My wife and I just finished binge-watching a documentary on Amazon called Everest: Beyond The Limit. We enjoy watching intense adventure shows like this for very different reasons.
She wants to see what happens to those involved in something she with never do. I like to watch and think about what it would take to have an experience like that for myself. Much of what we saw with these climbers is inspiring… and then there were those who had never climbed a day in their life.
How could anyone even think about doing Everest as their first-ever mountaineering experience?!
There is an order to things in life – a natural progression of skills, knowledge and experience.
Grade school, middle school, high school. Bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctorate degree.
How is mountaineering any different?
Small mountains, medium mountains, large mountains. 5,000 feet, 10,000 feet, 20,000 feet.
You don’t go straight to big mountains without working your way up through other qualifying experiences. You can’t just decide one day to do Denali and make that your first adventure.
Follow the order of things
All this reminds me of what happened on Baker this past summer. I learned that a few people in our group had never worn crampons before nor used an ice axe outside of a single training course. That was a bit concerning for me. I couldn’t help but think, “why are you here, on this mountain, as your first real mountaineering experience? Your lack of experience is a risk which puts the rest of us at risk, especially to those on your rope team. If you fell into a crevasse, you’d be fine… but what if I fell into one??”
For this group of new mountaineers from Utah, I knew there to be at least a half dozen relatively safe beginner routes they should have done prior to participating on this trip. Ones that do not require you to be roped up to anyone else as you learn and understand the basics of using an ice axe and crampons.
Here’s that list to name a few:
- Deseret Peak from the Twin Couloirs
- Deseret Peak via Temple Couloir
- White Baldy from American Fork Canyon
- Upper Pole Couloir to Cascade Mountain
- Cold Fusion Couloir to North Timpanogos
- Everest Ridge to Mt. Timpanogos
I can think of a few out-of-state ones too, if travel is wanted as part of your learning adventure:
- Mt. Adams
- Mt. Shasta (Avalanche Gulch Route)
- Mt. Whitney (Mountaineers Route)
- Mt. Hood
- Mt. Rainier (Disappointment Clever Route)
See the progression? Start with easier and somewhat safer before moving to harder and more risky.
Work your way up, following the order of things. It is meant to be that way for good reason.
