Mountaineering Courses: Colorado

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Winter Alpine Mountaineering in the San Juans

General Information

Whether you want to become self sufficient in winter mountaineering skills, or are headed to high altitude mountains in South America, Asia or Alaska, our Three and Five day Introduction to Alpine Mountaineering Courses will prepare you well. For those with previous winter mountaineering experience, you can join our 4 Day Alaska/Denali Preparation Course on Snowdon Peak (13,075 ft.) to further challenge yourself and build upon your skill base.

We utilize the exceptional terrain of the San Juan Mountains between Durango and Silverton to conduct our courses. The mountains we train on, and climb, are Engineer Mountain (12,978 ft.) and Snowdon Peak (13,075 ft.) because of their short approaches and relative safety from avalanche danger. On Engineer Mountain we have an established base camp to help keep our packs light on the approach.

Our 5 day course involves 2 days of Alpine Ice Skills, which allows participants to acclimate to the altitude and winter conditions that typify the rugged San Juan Mountains. We follow with 3 days of Alpine Mountaineering and winter camping on Engineer Mountain. The 3 day course is also conducted on Engineer Mountain, and joins the 5 day course on day three of the course itinerary. We highly recommend either doing the full 5 day mountaineering course, or arriving in Durango a few days prior to the course in order to properly acclimate to the high altitude.

We meet the evening prior to the course at the Southwest Adventure Guides' office, to take care of any outfitting needs, perform a thorough check of your personal equipment, and give you the opportunity to purchase or rent any additional items that you may need for the course. We also give you tips on packing your pack for departure the following morning. If course participants cannot attend the evening meeting, arrangements must be made to complete these tasks the morning that the course begins.

Our Base camp is located below Engineer mountain at approximately 11,500ft. It is stocked with a double burner propane stove and lantern, along with food and climbing equipment. Therefore, the trip from the trailhead to basecamp does not require us to ferry large loads in order to brave the cold nights. The nights are spent warm and cozy in our 15 person Mountain Hardware Space Station.

Equipment: Download the Winter Mountaineering Course Equipment Checklist

Registration and Cancellation: You will need to fill out our Domestic Registration Form, cancellation policy agreement, and liability waiver, and send it to us with a 50% deposit as early as possible prior to the course date. Balance is due on the first day of the course. Please click on our Registration/Travel link to access the required forms.