Avalanches and Snow (August 20th, 2006)

Last Thursday and Friday I joined an avalanche training class. I was hoping it would be fun and exciting; sadly it was pretty slow and boring. I definitely learned some new stuff though. We practiced using transceivers to find buried people and learned how to build snow pits to analyze any potential instability in the snow. The only real problem was that all the information could have easily be packed into a single day, instead of the two day treatment we received. In fact, even though were basically completely snowed in most of the second day we had already covered everything we needed to know.

This brings me to point #2. We had our first real winter storm starting last Friday (and still going on and off). We were getting at least and inch or two of snow an hour at the Remarkables on Friday. Unfortunately were also getting 50 mph wind blasts and about 5 feet of visibility. We tried a couple of runs but literally couldn't see the boards on our feet, making snowboarding more or less impossible. The snow was great for snow balls, though. As we waited (45 minutes) for the bus to leave, we had a full-scale snowball fight around the bus. We hit each other, cars, and anyone else unfortunate enough to be within range. It was a good afternoon.

Today the skies cleared and we were treated to a foot and a half of fresh powder. It was easily the best snow day of the year (including the heli-ski trip). Our instructors took advantage of the opportunity and we spent most of the morning carving fresh tracks in the "back bowls." Sometimes I forget we're supposed to be learning things our here. :) Only 5 more training days before our stage one exam, though! Everyone is starting to get a little nervous already.