice axe
-steel mountaineering crampons (make sure they fit and have 12 points)
etc.
For more info see the wiki gear list
Much of the gear is available at the clubroom. Due to a high likelihood of doing a mountaineering traverse, light is right motto should be followed.
Who am I?
I go by Sam McKoy. I have been less active with the VOC the past couple of years so newer members might not know me but I'm a good guy to learn from.
In the summer I work part-time with NOLS as a mountaineering and hiking instructor in Alaska and the Yukon and as a bear viewing and hiking guide in Bella Coola. In the winter I work ski guiding and am currently an ACMG Ski Guide. I will specify however that this is not a guided trip but I'm doing this as a peer instructor and club member, not as a guide.
Because of the limited spots of the trip, the sign-up page will not only be first come first serve but rather a selection made the by Exec team from the sign up list. This trip is for those who are active in the club and show promise towards leading trips themselves or those who are actively contributing to the club in some form or another. As I said, 3 of the 6 spots will be reserved for women to encourage equal female participation in mountaineering.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
A sign-up page will be provided soon.
Posted: 2017-05-27 22:48:12
Last modified: 2017-07-12 00:11:13