School of Snow

Our good friend, Geoff Lodge, is a guide for Timberline Mountain Guides and he agreed to guide us up Mt. Hood over the weekend since Scott was in town and wanted to try the summit.

Before Geoff heads up with any of his clients though, he takes some time the day before to go through Snow School. He shows them how to safely traverse a slope, self-arrest with an ice axe (stop yourself from sliding down the mountain if you fall) and how to rope up and travel as a rope team.

Since Bryan and I have some mountaineering experience and Scott is pretty much a brainiac and also a strong climber, Geoff gave us the Cliff Notes version on Monday morning in preparation for our summit try Monday night. It was a gorgeous day to be on the mountain doin' some learnin'.Self-arresting is ridiculously fun. However, it's one of those things that you will only do when you are in major trouble. Sliding down a mountain in your Gore-tex at 40 mph or stopping your partner from falling into a crevasse, for example. It's probably the one fun thing I hope I never have to do.We spent the rest of Monday afternoon chilling and people watching in the lobby of Timberline Lodge. Then it was off to bed around 7pm for our climb!