Avalanche Safety Class: Day 2

Day two of Avalanche Safety thankfully started a little later when we all met at 9am, but this time we started off in the classroom. We went over our trip the day before, talking about what we looked for in the snow and then went over some gear that is essential for people to carry with them into the backcountry. After that, we headed out to the vans, piled our gear in, and headed out for Rabbit Ears Pass. What was nice about today was that we weren't going for another epic hike and didn't need to carry our snowboards or skis. Another hike like the one Friday would be awesome, but we were all exhausted and happy not to be climbing mountains.

We got to the spot about 15 minutes up the pass and geared up. Today we were going to be working on finding beacons buried under the snow and essentially how to rescue people who have been caught in avalanches. The day started with us going over our gear, making sure our beacons all worked, and testing their range to get more comfortable with them. The first exercise of the day was for us to partner up and practice finding each others beacons. Each of us would have to find a beacon three times, and each time we were supposed to make it harder and harder to find by putting it farther away and by burying it deeper and deeper.

After going through that and getting more and more used to our beacons, we practiced what we had learned the day before about digging test areas and checking the snow pack's stability. After that it was lunch time so we all posted up pow-wow style and listen to John and Cody talk about what we were doing for rest of the day, which was rescue simulations.

So after lunch, we all got ready with our beacons, probes, and shovels while John and Cody buried a bag with a beacon in it to simulate a body. We then got into groups of 4 to search. My group thankfully went third because we definitely learned a couple tricks from the other groups and remembered some things they forgot. Overall, every group did really well. What was really cool was that after the first group found the bag, a student, Mikey, decided he wanted to be buried and found. After talking to John and Cody, they decided it would be really cool to try this and add a sense of realism to the exercise since we would be looking for one of our friends. Now don't worry, precautions were taken so he'd be fine. A couple students had things called AvaLungs, which are backpacks with a breathing system in the bag for people caught in avalanches, so Mikey was given that. On top of that, he had a coat over his head to create an air pocket, as well as a walkie-talkie in case something went wrong or he got claustrophobic. From there a couple other students were buried for the rest of the tests and everything went really well.

After we practiced searching for one victim, we split into two big groups of about 8 or 9 to search for two victims at once. This exercise was pretty intense because we really had to get organized so it wasn't just a ton of us crowding the hill and not getting anywhere. Thankfully everything went really well for both groups and the beacons were found in time before a person would have suffocated.

Overall I think John and Cody were impressed with how we all did, and I know we were all super stoked on how it went. Today was the final day of the class and was spent in the classroom reviewing what we've learned over this passed week, and we certainly all know a lot more about avalanches, snow pack, and how to be safe in the backcountry. At the end of the class we all got our Level 1 Avalanche Course cards to show we've completed the first level of training. From here we can take Levels 2 and 3 if we plan on becoming a guide or ski patrol and big mountains and resorts.

Like I said in the previous blog, being from the flatlands of the Midwest, I never thought I'd have the opportunity to do something like this and to learn these skills, but I'm so happy I did and cannot stress enough what a great experience this class was and that if you have the chance you should for sure take. Keep checking back for the pictures from the first hiking trip as well as a little about what the other classes I'm taking this semester are all about. Peace.