Happy Holidays & the Cascade Powder Cats AIARE Level 2 course

 I just finished teaching a Level 2 AIARE avalanche course and feel energized! After 4 days at the Cascade Powder Cat Yurt, the students conducted a stability analysis, forecasted the local avalanche hazard, completed and executed a tour plan. Ottis, Tod, Tom , Steph and Christopher all demonstrated their learning and I wish them a fun safe winter season!

Happy Holidays,
Matt

Northwest Snow and Avalanche Summit

La Nina has hit the Alps as the video below attests. The season's first fatality in Switzerland was also just reported and several hundred NW professional and recreational back country skiers and snow boarders gathered @ REI in Seattle for the Northwest Snow and Avalanche Summit last Sunday.

Attentive attne

Thanks to Micheal Jackson of ASAP and his elite volunteer staff, we experienced amazing discussions from the NW Avalanche Center's Mark Moore and Garth Furber, Dale Atkins from Colorado and the wisdom from the Great White North came in the form of Colin Zacharis, Brad White, and Bruce Jamieson which was received with wide eyes anf thoughtful questions.

The highlights include Mark Moore explaining the increased risk or persistent weak layers in La Nina Northwest snow packs, the trials and details of the new international Danger Scale and the Northwest Avalanche Center. We learned about the new terrain warnings for Moderate and Considerable as well as how to use the Avalanche Rose forecast on the NWAC website.

Dale Atkins showing people their best chance to live

Later Dale Atkins discussed behavior and survival in avalanche accidents. He offered some important research pointed out how  arousal aka fresh powder eads to exploratory behavior, influencing our judgment negatively. This knowledge enforces the need to learn and conduct your back country travels with the best safety practices available. Dale also stressed companion rescue is the best hope of surviving an avalanche.



 Bruce Jamieson delivered his most recent research findings that the most important observation are weather and the surface snowpack. This will help recreationalists focus their attention to what they can see and not stress about making pits to determine hazard and make decisions.


Finally Dan Otter spoke about his accident on Kendall Peak and brought home the point that best practices include continuous communication about the people, conditions and how they relate to the objective they would like to ski that day.

All in all, the take homes, avoid averages, measure exact angles where you take your observations, be humble in the face of the unknown, communicate what you know, see and feel, and use alternative plans to help mitigate the choice to go or no go with a single objective.

Going Deep in Movember with Sara Hunter

Hitting the 3rd week of Movember and my 'stache is taking on it's own personality, My competitive nature shines through as if I am actually training to win the best mo' in December when my friends get together check out each others 'stache.




A few days ago, I had the pleasure to spend a few days on Mt Baker, aka Kulshan in November with Sara Hunter prepping for a climb on Cotopaxi in January. Our timing coordinated nicely with 3 feet of new snow that added 2 miles to the approach and some extra caloric boost to our hike in. After breaking trail for 4 1/2 hours, we camped at the historic Kulshan cabin site where Fred Beckey started his first ascent of the North Ridge many years ago. We hunkered down to a long, cold night with a quick skills session followed by Indian food and chocolate to put us to bed with full stomachs.

At sunrise, we enjoyed eggs, sausage and hash browns with fresh brewed coffee to warm ourselves up for the hike to the Coleman Glacier through thigh deep snow. 2 hours later we made it to Survey Rock and headed down to the ice to get our crampons dirty and hit something solid with our axes. This was harder then it sounds as 3+ feet of snow separated us from the glacier and all the visible blue was overhung ice.

Two hours later, we stomped some ice into enough cubes for a few cocktails and made good progress for Cotopaxi with Field Touring Alpine's Ecuador January trip. Sara revealed to me her hometown is in Maine and she loves cyclocross which made this overnight winter experience seem tropical in face of 5" of new snow overnight with temps in the teens. After breaking trail for a total 6 hours in 2 days, we roped up, self arrested and climbed enough ice to strike fear into Cotopaxi, good luck in January Sara!

BCAG & CPC help NPR with a public service announcement on avalanche safety this weekend

Sara Lerner from NPR interviewed me this morning about avalanche safety in the early season, have a listen and tell me what you think.
http://indemand.nwpr.wsu.edu/NWPR/HomepageArticles/audio/111810Schonwald.mp3

La Nina Pre-Season Route Planning - A primer for going big

 La Nina, La Smina what is all the hype about? In 1998-99 the NW received 95 feet of snow. To take advantage of epic seasons a few key areas need attention such as Fitness, Gear and Travel Plans.

Fitness encompasses both mental and physical capacity to deal with skiing and touring in a deep snow environment. The physical preparation everyone generally understands, what takes people to the next level is intensity and planning peak performance. Periodization is a system to schedule peaking in a variety of time frames from 6-16 weeks. Great resources that you can follow online or pay for a subscription of coaching are:

Alpine Training Center: Free, Boulder based, mountain specific conditioning programs for climbing and skiing. Originally part of Mountain Athlete, follows a similar philosophy and posts their workouts online that you can get an RSS feed for.

Mountain Athlete: Paid subscription Jackson based gym that was inspired by Mark Twight's Gym Jones blend of Crossfit meets mountain sports. Rob Shaul stripped away the rhetoric and focused on fundamental strength and conditioning  while blending climbing and skiing specific elements to the periodization cycles.

Gym Jones: Paid subscription, Salt Lake City based gym blending Crossfit intensity with mountain sports fitness focus. Great program that comes with all of Mark Twight's philosophy, elite intensity and performance is the focus.



Training Mental fitness requires intense physical training with refreshing and building the many skills necessary for back country winter travel. Avalanche safety, travel techniques and planning strategies all need attention to stay safe and succeed on big objectives when the conditions permit. AIARE avalanche courses, route planning and advanced travel techniques all can be learned and reviewed with friends or from guides services and retail stores with free clinics such as REI, Pro Ski Service and Second Ascent in Seattle.

Next week we review gear and travel planning preparation.

Pray for snow!

Matt

Explosion in number of ski touring fatalities in Switzerland

Explosion in number of ski touring fatalities in Switzerland
Fascinating look at the rise of risk taking.