Alpine Skills International

The first climbing course I ever took was from ASI back in the early '90s. It was a one-week course in alpine mountaineering on Shasta. The class was well organized, and the instruction comprehensive, although I regret that there was too much snow to really get a feel for glacier/crevasse navigation. Their approach to practicing glacier travel and crevasse rescue (back then, I don't know what it is now) was to have everyone rope up on a safe slope, then (without warning of course) everyone but the leader would start running down the hill to simulate a crevasse fall. You actually had to do a real arrest, and they kept the tension up until you had set up and anchor. Very realistic. I came away with a solid sense of what it might be like to have to do it for real, and the confidence that I would be able to do so. We also did beacon searches (analog beacons, mind you, not these wussy digital things everyone has nowadays ;) ).