Week One: 30 Day Mountaineering Training with NOLS Alaska

Alaska is home to some of the most beautiful, rugged, and technical mountains in the world. There is no doubt why this place has become one of the best mountaineering locations worldwide. Through NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), I spent 30 days learning mountaineering skills while living and traveling on glaciers.

Preview: During the 30-day NOLS mountaineering course we encountered 24-hour sunlight, crossed tracks of grizzly bears, fell into crevasses, stomped out runways for planes to land on the glacier, summited a technical mountain, made pizza in the backcountry from scratch and so much more.

You will read about all of these moments during the NOLS 30-day mountaineering training course below! Also, if you stick to the end, I have a few extra resources for you.

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Preparing For Adventure⁣

Mountaineering to me has been a curiosity for many years. It seemed that all of the professional explorers that I have looked up to since day 1 had at least dipped their toes in the mountaineering realm.

Inspired by those people, but not sure where to start, I decided to take a NOLS Mountaineering course up in Alaska to learn more than just the basics. Now, I have a much better understanding of technical mountaineering and could see some possible expeditions coming in the future. Thanks for reading along!

Day 1: Packed Day

Today was a packed day, literally. We focused on getting all of our mountaineering gear organized and ready to be sent out for the next month. This included our Helmets, Ice axe, alpine harness, crampons, rope, snow protection, ice screws, slings, prusik cords, carabiners, etc.

We also rationed out all of the food that we will be receiving in the wilderness a total of 3 times via bush plane during the middle of the course. One of the cool things about the way this course is designed is that NOLS teaches students how to make dinners and lunches from scratch. I’ll share some of the recipes in future posts. 

Day 2: Into The Wild (Grizzly Bear Safety Tips)

Today is the day when our mountaineering course begins in the wilderness. We have a few days of typical backpacking before we arrive at the base of the glacier. However, we saw many Grizzly bear prints which lead me to my next point. One important lesson that NOLS covers is how to avoid negative grizzly bear encounters. The ways that NOLS mitigates the risk are as follows:⁣

• Carry Bear Spray: We went over statistics and learned that bear spray has been just about 100% effective at preventing deadly bear encounters. Bear spray works very well so we always carry it where it is accessible 100% of the time. 
• Talk Loud And Shout: We are told to constantly yell especially in noisy areas like near streams. One of the most dangerous things is to surprise a bear so we are trying to eliminate that as a possibility. Shout every 20 seconds or so.
• Groups of 4+ People: Although this isn’t always possible, but there have never been bear attacks on groups where 4 people are (close) together. Numbers create protection in Grizzly territory- and that includes when going to the bathroom.
• Kitchen 100 Yards From Camp: Enough said. 

Day 3: ⁣Backcountry Pizza From Scratch (How To)

Finally, we have the glacier that we will begin our mountaineering on, in sight. It is the Nelchina glacier and looks quite beautiful. Again, we frequently saw grizzly bear tracks and we could tell that we were in a highly traveled area. 

Today for dinner, we got a lesson on cooking a backcountry pizza. It’s a lot of fun to have homemade food and not typical freeze-dried meals when out in the wild! The pizza included these ingredients:

• Flour
• Dry Yeast
• Salt
• Tomato Powder
• Cheese
• Dehydrated Toppings of Choice
• Olive Oil
• Water

Cooking Tips: In order to create a weaker “Simmer” flame with the MSR Whisperlite stoves, we pump the fuel only a few times versus the recommended 20-30 times. Also, a trick to melt the cheese on a pizza is to sprinkle just a splash of water into the pan when you are about done cooking and put a lid on the pan. The steam rises and melts all of the cheese on top, almost instantly. Pretty cool cooking trick! Learned this from a member of my cooking group. 

Day 4: Mom With Cancer

Today is a very personal and important day for me back home. My mom, who has been going through chemo treatment for breast cancer, had surgery today that will tell her whether or not she is cancer free. I tried calling via the satellite phone that the instructors were nice enough to let me use. No answer. Called multiple people multiple times but no answers… Kept me thinking about if everything was alright but I figured I would wait until tomorrow to call. 

Being out in the wilderness for extended periods of time comes with many sacrifices. I’ve missed important moments in my life from being out in the wild which is challenging to me but also to the ones back home. This is a really important day for my mom as she has spent the last year going through chemo treatment, surgeries, radiation, endless doctor visits, and many unknown challenges. Luckily, my mom is my biggest supporter and she encourages me to chase my dreams. 

Day 5: Bush Plane Re-ration, Glacier Travel Safety

Today is the first day of re-ration for us via bush plane. We prepared all the food to send in at scheduled time frames and this ration is for 9 days out on the glacier. 

Aside from dealing with the re-ration portion of the day, we went over a bit about glacier travel and crevasse dangers. For example, we went over the three different types of snow conditions that can be on glaciers.

1. Bare ice glacier: this is when the glacier is not covered with any snow and travel is on bare ice. Meaning that crevasses are easily detected but falling in one would likely injure or kill you because you don’t travel in rope teams on bare-ice glaciers. This is due to the fact that rope team members cannot self-arrest if a teammate fell into a crevasse and would be pulled into the crevasse as well.  2. Fern Layer: This is typically the most dangerous glacier condition and it’s when there is a light to a mid layer of snow out on the glacier that makes traveling dangerous due to falling in crevasses. Not only can crevasses be hidden under a light snow covering, but the snow is often not deep enough to hold our weight over crevasses.  3. Lastly is when the snow is thick enough to safely travel over and on top of crevasses. Needs to be the length of a probe deep.

Day 6: No Sign Of Cancer, Mountaineering Knots

Later in the evening, I received great news about my mom’s surgery results. It came back with no signs of cancer. This was certainly a moment that I will never forget- even though the battle isn’t over. 

Prior to me receiving the news, the day was spent going over a few of the knots that we would be used daily throughout the course. Including the Alpine Butterfly, Figure 8 variations, Prusik Hitch, and the Girth Hitch. We also went over the proper ways to coil a rope efficiently. 

I remember as a kid I would look at certain people and wonder how/why they know so many variations of knots. It is quite funny because now I understand!

Day 7: Previous Accidents⁣

We began our ascent onto the glacier and up to higher peaks. We traveled on bare ice glaciers and avoided any of the areas where there was snow. Snow often covers the crevasses so we avoid it altogether. We stay on the ice and travel around it! 

We also spoke a bit about a past death on the mountaineering course in order to avoid another accident. On glaciers, there is something called a moulin. This is essentially a hole in which running water from the glacier runs from the surface and down the hole into the glacier. These can be dangerous for obvious reasons because the holes can be wide enough that a person could be pulled down them. 

Unfortunately, in a horrible tragedy, there has been a student that slipped into one and was never seen again. It is frightening to think about, but important to understand as they deserve massive respect. 

Lastly, another thing we went over is the reasoning behind why you travel on bare ice glaciers with a harness on even though you aren’t attached to a rope team. The reason is that they have had a student fall into a crevasse and was severely injured and he was not wearing a harness. Because of this, they spent a lot of critical extra time trying to put a harness on the student to pull him out to provide aid. 

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Thanks for checking out week one of the 30-Day Mountaineering Training!

Here are a few more related articles:

• Week Two: 30 Days Alone In The Wilderness
• Week Three: 30 Days Alone In The Wilderness
• Week Four: 30 Days Alone In The Wilderness