Yesterday's Avalanche Training - Adults Playing in Snow

Yesterday's avalanche training at Monarch Pass turned epic with 40" of snow in the last 72 hours, 24" in the last 24 hours, 20-30 mph winds, with gusts to 45 and 18 degree temperatures. Now you may think that this would be cause to re-schedule, but the thought is that we may be working in these types of condition, so we should train in them.

Leaving home it was had to believe what it would be like, since it was bright and the sun was out.

We stopped at Mac and Don's on the way to Monarch, and I had the opportunity to try out their new oatmeal breakfast, not sure if this really turned out to be an opportunity.

As many of you know I did a review of oatmeal's (Jamba, Starbucks, Caribou) a couple of years ago, and I thought this would be a great time to try the largest food retailer in the worlds offering.

In a nutshell, this is the worst excuse for oatmeal I have ever had. It was soupy(Actually, I have had thicker soups.) to the extreme with some cut up apples and berry's (I think). It is an embarrassment for MacDonald's to even think about serving this poor example (not sure it could even be considered an example) of oatmeal. It was thrown away.

So, Pat how did you really feel about MacDonald's Oatmeal.

In the five miles between Salida and Poncha Spring the world changed. The sky went overcast and the road was now snow covered. We began the slog up Hwy 50 to Monarch Pass.

This I suppose should have been expected with it being Saturday, and the prodigious snow fall in the previous days...everyone was out for fresh pow.

We had taken off earlier then the rest of the team because we needed to pick up an ice axe purchased off of craigslist in Salida.

Being the first ones at the pass we were the first to

get stuck in the parking area, since I could not see

anything and drove into a snow bank and had to dig out.

We were also the second to get stuck, since after digging us out, I backed into another snow bank.

By the time I dug out this time the others had shown up, and the my first error of the day became apparent.

It was snowing hard and I had not put on my waterproof coat while shoveling during the excursions into the various snow banks. I was now real wet. As we geared up I put on a gore tex pants and coat over the wet fleece I had been wearing. The wet underneath would turn to ice as the day progressed.

We hit the trail about 10am...wait there was no trail only unbroken snow.

We spent the morning breaking trail up the eastern side of the pass in the area of the summer chairlift.

Even in snowshoes with deep snow extensions on their tails, when breaking trail you would sink in to your thighs. If you weren't breaking trail it wasn't as bad. We did though trade off lead often, but it still made for a burn.

We were carrying 24 hour packs (everything needed to survive 24 hours in the current environment), which helped to add to the calorie burn, during the hike up the slope to the area we would use for training.

The folks down in the parking lot, who were going back-country skiing, wisely waited for us to make a trail that they could skin-up afterwards.

Marlys is turning into quite the little snow bunny.

Yes, Marlys is carrying a 24 hour pack and is using the snowshoes she got for Christmas about 10 years ago.

Although the last two avalanche training sessions we have used our gore tex lined backpacking boots, you need to keep moving to keep your feet warm. Note to selves: Get plastic mountaineering boots for next year.

Those of you who know Marlys, know she can get cold in 90 degree weather, if the sun goes behind a cloud, so you can really appreciate her ability to work in these conditions.

By this point our Camelbaks had frozen up, and that was the only liquid we had brought up. Marlys would solve this dilemma later, which saved our bacon, especially mine since I can dehydrate easily and quickly, leading to the dreaded stomach cramps and need to find a tree. Which I would end up having to do later in the day. This would mean undressing the lower half, wearing snowshoes, on a slope, in these conditions, it would be...uncomfortable. I now appreciate Marlys' hunt for women's clothing with a trapped door. If you know of any drop a line.

We got to a place that was fairly sheltered and packed it down to serve as an area to operate out of for the day. The skiers and boarders would stop and check in at this packed down area all day. There was even a chocolate Lab that couldn't seen to get enough of the snow each time it went by.

This didn't mean the hard work was over.

We now could get started on the avalanche training.

Last time (a month ago) we spent the time practicing with avalanche beacons, snow probes and shovels. This time we were going to do that again, adding in searches for victims without beacons.

A little soapbox time. Don't even think about going into the back-country without being equipped and knowing how to use an avalanche beacon. You and your skiing, boarding, snowshoeing, snowmobiling(largest group of victims) partners are the people who have a chance at saving a life...time is short when buried. We have watched a number of real-life avalanche rescue videos over the last two months and the chances of your partners finding and getting you unburied without a beacon is very low. Generally by the time a trained SAR Team can get there, it will more then likely be a body recovery versus a rescue.

The work of the morning began with the snow pits being dug to assess the different layers of snow for stability.

Two pits were dug in different locations. Both had to be dug to ground. Marlys' group chose correctly, as the Crusader said in the Indiana Jones movie.

Therefore, it could be surmised my group did not.

Our pit ended up being between 9-10 feet deep. This means moving a lot of snow...while wearing snowshoes...using little shovels...with short handles...with three full grown (maybe I am a little more then full grown-by girth) men doing this dance standing in a pit. I am amazed no one took a shovel hit.

Marlys and her group dug their pit on a open slop, They barely had to go Marlys deep (5') to hit ground.

After the pits are dug, a number of readings are taken; e.g. temperatures and gradients, snow crystals inspection (there is even this microscope type of gadget), credit card test for layer assessment etc.

Then we dug to create a block of snow for a slide test. Will the digging never stop.

This went pretty quickly.

We broke for a rest and some lunch...Marlys and I had frozen PB&J's.

Benny though showed us his premium three layer PB&J that he had learned needed to be made with PB on both sides of the center slice of bread to prevent soggy center slices.

It is amazing what we learn out here.

This is also where Marlys taught me how to drink out of a Camelbak with a frozen hose. She is amazing, and this did save my bacon (but not before the dreaded tree visit). Note to self, you either need to bring liquids in bottles or a long straw.

After this rest, standing around in the snow, with skiers going by asking what the pits were telling us, it was back to the snow pits.

The last test involved someone standing on top of the blocks we had dug out and stomping to see if and where the snow would slide.

Ours did at about the two foot level, but it took a bit of jumping to get it going. All-in-all pretty stable at this point on the mountain, at this time, etc (many qualifiers needed here).

Before Marlys and Samatha would collapse their pit they wanted to have a portrait of their work.

Theirs too collapsed, but it was pretty stable in their area.

And in keeping with "leave no trace". We got to put the snow that had been shoveled out of the pits...back into them. This went quicker.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing different rescue scenarios, running around in snowshoes up, down, across the slope looking for beaconed buried victims.

We ended the day with a two victim search, one with a beacon and one without. It took us 17 minutes to find and extract them both. I found the beacon-less victim (a buried backpack). I would like to say it was do to skill and experience, but.....

About 4pm we called it a day and headed to the Salida Cafe for some warm coffee, then home. It was a great day playing in the snow. I was a beat puppy, but Marlys was still her normal exuberant self.

I think our next alpine training is going to be on St. Mary's Glacier to work on self-arrests, roping up, belaying, etc. in the snow. We are on the look out for another ice axe and two pairs of crampons...hello craiglist/ebay.

Note: I mentioned all the qualifiers on the testing for avalanche conditions. Well yesterday there were two avalanches at Monarch Pass and one caught a skier, luckily a DOT crew saw his ski pole sticking out of the snow and got him out.