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Climbing perfect ice in Lee Vining Canyon. Seth Hobby.

Ice climbing is one of those "fringe" types of climbing that most climbers tend to develop a love-hate relationship with. Ice climbing is a fickle pursuit. The medium is constantly changing and reading the ice can be difficult. Protection methods can be tricky and require a great deal of practice. The gear is strange and looks as if it were transported straight out of the medieval era.

Once you get past all of the weirdness, ice climbing is a serious kick in the pants. Nearly all that give it a try wind-up hooked on it. They become ice junkies.

This intro level course is structured to be a comprehensive overview of the tools, techniques, and skills required for ice climbing. The course is designed to to develop the groundwork for both a safe and exciting experience as well as to prepare you for a future in waterfall ice climbing.

Water ice provides the medium for what is probably the most exciting form of winter climbing. Because it is formed from frozen waterfalls and seeps, it is a sport that may be pursued in many venues throughout the country. Indeed, it may even be practiced in a number of places where there is no major mountain range. The keys to good ice climbing climbing conditions are a consistent flow of water and consistently cold conditions.

An AAI group approaching the Lee Vining Canyon climbing area.

This Waterfall Ice Climbing program may be combined with our winter mountaineering program and our backcountry skiing programs in the Sierra Nevada. When taken together, or pieced together over a season or two, these programs combined make up our "winter comprehensive curriculum." Here are the links to the other other two program in this progression:

1. Winter Mountaineering Sierra Nevada
2. Backcountry Skiing (Sierra, CA)

This waterfall ice program is taught at three levels, Intro, Intermediate, and Advanced. The first climbers to enroll in a given date determine the level that the program will be taught at. Outside of our scheduled dates, course and climbs can be schedule by private arrangement as well.

The climate of the Sierra Nevada offers the dual benefits of typically clear, blue-skied climbing days and consistently cold temperatures that create great water ice. California's Sierra provide the best waterfall climbing in America's far west, and Lee Vining Canyon and June Lake encompass the highest quality ice in the entire range.

The Lee Vining climbing area is in a deep box canyon below 13,057-foot Mt. Dana. With walls up to 2000 vertical feet on either side, the shadowed reaches of the canyon stay consistently cold and provide ice that is almost always in excellent condition. Offering climbers a very short approach, June Lake forms ice at more moderate angles and is a perfect place for beginners and for more advanced climbers to learn the leading sequence. When the two are combined during a single program, their diversity and quality create one of the finest winter ice playgrounds in America.

The Lee Vining Canyon climbing area.

• design concept & selection of ice axes & second hand tools; reverse, classic, steeply drooped, & tubular picks; & crampons;
• design concepts, selection & placement of ice screws & other ice anchors for protection and belays;
• ice axe & second hand tool placement techniques; third tool technique;
• French, German & American cramponing styles & combinations;
• tool and foot progression sequence, staggered versus parallel;
• arrangement & placement of intermediate protection & belay anchors in different types of waterfall ice;
• leading sequence & belay changeover;
• practice leading for those qualified;
• extensive climbing, including continuous pitch ascents;
• Leave No Trace climbing & travel skills.

The goal in each level of curriculum, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, is to help climbers progress from one level to the next, to imrove efficiency and safety margins, and to open doors for future climbing possibilities.

For Intro level climbers, we want to introduce the basics of ice climbing and anchors to you so that you feel comfortable in a top rope setting or belaying a more experienced leader.

For Intermediate students, we want to help you develop the confidence in climbing technical and protection placement to start leading.

For advanced students, we want to help you take your climbing to the next grade and improve safety while leading and efficiency on multi-pitch routes.

Chounaird Falls at the upper end of the Lee Vining Canyon.