Avalanche Safety Class: Day 1

Take this class.

Before I get into why, hello again everyone. I am back in Steamboat Springs after a fun break back home in Minneapolis. Sorry for the lack of blogs so far by it's been a pretty busy first week of school catching up with everyone, snowboarding, and my new classes. But today I wanted to write about one of those classes in particular; Avalanche Safety (I'll write about the others later).

I'm sure you can guess what the class is about just from the title, but the awesome part is how you learn in the class. Many people might think it would be a bad idea to learn about avalanches hands on, but you know you're safe if you travel into the backcountry with Professor John Saunders. John is head of the outdoor education program here at CMC Alpine Campus, and has been teaching this class and others for 10 years now.

Avalanche Safety is a week long class and by the end of it, you gain your Avalanche 1 card, which tells others that you've completed the first avalanche safety training course and allows you to go on trips with the Alpine campuses Backcountry Club. I'm actually hoping to go on the trip this year to Jackson Hole, but that's getting a bit off topic. So the class consists of two 2 hour lectures and then 2 weekend field labs on Friday and Saturday, and then another classroom day on Sunday for about 2 hours. There is a book for this class as well called Snow Sense that has a lot of great info on the basics and some more advanced techniques when checking for a dealing with avalanches.

The lectures covered the basics on what to look for in the snow, introduced us to some of the equipment we'd be needing, and showed us what to expect while out in the backcountry. But the best part by far, not only because it's easier to learn hands on but the experience was incredible, was the field work.

Friday morning we set out for Cameron's Pass, which is around an hour outside of Steamboat, at 7am. After a solid nap in the car and a stop at a gas station for some rations, we arrived at the spot around 8am.

When we got there, we went over our gear and talked about the trip and some things to watch out for along with a check of all our beacons which the school provided along with probes and shovels. I will mention here that I do have some incredible pictures from the trip but I can't find my roommates camera cord, but when I do I will certainly be putting those up. However, I do have this video which is just a glimpse of the group and the amazing mountains around us as we ate lunch in a meadow in the upper base of the mountain.



From there was definitely the rough part of the trip. After lunch and talking a bit more about what to be aware of, we began hiking up a steep, powdery, and off-trail route to where we would be testing the snow pack. After hiking for a good couple of hours, we got to a spot where John and his helpers Cody and Alex, taught us the various techniques to properly test the snow pack for potential slides. Unfortunately, what makes avalanches so dangerous is that they still have a 50/50 chance of breaking, no matter how much testing you do or how careful you are, it all depends on the level of risk you're willing to accept.

After that lesson, we continued hiking up to where the tree line began to end in order for us to put what we learned into practice. The crew split up into three groups, and each group dug out an area and did the tests we learned on the snow pack. After thoroughly testing it, we all determined that the conditions were stable enough to ride, which brings me to the funnest part of the day, the decent.

A reason the hike was so rough was actually cause of our packs. We all brought either skis or snowboards to ride down at the end, so hiking up, our shoulders got pretty sore from carrying our gear, but I suppose that's to be expected from some first timers. So after seeing that the conditions were good enough ride, we took turns dropping into powder lines in order to descend safely, since there still was a chance for an avalanche.

The run was awesome and it was great to be riding some real backcountry powder. Unfortunately, one of the students suffered from exhaustion as we began our decent. Alex, one of John's assistant teacher's helped the student make it down safely with what little energy he could muster. The rest of us waited at the bottom, hoping he made it down soon, because by this point it was getting dark quickly. When he did make it down, we were only at the meadow where we stopped and ate lunch, so the rest of us strapped back up and rode down the trail we had hiked to get to the meadow. After a long ride and some more hiking in some uphill spots, we finally made it back to the vans completely exhausted and aching. About a half hour later, John and the student made it as well, safe and sound.

A big reason the student made it ok was John's preparedness. He had packed a mini gas stove and a steal mug, so he heated up some water and added some mixture high in glucose to help gain energy and restore his muscles. This was definitely a lesson to the rest of us on how ready you have to be to handle any situation in the backcountry. Another eye opener was the fact that it got dark before we had made it to the bottom, and almost none of us had headlamps or flashlights. To really drive it home, Alex told some of us about a time when he had to camp out two nights before getting picked up from a snowmobile trip that went horribly wrong, but everyone in the group had the bare essentials to survive, and they all did so.

So needless to say, we all passed right out on the ride back to school. The worst hike of the day ended up being the hike back to the dorms from the school's lower parking lot because our bodies were all completely sore and tired, and we had to make one last trek with all our gear. Once I got to my room, I immediately took a hot shower and layed down in my bed. I would have written this blog that night but there was no way my mind was able to comprehend everything that had happened that day.

I never thought I would experience something like this in my life, but I am so thankful that I was able to. It just goes to show that CMC has some incredible opportunities for people to experience. But the class is not even over and today was another adventure that I will write about soon, but for now I'm exhausted so I'll leave that story for another time. Peace.