Pow Pow!

Over the last three days, the snow has been coming down! We've had about 40 cm of beautiful fluffy white stuff and it was still snowing when I came in tonight.

The avalanche safety training was just FANTASTIC. I never realised how ignorant I was in the past and learned a huge volume of very useful information. I have to admit that before I went on the course 'Depth hoar', 'whumping' and 'surface sluff' had very little meaning to me!

On Tuesday we went out to the backcountry behind Sunshine Village. We hiked out and talked about the conditions discussed the aspect, temperature, wind etc and then dug a snowpit on a safe place of the face that we inteded to ski. We learned how to assess the snowpack by identifying the layers then identifying the hardness, crystal structure, and performing compression, shear and other tests on the sections to asses the stability. Having assessed the risk we made some fresh turns down to the gully which was lovely. After doing another test on a different area with surprisingly different (and more dangerous) results, we picked our route carefully and hiked out on our snowshoes. My skis are not light and with a pack full of gear and a pair of skis walking up through thick snow in snowshoes is really hard work! It took us a couple of hours and by the time we got out to the ski area I was down to a base layer and a thin fleece in -15 degree temperatures.

Crossing a frozen lake near the top or our ascent:

Today was much colder, at around -22 all day and still dumping down. We went down to Kananaskis and did some exercises in the avalance beacon park which added some realistic situations to our training and we were tested to find two beacons within a tight timeframe.
In the afternoon we then went on the most magical hike up through the trees on a different trail. The snow was wafting down and we were breaking through the untouched snow as we went. It must be said that it was also pretty hard going, particularly at the front of the line and breaking a trail as with each step you would sink up to about your knees in the soft snow.

We had a really good test to end the day where our instructor set up an avalanche mock-up and then we played it out. He told us he had lost two of his buddies and only one had a tranciever. We found the beacon 'buddy' within a short time, but took about 10 or 15 minutes to find his other buddy (his pack) without a beacon, which we had to do by probing in a line over the expected area. In a real situation it is very unlikey the second victim would have survived. It really makes your realise how critical timing and decisions are in the very initial rescue phase as there are only a matter of minutes to find, excavate and rescusitate any trapped people before they expire from asphyxiation. It also make the beacons seem very cheap!

Having done the course I'm 100% keen to go on the four-day ski touring trip in early March. I really think that this is the winter sport I have been looking for. Being able to combine downhill skiing on untouched terrain, with understanding and relating to beautiful mountain environments and a seriously good physical exercise is just my cup of tea! It puts the wilderness adventure back into downhill skiing and leaves the mechanisation and the crowds behind.

I had my knee checked out and it is all good - just bruised, and it is actually much better today. I thought considering it is still weak after a week, it was worth the money to make sure it wasn't too serious, which fortunately it is not.

I'm going for a half day tomorrow on the hill. First bus in the morning and then will come back for the afternoon. I can't wait for some fluffy white carving!!!