28 January 2011

Avalanche Safety Training, Level 1

So least you readers think I am just being lazy in not posting, here is some photos from an avalanche safety course I took last weekend.  We were at Bow Summit for the practical (skiing) portion of the training, here's some pictures sans people.
 Sunset the night before.
 The skin track up.
The snowpack is about 70 cm of wind-loaded slab on top of 80 cm of very weak sugary surface hoar. The interface is obvious in the picture. In other words very dangerous for slab avalanches.  The snowpack was surprisingly strong given how bad it looked (still very dicey over 30°), probably because the top slab was still fairly plastic.  We didn't hear any whumpfting (audible evidence of snow settling when skied over). 
The view across the valley as the clouds broke up.  Ski touring is totally unlike lift-served skiing in tone.

Physical activity should be fun play-time.  I don't really get the emphasis on weight lifting in the paleo community, as it seems very boring to me.

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