Saturday: Woke up at 7 again and moved groggily into the kitchen to find two giant pans of scrambled eggs, with my chopped up peppers inside. This was very pleasing so I took a large helping and made myself some hot chocolate with whip cream. We then gathered outside for morning observations or morning obs. This is a series of practices done using a snow kit. One measures the temperature of the snow, the depth of the snow, the wind speed, the weather, the air temperature and a multitude of other things in order to better understand the avalanche danger that day. We then went back in the house for about an hour of powerpoints on how to use these obs to better serve us throughout the day. After finishing the powerpoint it was about 11 and we got our stuff together and drove up to Red Mountain once more. We were going to take a quick tour up to an area known as the backyard. I was in a group with with Greg, Josh and John and about 4 others. We took a low route under some cliff bands and practiced safe route selection. At around 1 PM the snow was really beginning to stick to our skins so we had to apply Glop-Stopper and the problem was mostly resolved. Finally at about 1:45 we reached the top of the backyard and ate lunch. We then dug pits in groups of three with the goal of finding a problem layer from Feb. 22. Instead we found a problem layer at both the Feb 22 layer and the Jan 11 layer in an extended column test. After this we had a fun ski down and got back to the cars at around 4:30. We were expecting a mundane car ride back to the hut, but as we reached the area around the Artist Cabin we saw a large R2D2 wet loose avalanche slide on a SW facing aspect. It was both exhilarating and humbling to see an avalanche in real life so close to you. In many ways it made our learning seem more real. We got home, took PM obs and did a PM debrief which is basically a report of the day's sightings, mistakes, and data. We enjoyed burritos and I donated my tortellini to the group's dinner. Greg then gave us a rundown of what he carries in his pack as a guide which was very useful. I finished off the night with another hour long hot tub and fell asleep around 11.
|
Domi FridegerFor my LINK I am interning with San Juan Mountain Guides |