AMTL part II: June 8, 2007

Since Mike and I had both just arrived from eastern time, we were up early and meet for a large breakfast at the Shari's across from the hotel. After breakfast we met Joe and loaded our gear into an American Alpine Institute van for the drive to their office and gear shop. Joseph, our guide for the next 12 days, met us at the shop and we went over the gear list to make sure we had everything required. Joseph had been my guide last year on Mount Baker and I'd had one of my more productive mountain learning experiences under his guidance. I was looking forward to spending three times as long with him this year and covering more terrain than just snow and ice.

The four of us traveled south to Mount Erie to spend the rest of the day rock climbing. We hiked over to the power-line wall, which despite the namesake powerlines was actually very scenic. Before letting us climb, Joseph discussed top rope anchors and went through a rescue scenario with Joe playing the injured climber.

After setting up a hand line, we scrambled out to some bolts in the rock that we'd use to rappel to the start of the climbs below. We worked out our jet lag on some easy climbs like "The Right Stuff", "Leaning Crack" and "Nice and Easy". With a rating of 5.7, Nice and Easy was actually the hardest of the trio.

Joseph let me mock lead (pretend to lead a climb while still protected by a rope above), then lead a climb with all the anchors already placed.

Joseph also had each of us go through a rescue scenario with an injured climber: locking off and escaping the belay, then setting up a haul system to hoist the climber up using the mechanical advantage of pulleys.

Finally, we climbed out and back to our handline. Joseph let me lead one rising traverse across the rock to the bolts then belay Mike up while he followed a different line.

Joseph dropped us off at Larrabee State Park's campground while he returned home to spend some time with his family. Mike and Joe were interested in practicing the belay escapes again so we found a large boulder near our campsite and became the life of the campground among the kids between 4 and 12 years old and their parents.