Just when I thought we were done & that I would be able to carry everything, they bring out the group gear. I get to carry a "3 man" tent, a stove, & a fuel bottle which is added to my already very heavy pack. (I just wish I had done something about that loose top on my fuel bottle . . .)
"How the heck am I going to carry this pack up the mountain?" I'm still thinking "no problem . . . I'll manage somehow. How difficult can it be?"
After figuring out what to pack we learn why we were told to bring two ropes. Joel cuts our ropes and shows us all kinds of ways to tie a knot. Learning to tie knots . . ."now why would we need to know that?" The next couple of hours we learn how to tie all kinds of knots. Turns out this will be very handy information to know. I should have known that we wouldn't be able to stake our tents into the snow. We need to know how to tie the ropes to our ice axes and ski poles that will be our stakes for the tents. (I hear it can get windy up there . . . )
Probably the coolest thing we learn how to do is create ropes and pulleys to pull ourselves out of a crevasse. (Do we really have to worry about one of us falling into a crevasse?) We practice being hooked up to our rope, as if we were hiking on the mountain. Then all of sudden we fall through a crevasse . . . we're hanging by our carabiner that's attached to the rope and our huge pack is hanging from our back. Somehow we manage to reach around and hook our pack to the rope (relieving the weight pulling us down) and get it off our back to allow us to attach a rope and begin to pull ourself out of the crevasse. This was really really fun . . . first you attach a rope to the top of the rope and then you make a loop in the other rope for your foot and slowly push & pull yourself up the rope. It's magic! Really!
After we have the crevasse rescue process mastered, we move on to learning how to climb up a wall and rapel down. Once again, I'm thinking "no way, I won't be able to pull myself up that wall". I watch a couple of the other guys give it a try first. Some make it and some don't. I want to make it up! I ask Joel "what's the trick to getting up the wall?". He tells me "keep your hips as close to the wall as possible". And that's what I did! I managed to fly right up to the top of the wall. It was a blast! At the top, I get to ring the bell and rapel down. I could have done it all afternoon. (Hmmm . . . maybe I should try rock climbing on my next trip?? )
After the wall, Joel thinks it might be a good idea to practice setting up a tent. Thank goodness we did. (I just wish we had figured out who had what before we got up on the mountain.) We put up the tent and learn how to tie the knots that will keep the tent from blowing away. That's it! We're done with our day of training and we're ready for the mountain! I do some last minute shopping (I buy a spork - fork & spoon combined), have dinner and try to get some sleep. I've been checking the weather forecast. I don't see any sun and low winds in the forecast . . . but then again, the forecast is only for the side of the mountain we're not climbing. I'm sure it's much nicer on the side we'll be going up.
