MITOC Mountaineering (temp site)

If you are new to cold-weather pursuits, be sure to check out MITOC’s winter school. You’ll learn everything you need to know. For those looking for more advanced options, MITOC facilitates mountaineering activities throughout New England, the US, and abroad.

Warning: mountaineering combines the technical difficulties of rock, ice, and snow climbing with countless objective hazards including, but not limited to rockfall, icefall, avalanches, crevasses, whiteout, extreme cold, and may involve rescue times of days, not hours. Mountaineering is a serious undertaking with a very real danger of death or quality of life impairing injury. Participants must be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement.

We are not guides, and so we expect anyone with an interest in joining us on an expedition to demonstrate a minimum competency and willingness to train. We train all year round, and welcome everyone at our training sessions.

We are currently training twice a week:

Tuesday evening: Group Physical Training 6-8p:

Simulated mountaineering in the Green Building (54) staircase. Bring water and enough handicap weight to be tired after 1600 vertical feet.

Thursday evening: Group Technical Training 6-8p:

We discuss and practice technical elements of mountaineering in the MITOC office. Topics range from discussion of cases in ‘Accidents in North American Mountaineering’ to practicing knots, ropework, and rescue.

Weekends: Group Recitation

We also have practice sessions at the crags, usually about once a month. We most recently had a 3-session introductory series on rock anchors and lead climbing at Hammond pond. With the coming cold weather, we should have a similar event for ice.

If you are interested in joining us, sign up on our mailing list: mitoc-training@mit.edu, or contact the Mountaineering Chair.

Resources:

- Climbing pro spreadsheet

- Gear Supplier list

Coming soon:

- Recommended reading by topic

- Virtual backpack