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Trip Reports

Graduation Trips: 2011 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2003 | 2002

We Were All Students Once - Here's Some Places We've Been

Cordillera Blanca, Peru 2007 by Ron Edwards and Brad Johnston
Mt Rainier 2006 (PDF) by Christian Mason
Cascades 2006 trip report (PDF) by Joe Stahovic Jr
Climbing in Bolivia 2006 (PDF) by Sid Wiesner
Cordillera Blanca, Peru 2006 (PDF) by Sid Wiesner

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Graduation Trip 2010-2011 Written by Andrew Crampton

Graduation Trip 2009-2010

White Mountains, NH

Trip Report by Judith Scanlon

White Mtns Stayin’ Alive: 2009-2010 Mountaineering School Mountaineering school students had an eventful fall and winter preparing for last week’s graduation trip to Mount Washington. After stair climbing every week, mandatory practice hikes nights and weekends, reading hundreds of pages of Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills, map reading, compass work, etc. FINALLY the day came to put the class of 2009‐2010 to the test – Friday, February 20. Students were well‐prepared to handle the full range of mountaineering hallenges offered by Mt. Washington: deep snow, below‐freezing temps, 50+ MPH winds, periods of whiteout, a challenging ascent and descent, goggles covered in frost, avalanche conditions, numb fingers and toes, freeze dried “food,” and whiskey rationing. Everyone reached the summit with minimal difficulties and returned to the Harvard Cabin “base camp” before dark, and celebrated back in town the next night with beer and barbeque. Brian Ottinger advised students in the planning meeting: “In mountaineering, your first priority is for a team to come back alive, and second to come back friends.” Mission accomplished!

Graduation Trip 2008-2009

Adirondack Park Reserve, NY

Trip Report by Felix Duvallet

This year's ECP Mountaineering School graduation trip took the students and instructors to the Adirondack Park Reserve in New York for summit attempts of Mt. Colden and Mt. Marcy. All teams left Pittsburgh the afternoon of Thursday February 26^th, and arrived at the Adirondack Loj around 4:30am Friday morning for the start of the trip.

The teams were organized as such:

Shane Shin*

Felix Duvallet

(* instructors)

Don Wargowski*

Ron Edwards*

Rich McMillen

Sam Taggart*

Eliot George*

Rick Goodwill

Brian Ottinger*

Ryan Hostetter*

Jason Maruccio

The trip began by hiking to the Avalanche lean-to via the Van Hoevenberg trail. Once there, we cached all overnight gear and continue the hike to the Trap Dyke, admiring the views on the way (once the sun was up). The teams soon arrived at Avalanche lake, a breathtaking lake surrounded by cliffs. After crossing the frozen lake, we made our way to the base of the Trap Dyke, roped up and prepared for the technical sections of the climb.

Avalanche Lake

The Trap Dyke

Since all teams were rather close together, everyone ended up climbing in relative proximity. There were two pitches of relatively easy technical ice, followed by a long, steep, snow-filled gully. After exiting the gully, all teams began the climb up the slab towards the summit. The slab was in pretty good condition, and was mostly snow, ice, and some rock.

Multiple teams in the gully

Shane on the slab

Visibility became poor as the weather deteriorated. What started as mild freezing rain increased in intensity, as did the wind. Conditions by the time all teams reached the summit of Mt. Colden were less than ideal, with strong winds and cold rain. We took a few summit pictures and quickly began our descent.

Brian on the summit (what we could see of it, anyways)

The descent continued in the rain, and by the time all teams were back at the lean-to not a single person was dry. The directors and instructors conferred, then the entire group discussed our options, and the decision was made to pull out and give up on Mt. Marcy. We holed up in a motel and tried to dry gear as best we could.

Sam at avalanche lean-to

The following day, Ron, Shane, and Felix did some roadside ice climbing in what turned out to be great weather. Brian and Jason went hiking and summited Mt. Hurricane. The other teams went home.

Shane leading Sisters Left

Jason on Mt. Hurricane

Thus ended yet another successful year of the ECP Mountaineering School. All of the students were thankful for the hard work the committee members and instructors put in, and learned quite a lot in the process.

Graduation Trip 2007-2008

White Mountains, NH

Trip Report by Sam Taggart

It was a good trip. We were blessed with pretty good weather. Thursday we started at Crawford Notch and hiked up to just below Eisenhower. We made camp there. David and I went ahead and did some scouting and broke trail.
There was a lot of snow. I was up to my armpits at some points. The next day was pretty long. We went up and over Eisenhower, Franklin, and Monroe all the way to Lake of the Clouds. We lost the trail many times and it got a little windy (40 mph) at some points. We hit some whiteout conditions on top of Franklin and Monroe. It was slow going. When we hit Lake of the Clouds it was pretty clear.
We blew right by it, but we were a little too late for a summit attempt. We ended up crossing alpine gardens and heading down Lion's Head. It was a fun little glissade. We spent the night at Harvard cabin. The next day the avy conditions were still bad, so we went up Lion's Head. We took it all the way to the summit. It was a beautiful clear and windless morning. Ron actually stood on top of the sign on the summit. Then we went down Boott Spur to end the day. (a few of the slower/injured went down Lion's Head with David).
Boott Spur was a great learning experience for the students. We got hit with a pretty good whiteout the whole way and fairly windy (again 40 mph). There was also a pretty nice glissade down Boott Spur Link. We got back about 4:00 or so. After a very short discussion, we decided we had suffered enough and headed down to Pinkham to get a hotel and do a little debrief at the bar. Overall it was a good trip. All of the students (those who made it to NH - two of them had their flights cancelled) did half the traverse and down to Harvard Cabin. Two of the slower students bailed there.
Everyone who was left made it to the summit and we lost two more students (who went down Lion's Head) before we did Boott Spur. But everyone survived and I think they all learned a lot, which in the end is the real purpose of the trip.

MtWash