Gotta Be Doing Something: Real Mountaineering?

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Views from Mt Superior

This is a few weeks late because I was waiting for pics from the guys. Still no pics, but I wanted to put this up here.
Ok maybe it isn't Everest, but I got out on the mountain a couple weeks ago to try out alpine mountaineering. I got myself a straight axe from REI with my dividend, borrowed some boots and packed my crampons. The day started early, getting out of bed at 5:30 to pack, eat and hit the road so I could meet Glenn and John at the base of LCC at 6:30AM.
The peak for the day, Mt Superior. It was a really sunny day which meant 20 minutes into the climb we stopped to strip off some layers. The snow was really soft and wet (don't laugh yes most snow is wet, but this is different then light fluffy powdery snow). We never even put on our crampons because we posted holed the entire route. Due to the conditions we only climbed about half way to the summit, but it was enough to expose me to some awesome climbing and allow me to have some internal freak outs.
This was my first time doing this style of mountaineering and I will fully admit I was really scared. We climbed on steep slopes and scrambled over rocks made more difficult by the large mountaineering boots. I had a constant vision of myself slipping off the face. I don't think I would have been as scared if there weren't tons of exposed rock popping out of the snow. If I was just sliding down on snow or ice I could use my axe to stop myself (although that was freaky too...never done a self arrest before that day). I was more worried one of the large boulders would stop my fall instead of my axe.
The freakiest moment of the day was climbing the knife edge ridge line. Glenn and John were nice enough to rope up for this section and place protection along the ridge. I was nervous every step that the snow would collapse beneath me and I would slide down the 70% slopes to either side of my. I made it across safely and we enjoyed lunch on the only flat section of snow before hiking and glassading down the bowl.
The entire time we were climbing my thoughts were, "What am I doing? This is crazy." or "Don't fall. Don't fall." or "I'm never doing this again. I just want to get down and never do this again." I couldn't look around much. Whenever I looked down I realized how steep the slopes were and immediately felt like I would fall. So I kept my eyes on my feet and where were going. But SURPRISE when I got done I was ready to do it all over again. Next time I'll be less freaked out, but not too much (that is what makes it fun).
Thanks for John and Glenn. They were great company and really coaches. And if I get more pics I will post them, until then enjoy what few I took (I was too scared to take out the camera too much).