AMC - Alpine Skills Simulation Workshop

Continuing in the grand tradition of live practice on “dead” snow (the desert) AMC offers an Alpine Skills simulation workshop.

This workshop provides an introduction to some of the knowledge and skills required for climbing and traveling in Alpine mountaneering and Alpine rock environments.

Some of it will be lecture plus show & tell. Some of it will be skills practice in a simulated alpine environment.

We will cover the following (more if time permits):
- Travel in the alpine environment: rest step, pressure breathing, moisture management, caloric intake, load management, rest management.
-Altitude sickness awareness, AMS, symptoms, CE and PE signs and symptoms, AMS -> Stay put, CE or PE ->go down
-Rope team travel practice – we will rope up and walk.
-Ice Axe self-arrest – discussion and simulation (unless someone wants to throw down on dirt!)
-Snow anchors (Pickets, Flukes, Dead-men, Snow Bollards, nature of snow as an anchoring medium, matching your anchor to job it needs to perform) – discussion and show & tell
-Crevasse extraction, building the C+Z haul system and the standard three member team rescue scenario, hauling weight and stressing anchors. We will show and practice how to build it.
-Avalanche Awareness: importance of the critical angle, slope angle identification, clues to snow loading, womphing, layer formation and slab avalanche ingredients, trigger events
-Basic Avalanche beacon usage – function, key features and characteristics, placement on the body, what it can and can’t do.
-Time permitting will discuss alpine clothing but please dress appropriately for the expected weather (sunny and hot).

Bring: climbing harness, 6 locking carabiners, prusiks, pulleys if you have, some runners or slings, PAS, water, snacks, and your imagination for a “winter” outing. Helmet optional we will not be doing any climbing or rock scrambling. Whatever else you need depending on weather

Participation limited to verified active, dues-paying AMC members. Your RSVP puts you on the wait list while membership is verified.

Workshop is 8:00am-noonish. **Meet at Phoenix Papago Park, intersection of Galvin Parkway and Papago Park Rd. Find us at the trailhead ramada on west side of Galvin parkway (West Buttes parking lot). Limited parking at the trailhead or more parking across Galvin Parkway at the Hole-in-the-Rock parking area (don’t park in the Zoo lots). ** From the trailhead ramada we will hike to the workshop location.

Workshop is limited to 10 participants including instructors. All RSVP's will be waitlisted. Mark Tichinel and Bruce McHenry will be guiding. All skill/knowledge levels welcome, come to learn, collaborate, and contribute.

Disclaimer: Climbing is a personal choice and requires personal responsibility. Climbing and associated activities are dangerous and can result in injury and/or death. Climbing exposes you to risks. Risks are not eliminated by training or skill. By your participation in any AMC activity or event, you accept and assume any and all risks, including those created by negligence, connected to such activity or event.