Wilderness Mountaineering

An excerpt from NOLS Wilderness Mountaineering:

The Role Of Experience Wilderness Mountaineering A Note on Wilderness

The Role of Experience

Safe, enjoyable mountaineering depends most on what is inside each of us. Our values and reasons for climbing, our frame of mind, and the decisions we make are far more operative in creating the mountaineering experience than skills and equipment.

A mountaineer's most important tools--judgment, decision making skills, and what some call mountain sense--are also the hardest to learn. They develop with experience, preferably guided by a mentor or teacher, in the mountain environment. In The Mont Blanc Massif (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), French climbing technician and teacher, Gaston Rebuffat, wrote, "I wish all alpinists a big brother, a man to inspire love and respect, to keep an eye on you roping up, to take an almost tender care of you while introducing you to that tough and arduous life. Your teachers should include Rebuffat's "big brother" and must include time in the mountains.

In "A View of NOLS" in the April 1986 issue of NOLS Newsletter, NOLS instructor Tom Walter gave this advice on learning about mountaineering: "The way to gain important experience, and hence, develop judgment, is through a constant 'turning outward,' an incessant process of awareness of the environment around you." The environment Tom spoke of includes the topography, environmental events, and the condition of your partners and yourself.

We teach wilderness mountaineering at NOLS on month-long expeditions. In fact, we believe that the only way it can be taught is on an expedition immersed in the environment, in one's partners and in mountain travel. The weather, the terrain, and the remoteness do most of the teaching. Our goal is to help students become self-reliant by providing them with the knowledge to make the right decisions at the right time and the ability to remain comfortable and healthy in any conditions, for any duration.

Do not let the amount of learning ahead or your lack of experience daunt you. If you want to climb the wild, high peaks, you will. But please approach them slowly, respectfully, and considerately. They are powerful.

Wilderness Mountaineering

There still exist some places on this shrinking spaceship Earth that offer glimpses of freedom and power. The "deep wild" is not easy to reach and can be harsh on the unprepared. It has become increasingly hard to find but is worth the search.

The great explorer Eric Shipton wrote that, "Mountain climbing has its roots in mountain exploration." Mountaineering, grew out of the need to travel in the mountains. People toiling with heavy loads over high passes, shepherds with their herds in alpine summer pasture--these were the first mountain travelers. Remote, backcountry travel is the heart and historic soul of mountaineering. Concerns for the style of an ascent and its level of difficulty are modern additions.

Mountaineering as a summit-oriented pastime began in Europe. By the time Mont Blanc was climbed in 1786, Europe was already so populated that the distance from the village to the base of the peaks was quite short. Ascents in the Alps were one- or two-day climbs made with guides. Today people commonly ride trams rather than hike up tedious approaches. The European experience, which was the foundation of the technical development of modern mountaineering, is and always has been devoid of true remoteness.

The mountains of other continents are not like the Alps. They might be deep in the wilderness, invisible from the road and miles from telephones. Reaching distant, untamed summits requires a comprehensive understanding of the environment and all manners of mountain travel. This is the case in much of North America. Ascents in the Alaska, Chugach or Saint Elias ranges may take weeks. In the Wind River Range of Wyoming climbers travel many miles before gaining a view of their objectives. Parts of Asia are even more remote.

Expeditions of this scale require that mountaineers be capable campers and self-sufficient travelers, practiced at sustaining a comfortable life in the wilderness. This sort of mountaineering, grounded in mountain travel and expeditioning, has been taught by NOLS since 1965.

Expeditioners in the remote wilderness leave most of the crutches and aids of the modern world behind and rely on no one but themselves. The team becomes cook, doctor, navigator, rescuer, friend, competitor and companion. The rewards, from physical health to feelings of real freedom and independence and, some would argue, "opened doors of perception," are reserved for those who spend the time and energy traveling far into the wild. As Walt Whitman wrote in Leaves of Grass, "Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth."

A Note on Wilderness

Wilderness can mean many things. It has become a legal term developed from an American consciousness that valued remote alpine summits, lakes and forests. Our first Wilderness predated the Wilderness Act of 1964 and became national parks. Some of the earliest places we preserved--the Grand Tetons, Yosemite, Mt. Rainier, the North Cascades, and Denali--are classic mountain terrain. Our idea of wilderness worth preserving is still tied to the cirques, tarns and peaks of the American West.

In the United States, designated Wilderness is a roadless area in which motorized travel is prohibited, "...where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." (section 2[c], Wilderness Act of 1964). The wilderness I refer to in this book has a more traditional definition: the wild, natural world remote from the aids and safety nets on which so many of us rely each day of our lives.

Such places are vanishing quickly. On clear, windless days at one of earth's wildest spots--the upper flanks of Alaska's Denali at 20,320 feet--cellular phone calls and air-assisted rescues have become common. On other days, when storms pin helicopters and rescue rangers down, it remains as forbiddingly wild as ever.

Only four percent of America's land area is designated National Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management Wilderness, and 60 percent of that is concentrated in Alaska. Many American wilderness areas have been loved to death by excessive visitation and poor camping and traveling practices. Roads and support systems of all kinds creep ever deeper into the Himalaya. Antarctica has become the new destination for hundreds of climbers and trekkers.

Fortunately, we can still experience remote wilderness. All that is required are the skills and understanding to venture there safely, confidently, and with a minimum amount of impact upon the land.

Order a copy of NOLS Wilderness Mountaineering by calling (888) 332-3636.

This book, and the information excerpted from it on the World Wide Web, cannot and does not alert you to all the hazards of the mountains. It is a learning tool and should be read and studied as a supplemental source only. It is not a substitute for professional instruction, an experienced mentor, or, most importantly, the wilderness experience itself. If you decide to participate in the activities described in NOLS Wilderness Mountaineering, or the excerpts from this book on the World Wide Web, the risk and responsibility for the outcome are solely yours. No one associated with the publication of this book, including NOLS and Phil Powers, accepts responsibility for any injury or property damage that may result from participation in such activities.

Copyright © 1993 National Outdoor Leadership School.

Published by: STACKPOLE BOOKS, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.