I spent the last four days participating in the Level 2 Avalanche course provided by the Alaska Avalanche School. The amount of technical expertise included in the program can be overwhelming, sometimes so much so that you feel like you are being swallowed by…dare I say…an avalanche of information. Sarcastic jokes aside, the class was amazing. Our instructors were Eeva Latosuo of APU Outdoor Studies, Denali Mountain Ranger Tucker Chenoweth, and Kent Scheler of Haines Heliskiing and Head guide for TGR. This wide spectrum of on snow experiences allowed the class to not just focus on the direct scientific principles of Avalanches and snow metamorphism, but added an aspect of real world, practical skiing application. Many people may feel that snow science professionals are simply snow geeks, that they don’t do anything but dig pits all day. I can tell you that, these guys were no such thing. While they reveled in the intricacy and dynamic nature of semi-solid h20, they also enjoy skiing a steep line of blower pow. It’s not everyday you have access to Denali Rangers and the head guide for legendary companies like TGR. I want to thank Friends of the Chugach for providing me with a scholarship for the class. You guys rock and I can’t say enough about how much I learned in the course!
The first few days of the course were spent at the Hatcher Pass Lodge Visitor center, with groups fanning out into the bowl to conduct full pit data analysis of the Talkeetna snowpack. It was heartbreaking to watch our beautiful snowpack being literally destroyed by 30mph+ winds on Friday and Saturday. While the skiing and touring was horribly cold, it was cool to watch the snowpack change before our eyes. As always, everyone without the consistent local knowledge of the Talkeetnas and Hatcher Pass simply writes off our area as nothing but shit skiing and thin snow. Good. As always, if you don’t know, you don’t go. Thanks to the lack of beta about Hatcher Pass, an increasingly frequent but inconsistent Avalanche Forecast, and an always thinner snowpack than the Kenai mountains, Hatcher Pass remains our diamond in the rough. A place where a busy day means at most 30-40 people touring in the entire area, craggy misleading peaks that give many weekend warriors a case of the brown shorts, and a weakly enforced, misunderstood boundary between non-motorized and motorized terrain. The common reaction to Hatcher Pass’ weather and snow was no different during our two days of AVY2 class. The instructors knew better, but they simply kept it to themselves.
As we headed south, taking the course to the Turnagin area, a new round of snow finally hit the Southcentral Area. Nearly 50cm+ (that’s about 20″ for Americans) of new snow fell the two days we were there, which made it especially difficult to leave girdwood each morning as we watched the ridiculously low density snow pile up outside. I won’t go into too much more detail about the course, but I’ll say it was well worth my four days. Having the mountains as a classroom is never a bad thing, and I honestly have no complaints. A lot of folks have been skiing safely a long time, and a lot of them have never taken an avalanche course. Hell, I would agree with most of them that, no, they might not get a lot out of an Avy 1 course. While it may be basic, a friend, who is also a guide and instructor recently gave me an interesting way of looking at the importance of these courses. In any profession or area of technical expertise you are either required or suggested to partake in continuing education and in-service training (and yes, managing avalanche danger in the mountains is technical). The arena of avalanche and snow interpretation is no different. I’m a wildland firefighter, and used to be a lifeguard for quite a while. Without continued training and practice, there’s no way I could have done my job effectively. Now…take a minute and really think about it. When is the last time you did a full group beacon check? Buried a beacon and found it? Buried two? How about actually understood what an ECT or CT test is telling you about the snow, and I mean really understood, not just provide you with a quantitative asset. Finally and most importantly, when is the last time you gathered together with 15 people and just talked snow, terrain management, and snow travel for three straight days? I’m not trying to sound pretentious or elitist. My point is…these classes are worth their weight in snow. Deep, blower, over the head kind of snow!
It’s looking like our weather will be getting more cloudy, precipitous, and consistent again. It’s been between flurrying and snowing in Ptown since early this morning, but nothing significant to report. The cold weather will also be hanging around, but the forecast looks like a weather pattern similar to the latter half of December, with clouds, slight clearing at times, and consistent yet low snow amounts. Of course, this is always subject to change as the lows shift and move about the north pacific and bering sea. In fact, as of last night, NOAA still seemed unsure of the track of the upper level low pressure systems, only providing forecasts until thursday PM (see image at right). As always, check HPAC for updates on snow conditions. See you in the mountains!
