This was our ice axe training day at Mt. Rainier. After months of no snow it is now snowing like crazy up there. We arrived to find an incredibly beautiful white landscape and snow falling. We had to break trail up to Alta Vista. The snow was up to our waists . We took turns as the leader breaking through the deep snow. Quite a tiring job. Knee, knee, foot, foot. The walking got easier the farther down the line you were. Finally after a very long time we reached our destination, Alta Vista. There we worked to create glisading / ice axe arrest shoots down a steep slope. The snow was too deep to just glisade without a little work first. After we packed down the snow and built a stairway from the bottom to the top we began our training. It was a lot of fun learning how to fall in on our backs with our head down, on our backs with our feet down and then on our bellies face downslope. We practiced our ice axe arrest in each position. Then we did the same evolution with our packs on. All in all the instructors were enthusiastic and experienced. It was a fun day and it was great to be in the snow.