Avalanche Course

Last February, Nate and I got to pop our good friend, Bryan's, Mount Washington cherry. After that, Bryan and Brian (Mr. Nevins), as we affectionately now call them: B²  or "B Squared", were in the backcountry constantly. I would check out Facebook and see pictures of the headwall or gulf of slides and be so dang jealous as I was sitting at my desk at work... Anyways, Bryan decided that instead of just going into the backcountry without knowing much about much, he thought it would be a good idea if we all learned a little bit about something.... a little first aid and maybe a little bit of the signs of avalanche danger. He then signed us all up... :) We did our Wildnerness First Aid class at the end of November and this past weekend was our Avalanche course.

First day of Avalanche course was death by powerpoint (not really, but it was a lot of learning) and then testing to see if we knew how to use our beacons. And since we already played with our beacons with B Squared, we were experts!! If a person is buried in an avalanche and they are not found and unburied within 15 minutes, the chances of dying are high. The worst we did was locating our patient within 10 minutes and that's because we didn't listen to directions and headed in the wrongish direction, but since we fanned out, someone picked up a signal and we found em!

The second day, we learned some more and did a recap and then got to go for a hike!! Nate and Bryan skinned up because Bryan just got his split board that he purchased in June or something so he was all excited to use it. (I believe he took it to a resort today to see how it rode). Nate wanted to keep him company. We hiked up to Hermit Lake which is pretty close to Hojos on Mount Washington. There we did another exercise of a practice burial to see how we did with our beacons. We were rockstars again and found it within 5 minutes! I like to say, "we"... I'm pretty sure I just made sure the boys were moving in the right direction... Side Note: Our instructor showed us a video after class and pointed out that there was a manager because the woman in the video was like, 'There is only one person shoveling. So and So come over here and shovel with him'. Yup... that's gonna be me!! :) We then found a snow drift on the side of the lake and did a column test. Here's a good example of what the column test was all about. Our snow is MUCH MUCH more ice crusted from all the damn rain we have gotten this winter so when they did the tap tests, the column didn't go to nothing, but the fractures were pretty cool.

Here are some pictures as we go to Hermit Lake:

The creek on Tuckerman's trail.... still not quite frozen yet... :( 

This is our instructor, Craig, Nate and Dean. I was standing in a section that had avalanched in 1980 something and 1990 something. It was a sharp cut in the mountain and you could see the new growth of trees. 

Craig, Bryan, and Chance walking across Hermit Lake: 

Dean, flicking me off... Thanks, Dean!!! 

Nate walking down into Hermit Lake. 

A little of left gully, but mostly just clouds... 

Typically, at this time of the year, everything besides the trees in the foreground is WHITE!!! But No... there's been no snow and Mount Washington is still bald!!! :-( 

Day 3 of Avalanche course ended up getting postponed because our instructor got the stomach bug. Sorry, Craig!! I hope you feel better soon!! We get to schedule that day when there is snow on the ground and there might be a real chance to study some cool stuff. 

We got to do a little hiking and I'm DEFINITELY including it in our elevation gain. We hiked 1,912 feet to Hermit Lake. We have 75,664 feet to go this winter!! 

PLEASE SNOW.... PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP!!!!