Recaps from our 2010 Guides' Mega-Training

We'd like to extend a special thanks to the 23 Mountain Trip guides who made the considerable effort to join us in Ouray, CO from October 25 - 31 to attend our 2010 Mega-Training. Six of us stayed on for another week to complete an AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) Rock Instructor Course, which wound down this past weekend.

Thanks also to our guide Kevin Koprek for the time and dedication he spent developing the curriculum for the course, arranging for lodging for all our guides and generally making this whole course happen. Instructors and IFMGA Certified Guides Vince Anderson and Angela Hawse spent the better part of two weeks with our guides and we deeply appreciate their help, insights and instruction. Thanks to high altitude medicine specialist Dr. Peter Hackett and Durango Search and Rescue team leader Leo Lloyd for presenting an amazing day of medical and rescue instruction. Dr. Hackett runs the Institute for High Altitude Medicine in Telluride. Click HERE for a link to their website.

We could post an entire blog about the past 14 days of instruction, which kicked off with a big barbecue before covering heaps of technical skills, principle-based decision making, pedagogy for teaching mountain skills, and much, much more. The Mega-Training concluded with a day of guide presentations on a wide variety of mountain topics ranging from avalanche considerations on Denali, women's issues on expeditions, physics for climbers, crevasse rescue, deescalation techniques for use with emotional teammates, and more. We booked a local restaurant for a dinner to celebrate our dear friend and guide, Heidi Kloos, who we lost to an avalanche six months ago and it was really nice to see her Mountain Trip family have the chance to meet some of her local friends.

John Duncan cuts big steaks out of prime rib while his daughter Brooke looks on hungrily. John owns and runs a local fly fishing and adventure guide service called Telluride Outside and is the husband of Laura Duncan, our amazing office helper.

An early snowstorm confined us indoors on our first day, where Vince and Angela discussed an array of technical skills and considerations that would lay the foundation for the rest of the week. Read more about Vince at his website HERE.

A heartfelt thanks to the Ouray County Search and Rescue Team for allowing us to use their "Rescue Barn" as our base for the course.

The weather improved and we took things outside to the beautiful setting of Unaweep Canyon, and it's granitic walls, some of which rise over a thousand feet tall. For more information on Angela, click HERE to see her website.

We interspersed technical instruction with plenty of hands on application. This meant getting to climb some great routes!

Evenings generally saw us congregating at the Rescue Barn for more topics of discussion and slide shows presented by our guides.

We opted to spend more time in Unaweep than planned, as cold temperatures did not let much snow melt around Ouray. This added some travel to our days, but provided a great venue for learning. Thanks to the Western Colorado Climbers Coalition for helping keep access open to these spectacular crags. Check them out at: http://westernslopeclimbers.blogspot.com/

Joe Butler belays a climber up on his bomb-proof anchor.

Chris Kerrick about to trust me to lower him down a route.

We returned to Ouray for a couple of days of short-roping practice and instruction. Here Angela models how to short-pitch and efficiently belay up two climbers at a time.

After the official MT Mega-training ended, six of us remained to complete an AMGA Rock Instructor Course, during which we climbed a lot more, including a day up a super-fun route called Otto's Route on Independence Monument, a 400 foot tower in Colorado National Monument.

Joe Butler battles the tricky overhanging off-width crack on pitch 2 of Otto's Route.

Jacob Schmitz belays Karen Kingsley up the exposed and fun last pitch.

The MT RIC team on top of Independence Monument
From left to right: Chris Kerrick, Karen Kingsley (in front), Joe Butler, Todd Rutledge, Jacob Schmitz and Peter Ingliss.

Jacob, having fun while being lowered to the base of the route.