Glacier travel instruction recommendations

PNWBrit, I think your comments about reputation are right on the money - quality of instruction is really important and you know who/what you're getting from an outfit like ProGuiding. The prices, as others have noted, are a bargain.

I would add the following, which relates to quantity of instruction ( or: how much are you going to learn? ).

While definitely an excellent skill to learn, crevasse rescue/self-rescue is a bit like learning how to perform a beacon search: a necessity but it's only the second half of the problem.

Traveling through glaciated ice can be as technical as moving on vertical rock ( though the consequences might be different ). When I think about the realistic skill requirements for glacier travel, it seems as if the list is pretty long:

Belay skills
Anchor skills
Rope skills
Route finding
Fall dynamics

-Do you need to belay someone who is traveling over a questionable bridge in order to be assured that you can even arrest a fall in the first place?
-What about crossing that overhung bergschrund?
-Route-finding?
-Rapelling. Extremely dangerous but a very important skill if you need to go down into a hole. Must be done just right.

If you're going to take a class, make sure the class covers these topics as well, so you learn enough to make the class worthwhile. Basic crevasse rescue skills aren't enough if you want to avoid a crevasse fall, or rescue a badly injured partner.

Great info for me. Loving this thread. It will take me a couple of days to research the info. It looks like the Mountaineer's course is over 5 or six weekends in Seattle. That is a lot of driving from Eugene, but I want great instruction. Baker is further and I haven't had a chance to look into Proguiding. A 3 or 4 day private lesson with a AMGA/UIAGM-certified ski mountain guide might be a great thing for me to minimize drive time.

Anything else is greatly appriciated!

Buell

I'm a Mountaineer member. Not a climber just a skier who happens to own a ice axe,crampons ,harness and rope. You know the "whole catastrophe".
Pro guide is a great outfit and i would love to take one of thier courses. Ive also taken the the Mountaineers Glacier travel and Crevasse Rescue class. in fact went back as a assistant instructor twice. 4 days in class learning knots ,rigging haul systems ,belaying and prussicking. All with skis or boards .Then a two day field trip which includes a live crevasse. This course is dynamic in that instructers, and students keep coming back and formulating and trying new techniques. In crevasse aviodance (thanks Cookie !) and rescue there is too much to learn in one day. It's also similar to avy skills in that once learned it is not enough. Practice and more pratice is required .
hence the beauty of the Mountaineers format.
No competion here just enjoying seeing our local talent bumped up a notch by all.

... It looks like the Mountaineer's course is over 5 or six weekends in Seattle. That is a lot of driving from Eugene, ...

It's actually worse than that for an Oregonian or other non-local. the course is 4 Tuesday night workshops from 6 - 9 PM (sometimes go over) and then a SAT/SUN field trip on Rainier (that can "go over" too ).
I happen to know this because for the past 8 or 9 years I have been one of the many dubious ["controversial"] volunteer instructors in the course.  :
While I can honestly say that the Mountaineers Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Course for Skiers and Snowboarders was the best money I ever spent towards this passtime (that's why I prefer to "give back" in the same area), I doubt that I would sign up for a weekly evening commute from and to Eugene to attend all the workshops and the field trip (if I had a job, that is ).

With those constraints, your stated timing preferences, and the urging of PNWBrit and CookieMonster, I'd proly go with Pro Ski for some custom training and/or their up-an-coming scheduled sessions on Mt Baker, unless I found an equivalent alternative on Mt Hood.

Another option is just to find another potential fellow student, then hire an AMGA/UIAGM-certified ski mountain guide for the day to work on . . . exactly what you want to work on.
List here:
hireaguide.amga.com/skimountaineeringguide
For example, the rate at Pro Guiding for an AMGA guide for the day is only $175 per person if you have just one other person, so it's not all that expensive (given what you're getting).

Finally got a second to look through some of this. I will contact Pro Guiding tomorrow. If I went the private AMGA instruction route, how would I choose who to contact from this list? Obviously I could email some of them in WA and the one in OR, but do any names stand out (I have seen Martin's name on this thread).

Thanks, Buell

Volken - obviously
Other PG guides
Marg Wheeler - currently President of the AMGA, just a riot, so much fun to climb with her.
Ben Haskell - excellent instructor. really, really, nice guy. (is [or was] SFD Lieutenant/Captain ?)
I don't think Scott Schell guides anymore?

I've heard good things about Miles Smart from a couple of folks.