Thu
rsday: I woke up at 5:20 AM with excitement running through my mind and body. Today was the first day of the best part of my internship so far. I was going on a four day Avalanche 2 course. After devouring some cereal and washing it down with a little coffee, I grabbed my two carefully packed backpacks and jumped in the car. The darkness of the morning has always given me inspiration and this day was no different. As we drove towards Ouray we watched the sun slowly light up the tips of the peaks that I would soon be skiing on and I started becoming one with the mountains again. We pulled up to the San Juan Mountain Guides office at around 7 and I unloaded my things. After a few brief words with SJMG employees my dad drove back to Durango, and I realized I was truly in it now. The group of students sat down in a semi circle inside the office and one of our guides named Gary told us to introduce ourselves. Everyone talked about their full lives saying, "I'm originally from New Hampshire, but I moved to Mt. Rainier then to Salt Lake City then to Boulder..." while all I had to say was that I was a Junior in High School who was interning with San Juan Mountain Guides. Now you have to understand that I was by far the the youngest. The next oldest person was a girl named Raquel who was 21, and from there it was an average age of 32. After introductions we piled into various cars and drove over the pass from Ouray to Silverton. We got to the Eureka Hut parking lot at around 10 in the morning and piled out ready to put our boots and skins on. From the parking lot to the hut was about a 10 minute skin. I was sent ahead with the semi-creepy, albeit courteous caretaker Tyler, on the snowmobile to help unpack the guests bags; after all, I am an intern. Being the first to get to the hut I was the first to get to explore it. It was a massive wooden former boarding house/ brothel with 4 stories. It lay in the heart of a massive glacial valley with avalanche paths and frozen waterfalls hanging treacherously on either side. The hut was warm at least, heated by geothermal activity, and had a hot tub, a billiards room, and a full kitchen. I helped unload the gear as the guests arrived. Once everyone had arrived we settled into our rooms. I bunked with two other guys in one of the 17 bedrooms. I was on the bottom bunk. We were then called down for an hour of powerpoints going over basically what we had learned in our Avy 1 course just to refresh our brains. Next we put on our ski stuff, beacons and adhered our skins to our skis. We skinned out into the basin of our valley about 8 minutes and began some beacon exercises. First we tested our range, mine having the furthest. Then we practiced companion rescue with one partner. I partnered with a hilarious semi plump man named Josh. Josh lives in Aspen and had recently broken up with his girlfriend (which he kept reminding himself and everyone else of whenever he had drunk a little too much whisky). We did very well with companion rescue and then moved towards multiple burial rescue. In this drill two backpacks with transmitting beacons were buried and then one person attempted to find both "bodies" by themselves. I did not succeed as much as I would have liked with this drill. I learned I needed to slow down with my point search and really get accurate readings before probing. After this last drill we dug up the backpacks and headed back to the hut. Once back we settled in for another two hours of power points on types of avalanches and what warning signs we can observe before they happen. Throughout the powerpoint, given by our guide Jeff, our other guide Greg was cooking Spaghetti and vegetables in the kitchen. We sat down to a delicious meal as a group and talked. Most of the adults drank a fair amount of whisky as well. After dinner I washed the pots and pans and then played a long and drawn out game of billiards with Josh and a man from Mt. Shasta, California named John. These two would prove to be some of my best friends over the next three days. After playing some piano, joking about the place being haunted and listening to Josh theorize over his ex-girlfriend, I went to my bottom bunk and fell asleep.
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Domi FridegerFor my LINK I am interning with San Juan Mountain Guides |