Intro to Alpine Climbing Course

Description

Learn the fundamentals of alpine climbing in northern Wyoming!

Alpine rock climbing in the Clarks Fork Valley

Our Intro to Alpine Climbing Course teaches you how to be a safer, faster, and more sustainable climber in the mountains!  This intensive course focuses on improving your planning and preparation, overnight camping, technical systems, climbing skills, and decision making for alpine rock, snow, ice, and mixed climbing.  We also focus on how to apply LNT and Beyond LNT best practices while alpine climbing.  We are fortunate to teach this course in an incredible alpine classroom – the Clarks Fork River Valley and nearby Beartooth Plateau near Cody, Wyoming – where we can easily access alpine terrain throughout the year with minimal approaches.  If you want to learn how to enhance your safety, move more efficiently, and reduce your environmental impact as you venture into alpine terrain, this is the course for you!

Intro to Alpine Climbing Course Options:

Alpine terrain can be extremely varied depending on the nature of your objective.  As such our Intro to Alpine Climbing Courses can be fully customized to suit your particular learning goals.  For those looking for a more standardized curriculum, there are three main options for our Intro to Alpine Climbing Course:

• Alpine Rock Focus: Learn to climb alpine rock climbing objectives, with an emphasis on terrain management, multipitch trad climbing systems, and self-rescue.
• Snow and Mixed Climbing Focus: Learn to climb steep snow and glaciated objectives, with an emphasis on snow, mixed, and alpine ice climbing techniques and movement, anchoring systems, and crevasse rescue.
• Backcountry Climbing Focus: Learn to climb remote objectives on rock or snow, with an emphasis on trip planning, packing for long approaches, and overnight camping in addition to relevant climbing techniques and systems.

Again, this course can be fully customized to focus on topics that are most relevant to your alpine climbing objectives.

Lessons

While each Intro to Alpine Climbing Course can be customized to suit your goals, our general curriculum for this course includes lessons on following topics:

• Trip planning
• Gear prep and packing for alpine objectives
• Managing backcountry approaches
• Backcountry camping skills
• Risk mitigation and managing objective hazards
• Technical climbing systems including protection, anchors, belaying, rappelling, and self-rescue
• Rock climbing techniques, with an emphasis on crack climbing
• Snow, mixed, and ice climbing techniques
• Decision-making processes
• Reducing environmental impacts, with an emphasis on LNT best practices for backcountry climbing

For more information about specific lessons please refer to our sample Alpine Climbing Course Guide.

Locations

The Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River Valley and surrounding areas are home to an impressive assortment of alpine-style rock climbing objectives, ranging from roadside routes to more remote walls that require overnight stays, in addition to dozens of 11-12,000′ peaks that hold snow and alpine ice until mid summer.  The Clarks Fork is the second largest granite gorge in the country after the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, containing a wealth of backcountry climbing objectives, and the peaks at its headwaters (such as Sunlight Peak, Stinkingwater Peak, and Pilot Peak) are some of the most rugged in the state. The particular location(s) we recommend for any given course will depend on your learning goals, course timing, and current conditions.  Here are some of our favorite climbing areas and routes for the three course options:

Alpine Rock Climbing Focus: 

• The Lower Clarks Fork Valley: The Cyclone Bar (5.7, 9 pitches, 2 mile approach), The Dao Dome (5.7, 14 pitches, 3 mile approach), The Tao Tow (5.9, 11 pitches, 3 mile approach)
• The Reef (Upper Clarks Fork): 5 Stages of Reef (5.7, 5 pitches, 1 mile approach), Keanu Reefs (5.9, 5 pitches, 1 mile approach)

Snow and Mixed Climbing Focus:

• Beartooth Pass: Stockaid Peak – Gardner Headwall (Steep snow, 1 mile approach), Quintuple Peak North Coulior (Steep snow, 1 mile approach)

Backcountry Climbing Focus:

• Deep Lake Area – Six mile approach to Sierra-Nevada-esque spires up to 10 pitches in length
• Glacier Lake Area – Five mile approach to alpine rock headwall on excellent granite up to 6 pitches in length
• Pilot and Index Peaks – Seven mile approach to challenging snow and rock climbing up to 5.7
• Sunlight and Stinkingwater Peaks – Seven mile approach to steep snow, alpine ice, and mixed climbing up to 10 pitches in length

Course availability:

Our Intro to Alpine Climbing Course are available from mid May to mid September.

Course logistics:

Transportation: Cody has an airport serviced by United Airlines.  You can also fly into neighboring Billings, Montana (where flights are often cheaper) and rent a car to drive to Cody or Cooke City.

Accommodations:  If doing a multi-day course, we recommend staying at a hotel or bed and breakfast in Cody, Cooke City, or Silver Gate.

Meeting location:  You will meet your guide in either Cody or Cooke City to start your trip.

Equipment:  Many climbers choose to bring all of their own gear, but we can provide all technical climbing equipment including CAMP ice axes and crampons, helmets, harnesses, and Butora climbing shoes.  We do highly recommend bringing your own mountaineering boots if you own them because the approaches in Cody require extensive hiking off-trail and it’s preferable to hike in boots that are broken in to your feet.

Course guides:

Our talented team of Cody climbing guides includes some of the most prolific climbers in the region who are at the forefront of climbing development in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  Most importantly our guides are skilled teachers who are patient, kind, and helpful to people from all walks of life as they learn new skills.  Their top priority is making you feel safe and supported as you take on a new challenge.  Feel free to request a particular guide for your course.

Dane Steadman

Dane Steadman is a skilled multi-disciplinary guide with significant accomplishments including the first guided ascents of Pilot Peak and Stinkingwater Peak, guided ascents of Cloud Peak, Gannet Peak, Granite Peak (MT), guided ice climbs in the Cody area up to WI6 in difficulty, and aguided rock climbs across the state of Wyoming up to 5.12 in difficulty.  Dane is also a very driven and talented climber whose main focus is exploratory alpine climbing both in Wyoming and in the greater ranges.  Notable climbs of his include the first ascent of Technicolor Super Dream on Mt. Huntington in Alaska, the first ascent of the North Face of Pik Alpinist in Kyrgyzstan, the second ascent of Titanic on Torre Egger in Patagonia, and several first ascents of hard ice and mixed climbs in the South Fork of the Shoshone River Valley up to WI6+ and M10 in difficulty.  What’s more, Dane is incredibly personable, patient, professional, and really fun to be around in the mountains. 

Zach Lentsch

Zach Lentsch is an avid climber, guide, and owner of Wyoming Mountain Guides. A Bighorn Basin native, Zach has been exploring wild parts of northern Wyoming for as long as he can remember. In addition to running the business and designing Wyoming Mountain Guides’ suite of climbing programs operating across the state, Zach works extensively in the field and guides a wide range of trips ranging from introductory programs to advanced rock, ice, and alpine trips on challenging terrain. Zach is also a passionate developer of new climbing routes with over 100 first ascents across Wyoming, including the longest ice climb in the state (Ultralight Beam WI3+ 1000m) in the Wind River Mountains, the longest sandstone rock climb in the state (The Fall of Satan 5.10 C3 250m) in the Bighorn Mountains, and a high concentration of rock, ice, and mixed climbs in the Cody area up to 5.12, WI6, and M9 in difficulty.  Zach is an experienced teacher and works hard to integrate as much technical and environmental education into the climbing experience as possible while also prioritizing safety and having a great time together.

Booking and payment:

You can view each of our guide’s availability on the calendar above.  To book your trip directly via our website, you need to first select a guide, choose from available dates, and select which trip option best suits your objectives in terms of route size and difficulty.  Then to finalize your booking we require a 25% deposit, which is non-refundable.  The remainder is to be paid two weeks before the trip and is non-refundable if you cancel within two weeks of the program.  If you do cancel last minute on your own accord and want to transfer your credit to another course or trip, we do charge an additional 30% rescheduling fee.  However in case of bad weather or a medical emergency we will waive the rescheduling fee.

Contact Us:

Interested in taking an Intro to Alpine Climbing Course?  Please send us an email with your name, contact info, and a brief description of when and where you’d like to take the course. Feel free to ask us any questions you might have about the course!