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| Eating lunch. Lovin' the sun. |
You’ll have to forgive me for my total failure in keeping
this blog up to date. It has been a
super busy training season this year.
This past weekend we had our fourth and final pre-season training for
our 2012 staff. For me, it was my
seventh time attending snow weekend in as many years. That’s fourteen days total at Artist’s Point
just outside of the Mt. Baker ski area.
Of those fourteen days, exactly three of them have been sunny. In fact, I would say that fewer than five of
those days have had a visibility of more than fifty yards. As miserable as a rainy white-out can be,
it’s actually great for our guides to have some experience in the those
mountain conditions.
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| The view. |
This year we had the best of both worlds. We hiked in Saturday morning and set up camp
in bluebird conditions. The mountain
guides spent nearly six hours that afternoon throwing themselves down a snowy
hillside (and self-arresting), digging anchors in the soft snow, and practicing
the subtleties of the bucket and boot-axe belays. It was absolutely perfect weather. Sunburns were the only cause for
discomfort. We even finished off the
evening singing God’s praises while the setting sun cast a soft alpenglow on
our 360 view. Magic.
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| This is from All-Staff weekend three weeks ago. |
The next morning we woke up to dark skies and imminent
rain. We hastily packed up our gear,
roped up (just because), and headed back down to the parking lot for a little
crevasse rescue, you know on all of the crevasses surrounding the Mt. Baker ski
area parking lot. About halfway through
our hurk demonstration the skies opened up.
It rained the rest of the day. We
were cold and wet for the next six hours.
Then we just got in the cars and left.
It was awesome.
It really was the perfect cap to four great training
weekends. Our guide staffs and base camp
staff this year are rock solid. It’s
going to be a great summer. We head up
the inlet in a little over two weeks. We
would love your prayers for our staff and our trips as we spend an adventurous
summer in pursuit of God’s work.
