Charl met his guide, Dawn Glanc, at AAI's Bellingham headquarters early in the morning on Tuesday, August 30. They discussed gear and logistics for an hour or so, then drove east over the Cascades to the small town of Mazama where they spent the day at nearby Fun Rock working on basic rock climbing skills. It was the first time that Charl had set foot or hand on vertical rock, and he enjoyed the experience.

The next day they drove to Washington Pass and hiked to the base of their chosen route on South Early Winter Spire, the South Arete. Dawn led the varying fourth class scrambling and several low to mid-fifth class pitches until the two successfully reached the summit. They had lunch, took some photos and then made their way down. "It was a great introductory alpine rock climb for Charl," Dawn said. " We had the whole spire to ourselves, which was very unusual because it's such a popular route."

Thursday found them back at Washington Pass where they endeavored to climb a classic: the Becky Route on Liberty Bell. Again, they enjoyed the rare experience of having the entire route to themselves. "Charl was psyched to do this climb," Dawn said. "We ate lunch again on the summit and soaked in the views. The weather was gorgeous for this climb and also for the South Arete. We got lucky on both days."

With basic rope and protective systems under his belt, it was time to move to the glaciated environment. On Friday, Charl and Dawn drove to the south side of Mt. Baker and used the day to hike into their high camp at end of the Railroad Grade, right below the Easton Glacier. They had light rain on the hike in, but it cleared up by dinner.

The next morning they woke up and headed for the glacier. Dawn went over the basics of glacier travel, and Charl got to practice self-arrest, cramponing, building snow anchors and other protection, and the different snow belay stances. Dawn also spent a while instructing Charl in the different characteristics of snow, ice, and neve and in basic glaciology.

Unfortunately, the rain came back on Sunday. Waking to pouring rain, Dawn opted to utilize the mega mid (their cook shelter) as their classroom for the morning. She continued with more lessons on glacier travel and demonstrated the z-pulley system of crevasse rescue. In the afternoon they ventured onto the glacier to practice roped team travel and to set up a crevasse rescue system. That evening they retired with hopes for clearing skies. The plan was to rise in the middle of the night and, depending on the weather, begin climbing towards Mt. Baker's 10,778-foot summit.

At 2am on Monday morning, Dawn rose and saw the stars. She woke Charl to prepare for their summit attempt, and they were on their way up the glacier by 3:00 a.m. "The climb went really well," Dawn said. ÒWe applied all the skills we had been practicing, and Charl got to experience hard snow, some ice, and a variety of gradients. We made great progress and summited by 8am. We were really glad that the weather changed - the skies were beautiful the entire way up and down." They stayed on the summit for a while to eat a snack and take some photos, then headed back down to their camp, packed up, and hiked out to the trailhead.

Tuesday was a day of drying out their gear and organizing for their next climb, Kangaroo Temple, which would be led by Charl as a way of integrating all the technical and leadship skills that he had learned during the previous week. That evening they drove back to the Washington Pass, where the approach to Kangaroo Temple begins.

Waking early on Wednesday, they prepared for the climb and Charl led Dawn on the approach to the base of Kangaroo Temple. He correctly navigated to the beginning of their route and was able to identify the line to the summit. Dawn led the technical sections, and by 12:30 they were on top. They had another summit lunch and rappelled down, with Charl skillfully leading the way back to the trailhead.

They returned to the Institute on Thursday. Dawn said, "Charl learned a ton on this trip. He was very happy to have the one-on-one experience, and came away with solid skills for rock and glacier climbing, which he plans to use a lot in the future."