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Avalanche Skills Training Level 1
By ruth | April 25, 2008
Over the Easter weekend, Dave and I took the Avalanche Skills Training Level 1 course run by Whistler Alpine Guides Bureau. It involved two evenings in the classroom and two days on the mountain, including some backcountry powder turns.
We’d booked split boards for the course, but unfortunately they were needed by someone else, so we got a refund and had to use snowshoes instead. In a way that was a good thing, as we’d wanted to try them out for comparison.
The first evening in the classroom, we met our fellow students (Ashley, Ian, Sholto, Brigitte and Tim), and our instructor, Jeff. All but Ian and Jeff were snowboarding; Jeff used to be a snowboarder but learned to ski because it’s much more practical for ski touring and guiding.
We learned about avalanche terrain – start zones, terrain traps, the effect of the steepness and aspect of the slope; and a little bit about weather, snow conditions and snowpack. We were each given an ‘Avaluator’ card, which helps you to assess the risk and complexity of the terrain you want to ride. You use the ‘ALPTRUTH’ acronym to assess the risk (A – have there been any Avalanches in the area in the last 48 hours? L – has there been significant Loading of the slopes due to snowfall or wind? P – are there any avalanche Paths on the terrain you want to ride? T – are there any Terrain Traps (such as gullies, crevasses, cliffs, big rocks) to look out for? R – what is the avalanche patrol’s Rating for avalanche danger today? U – have you come across any Unstable snowpacks (have you heard any whoompfing noises or cracks as the snowpack settles)? TH – are there any signs of Thaw?)
You then look at how many factors need to be taken into consideration (this is a bit complex to go into in detail here) and decide whether the terrain is ’simple’, ‘challenging’ or ‘complex’. Based on all of that you decide whether to proceed with normal caution, with extra caution, do something mellower, or just go home!!
Normally, the first day on the mountain is spent learning how to use avalanche rescue equipment and conduct a proper search for buried victims, but the weather forecast said that Saturday would be beautiful and the avalanche risk low; whereas it was going to be windy and snow a lot overnight, so the avalanche risk would sky-rocket by Sunday.
So we spent Saturday touring in the backcountry, looking at the terrain, discussing its risk, practising ‘avaluating’, doing lots of trudging uphill, and getting some sweet powder turns. (First we had a coffee in the Roundhouse, looked at a topographical map of the region we were heading for, and discussed the weather and snow reports.) We practised cautious travel, such as checking the terrain above for start zones before picking a route up, and crossing more risky zones one at a time so that if a slide were to happen, only one person would be in danger and the rest of us would be able to rescue them.
I hadn’t realised, though it seems obvious now, that you’re in more danger from avalanches when you’re hiking up than when you’re riding down, because you move so much slower and are exposed for much longer.
(It turns out that although snowshoes work pretty well, the fact that you have to carry your snowboard on your back rather than converting it into skis makes the whole thing much harder work.)
In the evening, we regrouped in the classroom for more book-learning and slides, then watched a genuinely harrowing video about a real-life avalanche incident and its victims. I’m pretty sure one of the main aims of this course is to scare the students into realising that going into the backcountry is not something to take lightly. It worked.
As predicted, on Sunday the avalanche risk was very high. We established ourselves in a big patch of deep snow near the base of Harmony chairlift, where we spent several hours telling hopeful people that avalanche patrol were still blasting Harmony Ridge and the chair wouldn’t be open for a while. Meanwhile we learned how to use our transceivers, shovels and probes efficiently, and how to work as a group in a burial situation.
Jeff set up several scenarios, and pretended to be a panicking guy whose friends had got buried. It was very well done – we learned from a lot of mistakes along the way. For instance we learned that as well as making sure all of us had turned our transceivers to receive instead of transmit (so we could find the buried transceiver), we had to check whether the panicking guy was wearing a transceiver and had switched it to receive. We spent ages getting confused because we were picking up Jeff’s beacon signal…
We also learned to look for surface clues such as ski poles and pieces of clothing, to check if they were attached to a person, and to probe near them and near other potential burial sites such as trees and rocks, while two people conducted the transceiver search; to have a spotter to check that we weren’t in danger of the rescuers being caught in a second avalanche; how to dig effectively so that we had access to clear an airway and get the person out easily if there’d been trauma; and the importance of having a group leader who asked lots of questions, directed the team and kept an eye on the big picture.
We did get some powder too, once Harmony opened and we were able to access Symphony Amphitheatre, where we were able to hike a small distance for some untouched snow and do some more rescue scenarios. Jeff also took some time to dig a snow pit and show us how you test the snow density and check for weak layers.
The end result was that we all got a lovely certificate, and left the course knowing a lot more than we did before, but also knowing how little we still know. Jeff’s advice was to do some low-risk backcountry riding to put what we’d learned into practical use, and then take the Level 2 course. He emphasised that we are definitely not qualified to take other people into the backcountry. But he was excited that we’d all enjoyed it so much.
Tags: avalanche, course, risk, training, whistler, whistler alpine guides
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