Custom Climbs
Custom Climbs
AMS arranges custom climbing expeditions for climbers from all around the world. Whether you’re looking to climb solo or with a group, we have the logistics, equipment, and expertise to make your expedition rewarding and unforgettable. Most importantly, we have strong guides to make it happen. Tell us your goals, group size, and time frame and we’ll provide the guides, climbing routes, and class list to make your expedition complete.
AMS currently leads custom climbs to:
- Alaska Range
- Denali, West Buttress
- Denali, Upper West Rib
- Moose’s Tooth
- Mt Hunter: Mini-Moonflower
- Peak 11,300’
- Kahiltna Peaks
- Kahiltna Dome
- Mt Dickey
- Multi Glacier Traverse
Contact us anytime for more information about your custom climb
The best alpine climbing service around… would like to see more companies copy the focused alpine goals AMS has! — Orhun and Kejal Kantarci,
Another great trip! From planning to execution — perfect. See you next season. — Steve Gabbert
Glacier Travel & Crevasse Rescue
Glacier Travel & Crevasse Rescue
Workshop
Beginner/Intermediate
Talkeetna, AMS HQ
2 days
8 students : 2 instructors
$650
April 5 -6, 2025
Home base is the AMS headquarters in the town of Talkeetna, 3 hours North of Anchorage, Alaska. Our headquarters are efficiently set up for teaching with a climbing wall, fixed line ascension simulation, and much more. The workshop takes place outside, providing instruction on climbing techniques and safety systems necessary to travel safely on a glacier. This is an introductory workshop, covering a large amount of material. Come prepared for long days and loads of good information.
Features
- Mountaineering ground school
- Raising systems and fixed-line ascension
- Crevasse fall scenarios
- Self Arrest
- Roped glacier travel systems (on dry land)
- Belays
Schedule
April 5-6, 2025
Custom: March – August
Contact us about custom options
What's Included
- Instruction: 1 instructor for every 4 students
- Individual glacier travel safety rig: color-coded webbing and cordage
- Group Equipment: ropes, pickets/ice screws, webbing, sleds, wands
- Emergency cell, First aid, repair kit, and AMS headquarters support
- E-Book Glacier Mountaineering, An Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel & Crevasse Rescue
Our glacier travel and crevasse rescue course’s day-to-day itinerary is designed to make sure you get the most out of an introduction to Alaska mountaineering. Your instructors introduce leadership and glacier travel skills in a progression that develops competent and self-reliant climbers.
Day 1
Meet at 8 a.m. at 13765 Third Street, Talkeetna, Alaska. We will have a group orientation and introductions, gear check, and rental issue. For the rest of the day we will be covering self-arrest, knots, rope identification and care, crampon techniques, and anchors.
Day 2
Meet instructors at the AMS headquarters on third street lot at 8 a.m. after eating your breakfast and being prepared to climb. At this time, we’ll issue any gear needed for the day’s activities, before going out to practice coiling, belaying, and stacking the ropes on the snow covered dry land glacier travel day. Students will form rope teams and practice traveling roped. The day will also include practicing crevasse rescue scenarios. We will introduce mechanical advantage and raising systems. We plan to be wrapping up at 5 p.m. to de-issue any rental and group gear.
Participants are expected to be in average athletic condition, but no climbing experience is required. This is an entry level course with an extensive curriculum, so come prepared to receive a lot of information.
Two options that will help prepare you for this workshop:
- Read Glacier Mountaineering: The Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Mike Clelland and Andy Tyson. We will send you this as an E-Book. AMS instructors wrote this book and it reflects what we teach on this course.
- Practice these two basic climbing knots with a six-foot piece of 6 mm cord available at climbing shops: Figure 8 on a Bite and Double Fisherman’s.
The instructors were highly competent and showed an exceptional level of care and concern for each and every student regardless of their skill level and abilities.
— Sean Lowther, Glacier Travel & Crevasse Rescue Workshop
This Workshop is hands-down worth every penny! The guides make sure you leave with the skills and knowledge to tackle any glacier scenario. I will definitely be doing more workshops with AMS.
— Kent Lockman
Denali Prep Course
Denali Prep Course
The course goal is to prepare each participant to be a responsible, organized, and competent climber and team member for a future West Buttress expedition. In many ways, this course mirrors a Denali climb: It is outfitted the same, flies to the same landing strip, and shares the lower portion of the West Buttress route. This snow ridge is relatively straightforward, but there are many route-finding objectives to take into consideration. Slopes need constant avalanche hazard evaluation, crevasses break into the ridge, and moderately steep slopes must be navigated to get onto the ridge. We will ferry loads throughout the trip in true expedition style, all the while becoming better mountaineers. If you’re looking for a longer course with a more thorough avalanche and technical climbing curriculum, check out our 12-Day Mountaineering Course.
Features
- Mountaineering skills progression specific for the West Buttress climber
- Crevasse rescue, roped glacier travel, and moving camp
- Snow camping: walls, igloos
- Glacier camping, winter survival skills
- Leadership and Expedition Behavior skills: fundamental tools for a successful expedition
- Team skills: leadership, expedition planning, and group dynamics
- First aid classes: frostbite, hypothermia, altitude-related illnesses
- Travel on the glacier with snowshoes
Schedule
May 21 – 30, 2025
What's Included
- Professional instructors
- Round Trip Glacier Flight
- All food during your course and team lunch at AMS HQ on day 1
- All group camping and climbing equipment: ropes, tents, pickets, technical climbing gear, snow saws, wands
- Sled for each student, pre-rigged for roped glacier travel
- Snow Kitchen Equipment: community kitchen tent, cooking stoves, utensils, and fuel
- Mountain communications: emergency use satellite phone, FRS on-mountain radios, Delorme In-Reach
- Maps, GPS
- Medical Protocols, first aid, medication and repair kits
- Fully equipped staging area at AMS HQ and AMS Mountain Gear shop in Talkeetna.
- 24/7 support staff at AMS in Talkeetna during your course
- Regular social media updates during your climb
- Pre-course assistance with travel planning and training advice
- Post-course lodging and shuttle logistics
- Luggage Storage and free parking during your expedition
- Post-climb welcome back table with fresh fruit and drinks
- Knowledgeable staff to assist with lodging and shuttle logistics
This expedition starts at Denali’s West Buttress Base Camp (7200′) on the Kahiltna Glacier. The expedition follows the West Buttress route until approximately 10,000′ and then veers west for the summit of the Kahiltna Dome. Weather and snow conditions will ultimately determine our progression, so our style on the mountain is flexible and will fluctuate on a 24 hour basis. Additionally, the abilities, condition, and desires of the expedition members play an important role in realizing any itinerary.
The Denali Prep course day-to-day itinerary is designed to get the most out of an introduction to Alaska mountaineering. Your instructors teach wilderness, leadership, and technical climbing skills in a progression that develops competent and self-reliant climbers. By course end, you will have learned to identify and manage hazards and have increased your technical knowledge in all aspects of glacier and alpine climbing.
Instructor Briefing and Packing Days
Your instructors dedicate two days before the start date to prepare by briefing, checking equipment, and packing food. Stoves are fired up, tents are set up, radios are checked, and ropes are inspected. We adhere to the motto, “Prior planning prevents p*** poor performance.”
This itinerary should be considered a rough guide:
Day 1
8:00 am: Meet at AMS for course orientation and overview of the day. Check equipment and issue gear. Pack lunches. Calculate weights. This is a busy day, so please be on time. 12:00 pm: Lunch provided at AMS. Lasagna and salad. 1:00 pm: Learn intro to fixed line ascension at AMS’ crevasse rescue facility. Classes: Knots, use of waist and chest harness and helmet, ascending techniques, and releasing the backpack. 4:00 pm: Load van. 3-minute drive to ranger station and airport. Organize loads for fixed-wing flights. 4:30 pm: Fly onto the glacier. Reorganize loads for glacier travel. After a snowshoe-use orientation, rope up and travel a short distance and establish camp: probe and wand the perimeter, build walls, make sleeping platforms, set up group kitchen, establish the bathroom. 6:00 pm: Make dinner; students learn camp cooking. Practice: Site selection, tent spacing, shovel and snow saw use, wall building, tent pitching, hygiene and sanitation, group kitchen basics, stove use and care, cooking basics, bomb proofing the camp, staying warm at night. Evening discussion: Course Goals.
Day 2
9:00 am–12:00 pm: Practice: more knots, rope identification and care, rope handling and coiling, snow protection and anchor systems, and belaying. Incorporate load-cell to accurately measure forces when testing anchors. 1:00 pm–6:00 pm: Discuss: roping up for glacier travel, rope travel techniques, simple crevasse fall scenarios, transferring a load, snow climbing techniques, use of ice axe, self-arrest. Head out of camp for glacier travel. Evening discussion: Leadership.
Day 3
9:00 am–5:00 pm: Meet with daypacks ready for a full day away from camp. Students organize themselves into rope teams. Group heads to crevasse for self-rescue practice: the site is secured, and anchors are built for lowering and raising systems. Practice: Lowering systems, raising systems, crevasse fall scenarios. Evening discussion: Expedition Behavior (EB).
Day 4
Pack up camp and move to 7,800 ft, Camp 2, at the base of Ski Hill; distance: 5 miles, elevation gain: 600 ft. Practice: Breaking down camp, caches, sled rigging, navigation techniques, choosing a safe camp, building a latrine. Evening discussion: Altitude-related Illnesses and Cold Injuries.
Day 5
Carry to 10,500’, probe out area, and cache supplies. Return to camp; student led rope teams. Evening discussion: Meteorology, Forecasting, Geology and Glaciology of Denali National Park and Preserve.
Day 6
Move to 10,500 ft and build Camp 3. Student led rope teams. Discuss: Quarries and Building Walls.
Day 7
Classes all day from camp. Practice snow climbing, crampon use, self-arrest, running protection, fixed lines.
Day 8
Summit day, 12,525 ft.
Day 9
Move back to Camp 2, 7800’. Student led rope teams. Evening discussion: Expedition planning.
Day 10
Alpine start, pack up and move back to airstrip. Student led rope teams. Fly back to Talkeetna, enjoy green grass and welcome back fruit platter, de-issue equipment, graduation ceremony.
This course requires excellent mental and physical condition. You must be able to carry a 40-50lb pack while pulling a 30-40 pound sled for 5 hours with breaks, and be comfortable living and tent camping in a remote mountain environment without road access. This course requires having a basic understanding of the material covered in the Illustrated Guide to Crevasse Rescue which will be sent to you upon enrollment.
Well organized, great guides, wonderful scenery. This is a course everyone should take before attempting a Denali summit trip. —Tom Egan
I was the oldest member of the team at age 61. The guides were super and spent a little extra time ensuring that I was learning and having fun at the same time. Highly recommend AMS.—Jerry Chabino
Whether responding to questions, selling gear or training me for increasing mountaineering skills, they are friendly organized and very professional. I am very satisfied with AMS and highly recommend them for Alaska Mountain Guides.—Taka Watanabe
It is rare when you’re finding lessons fun and with people you’d enjoy taking out for a beer. I never thought I’d wish for a storm day to stretch out the trip a few more days to hang out and climb more. Thanks.—Tery Wong
I can’t imagine a better guide service. The skills taught will last a lifetime. The trip planning, logistics, food, equipment, guides were first rate.—Richard Silber
If your climbing schedule takes you to Alaska, AMS offer the best in class experience. The Alaska Experts!—Pat Loftus
Custom Denali Expeditions
Custom Denali Expeditions
Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) arranges custom climbing expeditions for climbers from all around the world. Whether you’re looking to climb solo or with a group, we have the logistics, equipment, and expertise to make your Denali expedition rewarding and unforgettable. Most importantly, we have strong guides to make it happen. Tell us your goals, group size, and time frame, and we’ll provide the guides, climbing routes, and class list to make your expedition spectacular.
Contact us any time for more information about your custom Denali climb.
AMS customer service is the benchmark by which I shall now measure all other companies… a ‘trip of a lifetime’ in every sense. —David
From my initial email (from Everest Basecamp after my expedition was cancelled), I was very impressed… I’ll definitely be back. —Lucy Rivers
A well-organized, professional expedition, the best of my 10 expeditions! —Karl Waag
