Since I am totally obsessed with snow, snowboarding, the mountains and all that that entails, I thought it would behoove me to take an extensive avalanche training course. And man, I was right!! On Wednesday night about 50 locals (mostly dudes my age that love to ride) met with some of the local avalanche gurus to discuss some of the main topics of the course. Today we met at 9:00am and went straight through until 6:00pm.
In the classroom, we learned about islands of safety, terrain triggers, hazards and characteristics, weather patterns, first aid, dog teams, the proper chain of events, how to safely set up a production shot in the back country, safe ascent and descent and sled safety. We stopped for lunch and then all met up at Powder Birds where we learned about heli etiquette and safety and then met with the University of Utah life flight team. That was interesting to learn about how to prep a proper landing zone and how to "package" the victim.
The rest of the day was spent in groups. We went to different stations where we learned how to find hidden beacons with our own transceivers, strategic shoveling, spiral probing, on scene emergency protocol and the organization of information, team members and others on the scene as well as belay techniques.
It was only about 10 degrees outside all day and my new boots weren't as warm as I wanted them to be and my feet were freeeezing. I even had feet warmers in. But, it was such an amazing day and I learned more than I ever would have imagined. After learning these life saving techniques, I feel incredibly confident that I could perform them on the scene of a real avalanche. The statistics of finding your friend alive is daunting, however. Within 15 minutes of finding and digging your victim out, if they don't have head and body trauma, 90% of them will live. After 30 minutes 50%, after 45 minutes 40% and after the "Golden Hour" only 30% will survive. There are about 83 avalanche deaths in the United States every year.
Tomorrow we are talking about recognizing snow pack and conditions and analyzing the risk of riding certain areas. We will be riding on the mountain at the Bird and digging "pits" to analyze the snow. I am really excited! Extreme weather is soooo fascinating to me and especially living in Utah, I have the opportunity to experience it. But, after all is said and done, I feel that this class was so beneficial. Now, all my riding buddies are going to be stuck listening to me and having me teach them all about finding ME with their beacons, how to shovel me out and how to make sure that I am alive if I make the wrong decision and end up getting swept up in an avy.
I will say though, my whole motivation for this stemmed from the inbounds avy death at the Bird two years ago when Heather Gross, a local skier, who was my age, was caught in an avy off of Baldy. She didn't have a beacon on and it took her sister and the other skiers who witnessed the slide an hour to find and get her out. Unfortunately, she had head and body trauma and probably hypothermia and by the time she was airlifted the hospital she had passed. I'm not saying that I could have found her any faster, since I normally don't roll with all my back country avy gear when I'm just cruising around the resort, but I do know that I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge in order to keep myself and my friends in a safer set of circumstances when we are out in the back country.
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The lower picture at the top of this post is of Mount Superior, which is right across the canyon road from the Bird. I feel confident about ascending this bad boy. I am going to obtain a detailed top map of the Wasatch and drop all kinds of new terrain now. I always want to "See what's on the other side" and the same goes for this. I know that Big Cottonwood Canyon is on the other side of that peak, but I want to see the panorama for myself. So, that's on the list for this year!
The first picture is of one of the Powder Bird helis. I have had heli riding on my LIFE LIST for a looooong time and I found out yesterday that as my Christmas present, I am going to go heli riding in Utah this winter!!!!!! I was so excited listening to the guy talk about landing on peaks and hitting fresh lines out in the middle of nowhere, I could hardly contain myself, knowing that in a few short weeks, one of those is going to whisk me away to some of the best powder stashes on the planet amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world!!!!! I am a LUCKY AND HAPPY GIRL!!!!!
