Mountaineering Course
This course is customized to meet your needs. A itinerary and timeline are not established. Please contact me and we'll discuss what you'd like to learn and how we can best achieve those goals.
Location Options
Glen Alps
This venue is the non-glaciated mountains above Anchorage. These rocky peaks are ideal for practicing moderate technical scrambling skills such as belaying, rappelling and running belays.
Fly-In Base Camp
Learn mountaineering skills and apply those skills to climbing big mountains. We fly into the Alaska Range or Chugach Mountains and set up a fat base camp. From there we progress through skill days: glacier school, snow school and rock school. Then we climb mountains around base camp.
In-Town
If you're purely interested in rope skills, we can maximize learning by staying in Anchorage and practicing in a quiet park.
Crow Pass
The most accessible venue for traveling on a real glacier, with crevasses, and summit options.
Alps
Meet Joe in the Alps and practice skills on the glaciers and alpine rock surrounding Chamonix, France. See Alps Mountaineering for more information.
Skill Level
All abilities
Basic gym climbing skills recommended
Comfort with basic knots and hitches: figure 8 follow through, figure 8 on a bight, Flemish bend, overhand on a bight, flat overhand, clove hitch, prusik hitch, munter hitch, autoblock hitch
Dates
1-5 days, all year
Skill Set Options
Trip Prep
selecting gear
trip planning
route planning with Gaia
reducing pack weight
Glacier Travel
glaciology
knots
roping together
snow anchors
escaping the system
self rescue by prusiking
drop loop 2:1 haul
add 3:1 for 6:1
team C haul
Snow Climbing
movement on snow
ice axe use
self-arrest
snow protection and anchors
belaying and rappelling on snow
Ice Climbing
movement on ice
crampon and ice axe use
ice protection and anchors
belaying and rappelling on ice
lead ice climbing
Rock Climbing
movement on rock
rock protection and anchors
belaying and rappelling on rock
alpine rock technique: terrain belay, short pitching, natural anchors
setting up a top rope
lead rock climbing
Mountain Camping
camp food
camp setup
storm readiness
camp cooking
staying warm
reducing pack weight
Cost
1 client: $700 per day
2 clients: $400 per person per day
3 clients: $300 per person per day
4+ clients: $250 per person per day
In partnership with Alaska Guide Collective.
Includes
AMGA/IFMGA Mountain Guide Joe Stock. A second guide may be added over four clients.
Ropes, rock, ice and snow protection.
Some gear is available for loan.
Navigation, first aid, and repair kits
Emergency communication, and shelter
Does Not Include
Transport. To reduce costs, using a rental car or your personal car is the best option.
Lodging, food and drink. See Southcentral Alaska Logistics.
Personal gear. See Mountaineering Gear List.
Rescue and trip insurance. Recommended. See Booking for details.
“Joe is an excellent guide and person. Incredibly talented, amiable, and accomplished, he was still humble about his accomplishments and made the experience truly great.
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“Thanks once more for being an excellent teacher and helping us to take our next steps into the mountain world!”
“We can’t thank you enough for giving us the skills to get out on the glacier and not die.”
“We’re definitely super happy with the glacier travel course we took with you it helped to set us up for success!”
“Been a while but just wanted to thank you again for the awesome week. With that boost to our skills we got out and climbed all four 7000 footers on the Hunter Creek glacier, along with some tricky routes on Peril and Beelzebub Peaks off the Eklutna glacier. Got to use the glacier travel skills (fortunately no crevasse rescue), climbed some ultra steep snow on Devils Club and did a few fifth class pitches on Beelzebub.”
Collin and Caleb Dyches on the summit of Mount Rainier. During winter 2018, we practiced ice climbing and mountaineering skills. In July they summited as part of an independent team.