Avalanche!

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What did you all do for Valentine's Day? I spent the day in the company of 6 nice young men on day 1 of our avalanche safety training course... 😊 Not entirely sure how that happened - one minute we were all milling around chatting outside the building where we'd been going through some of the theory, the next we'd been arbitrarily split into 3 groups and I ended up with the boys, rather than my normal "less aggressive" ski school group. This could prove interesting, particularly being with 2 teenagers with a penchant for chucking themselves off cliffs...

First stop was the Horstman Glacier on Blackcomb to look at some recent avalanche activity. All sounds fine, but I didn't immediately realise that this meant negotiating a pitch of about 45 degrees through chopped up powder. And not crashing into the rest of the group when I had to stop halfway down. Bearing in mind that I hadn't skied for nearly a week due to illness (yes, again) and wasn't feeling the best I think I did pretty well only somersaulting once on my way down... At least I got out of having to put in a turn 😉

Next up was 7th Heaven and some practice using our transceivers, probes and shovels, i.e. what to do in case of avalanche. All fairly straightforward to start with - pair up and play hide and seek with the transceivers. Then came competition time... Teams were decided as "old folks" vs "youngsters", with me being the eldest of the old folk! So, Chris, James and myself versus Matt, Dan and Jack. The youngsters went off first and buried their rucksacks with transceivers inside with the intention that our team had to locate and dig them out as fast as we could. They took their time with the burial though so we had to amuse ourselves by having a massive snow fight... maybe old but certainly not mature 😊 By the time Martin our instructor came to find us I was covered from head to toe in snow... yes, I lost. But only the snow fight. The good news is that age won out over beauty and our team dug out all 3 bags in under 8 minutes. The opposition managed only 17 minutes... and I think I was the last one found, although to be fair I had buried my bag in a tree well, which isn't a very fair test. Lesson #1 - if I get caught in an avalanche, hope that James and Chris are there to dig me out rather than Matt, Jack and Dan! The sobering thought in all of this is that if someone's caught in a slide, they only have a 50% chance of survival after 30 minutes buried. Which is why companion rescue is such an important skill to learn - there just isn't time to go for help.

Day 2 dawned and we headed over to Whistler. It was a nice day so Martin decided to ski us all over the mountain... Up the top of Peak Chair to look at some avalanche terrain, plus scare me to death by inching up to various cliff tops that I fully expected him to launch himself off! Thankfully that didn't happen and I got away with hacking my way through a little bit of off piste back to the safety of the nearest blue run. And it seems I'm not the only faint-hearted one - Chris and Matt also baulked at the drop off Martin finally selected and the three of us headed to something less terrifying 😉

Coming down from Peak we went on a bit of a tree run... Something else new to me! And the setting for my embarrassing crash of the day. Right into the back of Chris and then sprawled at his feet with my head pointed downhill and my skis still tangled up with his... It was a miracle he stayed on his feet. Obviously cue lots of teasing from the rest of them about how I just wanted to get up close and personal. Lesson #2 - don't look at the object you want to avoid hitting! Although to be fair, he was softer than the tree that seemed to be my other option at the time.

Next we headed over to Symphony Bowl and had a foretaste of the backcountry tour with a hike up to Flute Summit... Not an easy trek with skis strapped to my pack and walking in ski boots. But finally made it and had lunch at a rather beautiful spot at the top, from where we could see the terrain we'd be heading into for backcountry. Coming down was also interesting... Martin and the more adventurous dropped off onto Big Dog Face which was pretty steep and daunting. Again, Chris, Matt and I took the easier option - Small Pup Face! Not entirely sure those aren't made-up names but works for me 😊

The day was getting on and still no real avalanche training! I compared notes with the other ski group that evening and they'd been digging snow profiles and doing snowpack tests for most of the day... We eventually stopped at the bottom of Big Dog Face to dig a profile and take a look at the weak layers, etc. Well, Martin dug whilst we watched and then showed us the various different layers, including the famous December 6th weak layer which caused most of the avalanche risk in January. Really pretty looking at the different snow crystals under magnifying glass, particularly the surface hoar which looks just like big snowflakes.

Heading back to base we saw the other ski group stopped at an accident (thankfully not any of us) so Martin decided to stop and see if all was under control. I was getting pretty tired by this point so Jack was very gentlemanly and offered to ski with me down to the bottom whilst the others investigated. All well and good, but he's 18 and knows no fear... So we ended up on a steep mogul run rather than the alternative green cat track. Not the best idea with tired legs! I eventually got down it, but despite their detour the rest of the group got back first. Ah well. Lesson #3 - don't follow Jack down the mountain without knowing where he's going 😊

A fun couple of days in all, so if you ever fancy doing the AST1 course here in Whistler, I'd certainly recommend these guys - The Mountain School

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Photos

At the top of Peak Chair on Whistler
(L-R: Matt, Chris and Dan)

Picnic at Flute Summit
(L-R: Jack and Dan)