12 Day Mountaineering Course - English

AMS Guide Dustin English just checked in from the Pika Glacier in Little Switzerland.

They hare having an excellent time traveling and exploring today.  This morning the saw a nice display of the Northern Lights.   They had hands on lessons in navigation and route finding today as they were negotiating the glacier near the main flow of that Kahiltna Glacier.

They report: All is good!

Here is a photo of a the "trolls" a prominent climbing feature in Little Switzerland, where the course working from.

Melis called in today from the top of Ski Hill. They were going to put their cache in somewhere up in the 10,000' basin. She said that is has been warm so far and that everyone is doing well.

They are on a night/really early in the morning travel schedule. They do this to avoid the hottest times of the day. If there is not much wind and the sun is out in full force they could even be traveling in capalene and "T-shirts". I regret to say that I don't think they will continue to have these sweltering temps. It is just going to get colder and colder as they go up in elevation. Historically though, some seasons are milder than others. I'm optimistic that it won't be too bad.

Melis's crew is planning on moving to 11K camp tomorrow then back carrying to get their cache and potentially taking a rest day the next day. Melis likes the phone, so we'll have lots of updates from her expedition.


Camp at the base of ski hill.

More soon.

Lots of climbs, expeditions and courses start packing gear tomorrow.

rfg

We've had a great spell of weather in the Outdoor Capital of the UK. Easterly winds have brought dry and sunny conditions. The rock has been dry and the trails sweet on the bike. I've been getting back on the bike and coaching coaching skills with degree students at West Highland College over the last few days as well as running TCL Assessment Courses. Today was dry to start but the first rain for a while came in just after lunch time. Ian, Kev, Carl and I managed to get up Curved Ridge on dry rock before the rain came in.

There is no snow left on the route but there is plenty in Easy Gully and on the slope at the top of the ridge. This avoidable though and you can get in behind Crowberry Tower without touching the snow. We used a rope to get down the steep snow at the top of Coire na Tulloch before enjoying the glissade into the coire. We did not carry on down the gully though thinking the snow will be undercut by the stream. We walked out on the path and looked at the remains of the avalanche debris at the foot of the coire. Most of this has melted away, much quicker than I thought it would. Cold, sunny and dry weather coming up at the weekend.

Holmgren, Advanced Mountaineering Course

AMS Instructors Larry Holmgren and Keith Sidle and students flew the SE Fork of Kahiltna Glacier for our Advanced Mountaineering Course this morning.  The group was anxious to get into the mountains and begin their 12 days of classes, after having to wait for better weather.  They are a great group of climbers, we know they will have a great time!

Peter, Erin, Aniko, Olya, and Hari pratice putting up tents

Standing: Olya, Instructor Keith, Erin, Aniko, Peter, Lawrence, 1st row: Instructor Larry and Hari

12 Day Mountaineering Course - English

AMS Instructor Dustin English with the April 12 day mountaineering Course, checked in from the Pika Glacier today.  The group has been having great weather and plans to switch to night travel for the remainder of the course.  Because of hot temperatures during the day, traveling on the glacier and climbing is better at night due to firmer snow conditions.  Instructors Dustin and Adam Fabricant are teaching great courses and the students are learning and climbing a lot.  The weather has been amazing and they are really happy.

Base Camp at Pika

4/29/09

Melis and Greg and team are probably rolling into their first camp at the bottom of Ski Hill right now. They spent last night in Base camp doing lots of little classes to get them ready to make their first official move.


I talked to Melis this morning. Sometimes we get calls from guides at basecamp saying they need something flown in, like an ascender someone may have accidentally left out side near the fixed lines after practicing fixed line ascension just before they flew in. They had everything though and were just checking in. You can see from the gear check photo here, the guides do a pretty thorough job double checking equipment.


Melis said that Nate Opp (pictured here) and Sean were climbing the SW ridge of Mt. Francis.


Allie and Dan and the 12 day were seen in and around base camp doing classes and I think Melis said they were up climbing on some of the nearby peaks today.






Pictured here is Seth Hobby on the South West Ridge of Francis when he guided it last season.

Availability Update

LOTS happening here! We have six groups in the Alaska Range and more heading in. There is still room for you!

We have openings on these programs...

Denali West Buttress Expeditions:
May 10-30
June 21-11
July 4-24
Send us an email or give us a call for details.
Here is some info about signing up.

12-day Mountaineering Courses:
May 14-25 (several spaces)
July 12-23 (several spaces)
August 9-20 (one space!)
September 6-17 (several spaces)

6-day Mountaineering Courses:
June 4-9 (several spaces)
July 5-10 (several spaces)
August 2-7 (several spaces)
September 13-18 (several spaces)

Denali Prep/Kahiltna Dome Expedition:
June 3-12 (3 spaces)

Wilderness Hike
June 28 - July 4 (several spaces)
July 27 - August 2 (several spaces)

It's easy to sign up - click here for the scoop.

Quick Update, April 28

Kevin Mahoney just called in from his camp in the upper West fork of the Ruth Glacier. Kevin and Don summitted Peak 11,300 last night. They spent one night in a tent on the route and then another one on the summit last night. He said they were wallowing in thigh deep snow today on the decent.

Melis, Joey, Steve, Larry and Jon (our first Denali Expedition) are at the bottom of ski hill. Assuming ther weather is good enough tomorrow they will most likely make a carry to the top of ski hill. We'll see how often Melis calls in with reports. All three of the climbers on the expedition have their own sat phones and her husband, Joey, is the assistant, so we might not here from them too often.

Very busy around here these days, so it's been a little hard to update lately.

Nate Opp and Seth Hobby are both in at the base of Huntington. Nate and Steve are in camp right now waiting for it to stop snowing so they can launch for the Harvard. Regardless of the weather , I'm sure they are having a good time. Nate and Seth are pure entertainment, as well as being sick climbers and guides.

all for now.

Whew! Busy Day at AMS HQ

Non-stop action here at the end of 3rd Street.

A group headed into the Mountain House for a few days with guides Melis Coady and Brian Skean.

The 6-Day Mountaineering Course geared up and headed to the airport for a 5:00 PM flight into the Pika Glacier.

Our Mountain Guides course returned from the Range...they skied out the Ruth Glacier crossing Alder Creek and back to the road where we met them with fresh fruit for the drive back to town. We'll post some pictures from the course; they saw grizzly tracks in the snow!

The weather continues to be GORGEOUS with blue skies and sunshine.

Melis and Brian checking gear.

Sounds like they have some jamming planned for their stay at the Mountain House!

This happy gang is headed to the Mountain House on a splitter day.

Mountaineering 6 -Day course students and guides: Dana, Travis, Dustin, Tim, Melissa, Dustin, Ken, Mike and Ray just before heading to the airport.

Sam is all smiles after getting out of the mountains on the Mountain Guides course.

Zach, Will and Dan unpacking.

Guide Wes Bunch has got a tan!

MTC-6 Students getting a lesson in fixed line ascension.

Geared up and waiting for their turn...

April 28th.

The weather has been shut down for a few days around here, so there has not been much activity to report. Tim and Erdal snuck into the Pika glacier two days ago in a little opening in the clouds.

Nate Opp and Sean Russell finally made it in to base camp this morning after 3 days of waiting in Talkeetna for the weather to get good enough to fly. They took off in a plane once yesterday but were turned around soon after takeoff when they received a conditions report from the mountains that there was low lying fog and clouds prohibiting landing on the glacier.

AMS guide Tim Brown demonstrating fixed line ascension before flying onto the glacier. We particularly like the fact that he's wearing a helmet for the demo (and flip flops).













Erdal Ceten, moments before heading into the Pika Glacier with Tim for a week of touring, climbing and relaxing in the mountains.


Several of the 4/28 (Melis's and Greg's) Denali expedition wrapping up their Denali Skills Review class yesterday.









Melis and her fearless crew eating their last hot lunch for a few weeks. They are partway through a really busy day. They have all been thoroughly gear checked, packed their lunch food and are just about to go get their NPS briefing. They are scheduled to fly out today at 5:00 PM. The weather is perfect today so we expect an on-time departure.

Lots more updates and photos to come.

rfg

AMS 6 Day Mountaineering Course - Stroud and our first Denali West Buttress - Corn expedition send-out!

AMS 6 day Mountaineering Course participants enjoy a hearty meal made with love, before heading out into the Alaska Range!

AMS co-director, Caitlin Palmer, shares her experiences and insight on Denali West Buttress route with participants.

AMS's first Denali West Buttress expedition of the 2014season with guides Dan Corn and Noah Ronczkowski flew out today with Talkeetna Air Taxi on a blue-bird Alaska day. Great day to be starting a climb!

AMS 6 Day Mountaineering Course with lead guide Alex Stroud headed out to the Pika Glacier, Alaska Range today for some fun and intensive learning in the sun and snow!

12 Day AMS Mountaineering Course, April 22 - English and Life Below Zero TV show, Updates

Update: Pika Glacier: The 12 day AMS mountaineering course with guides Dustin English and Adam Fabrikant on day 6 of 12. Everyone is stoked and have moved to the Crown Jewel to continue practicing skills such as building anchors, snow pack assessment, route finding, snow camping and climbing. It is continued sunny weather here in Talkeetna and in the Alaska Range. Long summer days are fast approaching.

Our awesome AMS guides continue to provide safety and support services for National Geographic Channel's "Life Below Zero" with wild animal sightings, such as this red fox on the Kavik River, Brooks Range, AK.  Good times and a fun show!

AMS 12 day Mountaineering course, 4/22/13-5/3/13

AMS guide Alex Stroud called in from the Pika Glacier this afternoon.

They have been having a great time in there.  They got to do a bit of skiing today and he said the conditions were perfect.

Blue skies and calm at the moment.  They are planning on moving camp down glacier tomorrow to be in closer vicinity to some of the best easily accessible rock climbing in the Alaska Range.

The Pika Glacier (AKA Little Switzerland) is an AMS favorite.  Our April 6 day Mountaineering Course is planning on heading in there tomorrow as well.

A freshly dusted Little Switzerland with an AMS cook tent in the foreground.

Skiing, Huntington and Peak 11,300

This is a sweet shot that one of our guides, Seth Hobby, shot with his nice new camera. Right now we have several groups in this picture: Nate Opp with Steve Trafton, Harvard Route, Mount Huntington. Nick D'elessio, Dennis and Job Bogan are in the Ruth Gorge skiing. Dan Corn, Brian Skean and Alex Stroud are teaching the 12 day mountaineering course. Kevin Mahoney and Don McAllister are in the West Fork of the Ruth Glacier getting ready to climb peak 11,300.

Nick, Dennis and Job were ready to fly into the Ramparts for several days of skiing; they were delayed in Talkeetna for a couple of days, but made it into the Ruth Gorge a couple of days ago. Their main goal is to ski fresh powder. There is still plenty of snow on the ground here and more on the way most likely.




Ski photo, by Seth Hobby.

According to Dan Corn, who is leading our 12 day Mountaineering Course, it was -20 F. at about 7,000 feet last night. This photo is taken from just East of Denali Base camp, 12 day is at. This is a view of the North Buttress of Mount Hunter. From Base camp you can often see the seracs (big giant ice blocks) calve off and form impressive avalanche powder clouds. Assuming they have good weather they may get a chance to climb a peak that is directly accross from the N. Buttress of Hunter, so maybe we'll get some closer up views of this photo.

Special Opps (AKA, Nate Opp) sent me a message saying that they did a trip up to the approach couloir of the Harvard Route and said they might try to launch tomorrow if the weather still looks good. NAte and Steve were extremely psyched for this climb. Huntington is one of the coolest looking mountains anywhere in the world. The Harvard route is one of the more technical routes on this mountain and this mountain does not have any easy routes on it anyway. If the HArvard route has been guided we're not sure when or by whom. Seth Hobby is flying in in a few days to guide it as well. Luckily AMS has lots of qualified guides for this caliber of guiding. I believe they are both planning on 3 days on route.
Here's a photo that Brian McCullough took from one of the early ascents of the French ridge of Huntington. The prominent ridge that the photographer is staring at is the S.W. Ridge of Peak 11,300. Kevin and Don are planning on taking 2-3 days on route. This route involves lots of steep snow climbing with tricky steps of rock climbing.

Here's a photo I took last season of Huntington. The closest corniced ridge facing me is the French Ridge. Seldom climbed. I believe Nate Opp has the speed record for this route though. 25 hours. It normally takes several days. I chopped off part of the Harvard Route when I snapped the photo, but the right hand skyline is essentially it. Pretty impressive line, eh.

Melis and Joey are packing for our first Denali expedition of the season. They are scheduled to fly in on the 27th. Lots of stuff going on around AMS these days and it's about to get WAY busier.

That's all for now.

AMS Mountain Guide's course

AMS Guide, Dan Corn and Wesley Bunch called in today from about 2700 feet on the lower Ruth Glacier.  They have been having a really good time on the course and are learning a ton.

They were looking up at Alder pass from the lower Ruth Glacier and talking about shuttling equipment to the pass and sleeping back down on the glacier.  They are planning on crossing the frozen Chulitna River and arriving at the Parks Highway on the 28th, where we will meet them with fresh fruits, chips, salsa and a passenger van with the windows rolled down.

What an awesome adventure!!

Looking South down the Ruth Glacier/Gorge where the Guides course travelled over the last several days.

Conversation with Colby Coombs!

Owner/Climber/Guide Colby Coombs will be a guest on Alaska Public Radio Station KSKA's program: Outdoor Explorer, tomorrow April 25th, the live program will be from 2:00-3:00 PM AST and repeated from 7:00- 8:00 PM, AST.

We are sure that host, Annie Feidt will lead an interesting and informative conversation.  Denali Guiding legend and local historian, Brian Okonek will also be on the air. Here is a chance to call in and ask Colby and Brian your best questions about climbing Denali.

For more information click the link to the station below:

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/04/19/denali-climbing-season-begins/

Thanks for listing and for your support!

AMS climbers on the 16 ridge, West Buttress Denali

AMS climbers practicing clipping through running pro at 14,200'

Mike and I went pinnacle climbing today. With SE winds and some showers forecast we went for B Buttress on the west face of Aonach Dubh in Glen Coe. Pinnacle Face (V.Diff) gave us some great fun climbing with steep chimneys at the bottom and a wacky move to get out of the chimney. Some more open climbing then got us to a couple of pinnacles, the second of which is actually an enormous block sat across a gap with a through route underneath (Cyclops IV,5).

You can climb this buttress further right to make it about grade Difficult but still going past the pinnacles. As always this face never fails to impress with its steep walls, deep gullies and great atmosphere. There are lots of routes to explore. There is also a lot of snow left in the gullies and we were glad to have ice axes with us. Number Two Gully has 5m deep patches of snow where the usual descent route goes. It will take a while for these to melt away although the streams are quite full with snow melt.

First Mountaineering Course of the season, flies to the Pika Glacier today!

Adam teaching fixed line ascension at the AMS training bay.

While everyone was working hard, the AMS pups hung out in the spring sun.

The 12 day Mountaineering Course crew, guides Dustin and Adam.

Expedtion Availiabilty Update

We have a few additional Denali,  Foraker and mountaineering course  positions positions still open.  If you have previous experience, we invite you to apply for one of our 2014 Alaska Range big mountain expeditions.  Join AMS to climb to the top of North America.  Please contact us with any questions and for more information.
 

Denali, West Buttress, 21 days, 6 climbers, 2 - 3 guides, scheduled, $7,000 USD April 27 - May 17, 2 climber positions available, Guide: Dan Corn

May 5 - May 25, FULL Guide: Patrick Ormond

May 9 - May 29, 2 climber positions available, Guide: Tom Torkelson

May 11 - May 31, 2 climber positions available, NEW: special small person team: 4 climbers, 2 guides, $9,500 USD, Guide: Todd Passey
May 12 - June 1, FULL, Guide: Mark Postle

May 23 - June 12, FULL Guide: Nate Opp  
May 25- June 14, FULL Custom Expedition, Alex Stroud

May 26 - June 15, FULL Guide: Larry Holmgren

May 26 - June 15, FULL Custom Expedition, Guide: Forest Wagner  
May 27 - June 16, FULL Custom Expedition Guide: Mike Janes

June 2 - June 22,   FULL Guide: Nick D'Alessio  
June 8 - June 28, FULL Custom Expedition, Guide: Mark Postle
June 8 - June 28, FULL Custom Expedition, Guide: Colby Coombs 

June 12 - July 2, FULL Guide: Mike Hamill

June 16 - July 6, FULL Guide: Todd Tumolo

June 22 - July 12, FULL Custom Expedition, Guide: Noah Ronczkowski

June 23 - July 13, FULL Custom  Expedition, Guide: Melis Coady

June 24 -July 14, 3 climber positions available, NEW expedition date! Guide:Josh Hoeschen
June 25 - July 15, FULL Guide: Rob Gowler

Foraker, Sultana Ridge, 21 days, 4 climbers, 2 guides, $8200

May 17 - June 6, 1 climber position available, Guide: Melis Coady

Denali, Traverse: West Buttress - Wonder Lake, 25 days, 4 climbers, 2 guides, $ contact AMS       
May 26 - June 19, FULL Guide: Dustin English 

Mt. Hunter, West Ridge,  14 days, 4 climbers: 2 guides, $ custom

May 3 - May 16, FULL Guide: Nate Opp