Pat and I came ready to snow shoe 10 miles up to Lake Kelcema from the bottom of Deer Creek Rd. While making a quick stop at the Verlot Ranger Station, we were enlightened on the fact that there were numerous avalanche spots all along the highway; including the trail we were planning on going up.
We decided to still head that way and just do a shorter length of the trail and turn around right before the avalanche shoots about 2.5 miles (which also was one of the better views along the hike). After we pulled in, geared up and started to walk up to the trail it started (or maybe we finally noticed) that it was raining very hard. A quick conversation led us both to believe that we should probably bag it on the grounds of rain, possible death due to avalanches and the fact that our destination/turn around point was the most dangerous part of the hike.
We still wanted to make what we could out of the day so after a quick recharge once getting home, I pulled out all my ropes, prussiks cords, caribeaners and anything else I had in the world of technical rescue. We started to go over and practice figure 8 type knots, basic belay systems and a few other things that would be essential to know before ascending Rainier. Why waste a good Washington winter day?
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| successful knots |
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| Pat ready to climb something |
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| Basic rope stuff from Rescue Tech I manual (copyrighted material) |
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