Anyone in B Ham need to take an avvy level 1 course?

Fish_Sandwich.

Fish_Sandwich.

Active member
I gotta take the class, anyone else need to take it too? We could carpool. AKA we use your car and I give you money and/or weed and/or food.
 
I took that last year up at Baker. Some gaper asked, "how many tree wells do you think there are on Mt. Baker?". That sums up the class.
 
It's not all that bad. Just depends on who's in your class. A couple days last year it was mostly NS'ers.
 
The instructor answered with something along the lines of, "There's only one or two..." then cracked up.
 
I was thinking of taking an AIARE level 1 class in February, but alas i am without a car as well. Theres always the hobo bus for those of us without cars.
 
here's a much cheaper avy course that will give you way more of what you actually need. in fact, its free.

have you friend go over a hill out of sight and bury their pack with their beacon in it (how deep depends on how much you want to work for it). then they ski to the bottom of the hill. they yell for you to ski, and you ski over the hill. as soon as they see you, they yell "avalanche" and you stop, switch your beacon to find, and start your panic-assed search.

your friend at the bottom should be holding their breath the entire time. if they have to take a breath before you find their pack, they might want to consider a new BC partner.
 
This is a good idea for practice, but you really do need to take an avalanche class because there's a lot of information you absolutely need to have on lock down before you even think about going out of bounds. This and having beacon skills are essentials.
 
im not saying not to take an avy 1 course. its going to teach you that you dont know shit about snow science. and that will hopefull scare you enough to become more cautious and respectful of the danger.

and honestly avy 1 isnt going to give you that much more than completely comprehending "snow sense" by jill fredstona and doug fesler" and "staying alive in avalanche terrain" by bruce tremper. except its someone telling you the stuff and you can ask them questions rather than trying to study solo from a book. however the avalanche expert will simply tell you "it depends" when you ask if certain conditions will lead to all-over stability and you can go charge the zone.

take it, learn how much you don't know. and then go practice body recovery as much as you can. geeking out on snowpack science wont help when it actually slides.

 
snowpack science is useless for most people in the backcountry. if you dig a pit to see how easy it will slide, thats good. you should have an idea what the layers are doing according to recent snowfall and temperature changes anyways.

it matters how fast you can dig out your friends, but not nearly as much as saying "no" before dropping into a sketchy line. just because two people have beacons and they can search super fast doesnt make them invincible. lost equipment, broken bodies, and death can happen no matter how fast you dig someone out. pay attention to conditions, make smart decisions, and dont get too stoked on the snow and you should do alright. leaving super epic runs untouched is hard, but skiing another day is more valuable
 
Agreed completely to V and 542.

You better be able to bet your life on you and your partners beacon skills.
 
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