So there I was... sitting limply amongst my climbing partners. I was cold. I detected a light breeze from the SW, nothing more than a draft, but enough to make me shiver a bit. I knew I should put on a jacket to avoid hypothermia, but alas, I had left it in my car! I knew I’d have to spend at least the next 2 hours sitting in this same spot, so how would I survive? Where was I? At some forced bivy halfway up the north ridge of Stuart? Waiting for the helicopter to arrive to rescue me high up on the Emmons Glacier on Rainier? No. I was in an even colder, more hostile place. I was sitting in the Olympus room waiting for the first lecture of the Intermediate Course!

While I sat and flipped through the Intermediate Course handbook, I remember saying to myself, “This is a lot of stuff to do, how will I get it all done in 5 years?” The answer to the question is: Try doing it in 1 year. Yes, I was one of those 3 rare individuals at the October 2002 reunion graduating in one year’s time (along with Tom Lewis and Richard Johnson.) When I started the course, I thought I’d just get enough done to do some basic rock leads and a glacier climb or two. But after hooking up with a group of rowdy and ambitious intermediates (you know who you are), I was quickly swept up in the fury of an intermediate student internally whooping “I can’t get enough of this, I’m having too much fun!”

By the end of May, I had participated in all the intermediate lectures and field trips (including a combo rock 1&2 at Smith Rock; thanks again Susan!!), and taught all my basic field trips except Snow 2/Crevasse Rescue. I already had one rope lead in on The Tooth at this point as well. I was signed on to instruct Snow 2 on the first weekend of June, and had my first experience with burnout during the course. I did NOT want to go, but kept saying to myself, “This is the last one, GET IT DONE!” Pampered by good weather and a little over-indulgence Saturday night, I got through the weekend, and even managed to have some fun (and almost wound up getting kicked out of the lodge; a story for another issue).

Excellent! All I have to do now is climb, and do my ice field trips, and I have 5 years to do it. So what do I do? I sign up for roughly 8 climbs in June. What happens? THEY ALL GO! Along with a successful Rainier climb the first weekend of July, I now only needed 4 intermediate climbs and my ice field trips to go. This is when the ugly head of burnout reared itself again. By the end of July, with an unsuccessful attempt on the DC route of Rainier (my only unsuccessful climb in ’02), I vowed to be “done with Basic level climbs.” I felt the need to be challenged, and my enthusiasm toward anything less was non-existent. So by the first weekend of August, I had gotten 2 more Intermediate level rock climbs in.

My heart began to race...“I can get this done this year. Only 2 ice field trips to go, and 2 ice climbs.” But the ice climbs are hard to come by, tough to get on, and tougher to have go. I knew I couldn’t do any ice climbs until my second ice field trip on the first weekend of September. So I kicked back, and enjoyed sporadically climbing with friends and RELAXING.

I managed to set up an ice climb on Observation Rock in mid-September, which was successful, but we got lost on our way out. The perfect day turned to perfect white-out just after reaching the summit, and we were lost in the moraines above Spray Park for hours. After following a bearing to intersect the Wonderland Trail, and running in the rain to our cars which we reached around 9 p.m. I still managed to catch my midnight red eye to Austin that night for 3 days of hedonism and a wedding (a story for another issue). I was feeling like Dave Attell of “Insomniac” at this point.

The clock was ticking, and I had one ice climb to go to complete the course. I was also deep into my third bout of burnout for the year and had just broken up with my girlfriend. I was clutching at straws as to how to get in another climb, and still get my graduation application in on time. All ice climbs listed were either mid-week out of town, or more climbs on Observation. Then it suddenly hit me; from a June climb, climb leader Art Freeman promised me he owed me an express climb later this year (...another issue), so I decided to collect! But what could we do close by, and not requiring a lot of time off?

After ruling out a route on Forbidden, we decided to do an exploratory climb of the Pride glacier on Kyes Peak. Once an official Intermediate climb, it was removed because “people were not reaching the summit.” Some beta from an Everett group who had successfully completed the climb the week before told us it could be done, so we had our motivation! Rick Anderson of our 4 person group chartered a small engine plane and took aerial photos of our route. After studying them, the climb looked like a cinch. Little did we know... (an entire book).

Well, we went on to summit Kyes in 3 days instead of 2. All I can say is it was the roughest climb I did in ’02, and maybe ever. I vowed to never do it again. After this, I hung up my alpine harness for the winter. As my mentor Doug Smart said “It sounds like it was the final nail in the coffin of your climbing year.” Indeed it was. Time to drink beer, gain weight, enjoy the holidays, and, uh, be bored to death. When’s it gonna snow?!

I was very worried I’d never climb again, I was burned to a crisp. The thought of climbing and a glance at a Beckey book triggered my gag reflex. What would I do with the rest of my life? The good news is, here in January, I’m signing up to teach field trips, fanning through the Nelson books, and sharpening my crampons. I am literally psyched to climb again, and my passion is renewed. The moral of the story is, if the ambition exists, it IS possible to complete the class in a year. Just be very careful of burnout and the long-term damage it can do. Also, plan on being single when you’re done or do it with a partner who has the same climbing passions you do. Anybody want to do the ice route on Kyes this fall?