The very final part of our course was a three-day backpack in the very northernmost part of the North Cascades, near the Canadian Border. This was simply more practice in the art of putting together a trip, reading maps, navigation, camping, and snow and rock climbing. It was also an introduction to lightweight backpacking using bivy sacks (small, one-person self-contained sleeping enclosures).
We started off backpacking up to a very gentle but beautiful North Cascades peak called Ruth Mountain (which as beautiful views of the nearby more rugged peaks). From Ruth Mountain, we descended down a very steep snow gully to a col between it and a neighbouring peak called Icy Peak, where we set up a camp.
From here, the two texan teenagers had decided that they'd had enough, so they stuck around in the col while Andree, Tom and I did a quick ascent of icy peak, which involved a traverse over some moderately glaciated terrain and a some moderate technical rock terrain. Again, this climb was very appropriate: it was a very good moderate level of difficulty that was just suited to giving us a learning experience without being too hard. Views were spectacular throughout, too!
With the climb of Icy Peak, our course was complete. We'd spent almost two weeks learning a lot of valuable skills. I learned a lot of excellent basics from this course, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants a comprehensive mountaineering introduction. In fact, we enjoyed the course so much that Brian and I came back for a 6-day custom refresher course the following year!
