I can't even write this review on the basis of the ice climbing experience, as I didn't actually…read moreget an ice climbing experience. We scheduled our 1-day Alpine Ice Climbing Course for Sunday, 1/22/12. After a few cryptic emails from the guide, we finally found out the location to meet him the night before we had to leave (at 5am!!!) to arrive at Mount Baker...in the parking lot of an obscure place called Wake and Bake down a sketchy drive (thank God for 4wd) that was pretty well hidden in the woods, only to be accessed by locals who come there on a regular basis, and extremely difficult for anyone else to find due to their lack of signage. There was another gal in the parking lot waiting for him as well, and she was just as in the dark about the entire expedition as we were. We had no idea what he would be driving, what he looked like, etc, due to his lack of communication and inability to answer a phone.
Finally, said guide shows up (at 9am!!!) in small Rav 4 (which obviously couldn't fit everyone and their gear...apparently we were following him up the mountain, good thing I didn't bring my tiny Rabbit!) and wanders around the parking lot looking confused. Obviously he was looking for someone, and the only reason we knew it was him is because as flakiness went so far, this guy completely fit the bill. We get out of the car, as does the girl beside us, and he approaches us, now looking completely surprised, as though he didn't know he was going to run into PEOPLE in the parking lot. He looks at the other girl, speaks to her by name, looks at us, and asks who we are and why we are there. Mind you, we talked to him the NIGHT BEFORE about where to meet, and verified our climb date three weeks ago (I still have the confirmation email!)...we explain this to him and he says, channeling his inner Garth without the comedy, "well, I guess that will be ok, we're just going to have extra people on the trip". Extra? And, wait, YOU'RE the only guide with a bunch of people whom have never ice climbed, only two of whom have ever top-roped or lead-belayed and only one who is an experienced lead climber??? We then explain that we had been emailing just the night before. He says he must have been sleep-typing. And I'm about to put my life into the hands of someone who can't even remember what he was doing the night before???
It gets better. Two more people show up, who have had their excursion verified prior to Christmas, and, lo and behold, find out that he's even more surprised that they were there also. That makes 9 people, one extremely incompetent guide, 12 feet of snow and technical ice tools. We ask him if he has an itinerary, he says no. We ask him if we need ice axes (this is ice climbing) and he says no. We ask him if snowshoes are a good idea, since we just found out we were going to hike in a 140" base 1-2 miles to our destination, he says, "that sounds like a good idea, who has snowshoes?" The two of us raise our hands. Meaning that apparently everyone else will have to slog through waist deep snow for miles, holding their packs and crampons above their heads???
We again ask the safety of the excursion due to the "extra" people and make an executive decision to not risk our lives and go snowshoeing on our own instead. I am extremely disappointed as I was really excited to take this trip, but don't regret not taking it due to the confusion, lack of competence, trustworthiness and inability to coordinate...the combination of the above would have made me feel extremely unsafe in any situation...including grocery shopping.
I hope we get our money back and really hope that everyone was safe on the mountain today, and I will never, ever recommend Peregrine Expeditions.