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19th July 2010

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a two day avalanche course organized by the FSANZ in conjunction withPete Bilous from the Otago Polytechnic avalanche program. The course was designed for the freeride skiers looking to venture into the backcountry both here in New Zealand and overseas. The FSANZ invited most of the countries top skiers to attend and learn some new invaluable skills. We had twelve skiers for the weekend - Hamish Acland, Tom Dunbar, Sam Smoothy, Marc Walker, Fraser McDougall, Cam McDermid, Tom Brownlee, Tom Southern, Roy Schott, Mikey Austin, Pete Oswald and myself. 

The colourful world of the freeski professional goes backcountry

Things kicked off on Friday night in the classroom, bit of a shock for us old boys being back at school but we soon started to realise how little we actually knew about the science of snow and the dangers of the back country. Pete took us through our pre-trip considerations and checklists. We reviewed the weather, backcountry advisory and avalanche.net to get a good picture of what we could expect over the next couple of days. Then we went through the groups experience and expectations, this revealed the amazing fact that the country's top freeride skiers knew next to nothing about backcountry travel and avalanche predication, the next two days was going to be a steep learning curve for all.

Hamish Acland leads the team through the gate into the unkown

Saturday morning we headed to Treble Cone for a briefing and route planning for the day. Then it was off to the resort boundary and our first foray into the un-patrolled backcountry. We spend the first part of the morning familiarizing ourselves with our transceivers and working out our bearings and aspects.

Pete Bilous gives Sam Smoothy some feedback on his transceiver skills

Then we put our skins on and headed uphill, another unique experience for a few in the group. After navigating our way through some avalanche terrain we found ourselves atop of Towers ridge peering down the backside of Treble Cone towards the magnificent Black Peak.

The group sorting out their skins for the first climb of the course

Uphill a first for a few 

Lunch with a view

More hungry freeskiers

After lunch we skied the backside of the summit slopes descending well down the valley leaving us a 45min skin back to the top, we had been taking turns at leading the group and our terrain assessing and guiding skills were improving quickly. 

One group start the long climb out of the valley

Nearly at the top

Fraser McDougall very happy to be back at the top

At the top, Pete took us through some snowpack instability tests. We dug a series of pits and checked out the layering in the snow, the types of snow in the pack and finally, Pete walked us through a  compression test to see what sort of load the snowpack could handle. This was a lot of information for us to take onboard but the practical hands on nature of being right there in the snow helped us a lot.

The whole team watch on carefully as Pete tests the snowpack

Sam gets amongst the snowpack

We skied down and headed back to the classroom for a de-brief and a review of what we had learnt that day. We also went through some factors affecting decision making in the backcountry, another great learning exercise for some of the freeride egos present.

Packing up and heading home

Sunday morning saw us back at Treble Cone and back at the boundary marker, after the transceiver check we were back out of bounds and back learning.  We went over our pit digging and compression tests checking some different aspects and elevations.

The saddle chair disappears out of sight

More compression tests with Pete

We skied to the valley floor again taking turns to lead the group through the varied terrain and snow conditions, being critiqued all the way by Pete's expert eye. 

After lunch we skinned back to the saddle quad and looped back out of bounds again, for an afternoon of digging and transceiver searches. Another vital skill and essential practice for all backcountry users no matter how experienced.

Skins on again after lunch

Mikey sorting her skis for the walk back to the saddle chair

Cam and Tom make it out in good time

Here come the rest of the stragglers

Pete going over transceiver use

The boys watch on while Tom readies himself to dig 

The day and the course finished up in TC cafe with a comprehensive de-brief and review from Pete.

Talking to all the crew on the course the main feedback was that of 'Why haven't I done this before and Wow, its amazing how little we actually knew!' 

We are all now a lot more aware of the hazards of the backcountry and we all of us learnt a huge amount over the two days but we all swore to continue our learning as we humbly realised the vast knowledge required to understand snow and avalanches and how much we yet had to learn.

So for all of you out there who like to get out of bounds and score some fresh snow, please ask yourself; What do I really know?, Do I have the right equipment and do I know how to use it?

If the answer to this questions is not a lot or No then you should definitely look into taking a course as its not only your life at stake but that of your friends.

There are a lot of courses available in New Zealand each winter, from 2 day awareness course right through to week long professional level qualifications.

For more course info check out :

www.mountainsafety.org.nz

www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz

I would like to give a huge thanks to Pete Bilous, Jamie Robertson and Brenda George for all their help and guidance over the weekend.