Kim and I have been taking a course in avalanche safety. We haven’t really been anywhere that we would have to worry about avalanches, but we figure we might in the future and wanted to be prepared. There’s been about 9 hours of class lecture, which is useful stuff, but pretty dull except for the really cool slide show. The field day was totally worth it though.
We had to get up and meet at 6 in the morning, so that was rough. We caught a ride with someone other people who were also going to the class. Most people we went with were back country skiers. I didn’t realize how popular this was. This isn’t cross country skiing like I used to do. These people have much more versatile skis and like to ski to the tops of mountains and then ski down, hence the avalanche danger. One guy even had a split snowboard. It worked like skis on the way up, then it went back together at the top like a snowboard.
We practiced a lot finding snow beacons. We’d bury them in plastic bags in the snow and then try to find them. The guide forgot to turn his beacon to send one time and it took a long time to find. We spent the rest of the time analyzing snow pack, digging rousche blocks, and discussing avalanche factors.
By the end we were tired, so it was really nice not to have to drive back.