I participated in an introduction to ice climbing course the weekend of October 6-7 offered by Sierra Mountain Center. The course is called Fall Ice Seminars. The instructor and guide was Vince Anderson.
The other two participants (Rich and Nancy) and myself met Vince at 7:30am, October 6, 2001 at the Tioga Pass Resort just off Hwy 120. After an equipment checked and division of group gear, we headed up the unmaintained Glacier Canyon trail. We set up camp at 10,400 ft or so in a small plateau just east of the creek that comes from Dana Lake.
Later, we began hiking towards Dana Glacier. Here, Vince showed us how to ascend and descend using different crampon techniques, including: French (flat footing) and American technique (pied troisieme). Also, Vince taught us proper ice axe use. We finished off the first day by climbing to 11,800 ft on the glacier toward a bergschrund, where we learned a bit about ice climbing using front pointing. The ice wall Nancy and I climbed was close to vertical and perhaps 25 ft high or so. We had to use 2 ice tools. Vince had already set up a top rope at the top of the ice wall ahead of time and later belayed us from the bottom as we climbed up. Just below the ice anchors, we rappelled down.
The next day (Sunday, October 7) we got up at 5:00am, ate breakfast and left camp just before 6:00am. Nancy and Rich decided not to climb the Dana couloir that day. I did not bring my camera, but Rich was very kind and let me use his. So, after preping up by the Dana glacier, Vince and I started climbing around 8:30am. Soon we reached the bergschrund by the Dana couloir. Vince climbed up the left hand side (south) of the bergschrund. This ice wall was different than the previous day. It had like a small overhang near the top by where the ice anchors were. Vince top belayed me as I climbed up. I thought this was the hardest part of the climb. I actually lost my footing by the bergschrund's overhang but Vince quickly got me and I actually fell no more than an inch. After overcoming the bergschrund, Vince lead. It took us 4 pitches to get close to the notch. We reached the Dana couloir notch at 11:10am. The Dana couloir is about 1200 ft long and is inclined at about 40 degrees. We had a 15-minute rest at the notch and then proceeded towards Mt. Dana's summit. Vince and I reached the summit by 12:00pm. There, we ate lunch, took pictures and rested for half hour. We began our descend towards camp at 12:30pm. We hiked down on the western slope of Mt. Dana and then headed north for awhile. In this section of our hike down, I thought about my car key and where I put it. We stopped and looked in my pack and found nothing. All this time, as we're descending I was worrying about how I was going to get home and so forth. Finally, we walked into our camp just before 2:00pm. I looked inside one of tent's pockets and there it was my car key! I learned a valuable lesson: always bring two car keys (leave one key hiding nearby the car and bring the other key in with you). Anyway, we broked camp down, packed up and were walking towards our cars by 2:20pm. We arrived at the Tioga Lake Overlook parking lot a few minutes before 3:00pm. I said good-bye to Vince and thanked him for a wonderful trip. I stopped in Bishop to get gas and eat dinner. And by 9:00pm, I was home in L.A.
Pictures from the trip using Rich's camera:
