{"id":6687,"date":"2022-09-18T16:05:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T16:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asnes-academy.com\/uncategorized\/an-avalanche-course-the-most-valuable-gear-you-can-get\/"},"modified":"2022-12-21T21:10:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T21:10:04","slug":"an-avalanche-course-the-most-valuable-gear-you-can-get","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asnes-academy.com\/en\/mountain-and-safety\/an-avalanche-course-the-most-valuable-gear-you-can-get\/","title":{"rendered":"An avalanche course: the most valuable \u201cgear\u201d you can get"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n

Run to the hills \u2013 safely<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s increasingly common for skiers to begin their career with alpine touring equipment, skipping the groomers and heading straight to the mountains. Great. But it\u2019s worthwhile remembering that many of the best skiers started their development in resorts, moving on to riding off-piste and then gradually progressing to summit tours and big mountains, frequently accompanied by mentors and friends who knew more than them about the challenges of more perilous terrain. Not least avalanches.<\/p>\r\nThose who begin their development in the mountains, in other words, don\u2019t start with the same foundations as those with a long skiing background. That is: they start without the same accumulated knowledge, experience and intuition of avalanches and navigation in the winter backcountry.\r\n\r\nBefore you throw yourself into alpine touring, splashing a month\u2019s salary on brand new equipment, it may be wise to prioritise spending on knowledge. There\u2019s no gear better. Turning up with a snow probe in its wrapper and your beacon in the box is not, honestly, the best look.\r\n\r\nBeing a good skier and avalanche-wise are different things. It\u2019s not a case of beacon on, brain off.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The avalanche card<\/a>.\u00a0A useful tool to have in your map folder. Knowledge of terrain and navigation is essential.\r\nPhoto: Crister N\u00e6ss v\/ \u00c5snes<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cExperience\u201d or experience?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There\u2019s a difference between \u201cexperience\u201d and experience. This might seem a strange sentence. But if you were to avoid an avalanche for years, maybe your entire career as a skier, with no feedback on whether this was out of sheer luck or consummate mountain-craft, one can\u2019t really say this constitutes experience.<\/p>\r\nExperience of this kind, alone, isn\u2019t enough. Knowledge about avalanches must be based on facts, reflection, a store of verifiable knowledge and founded on practical experience in controlled environments. Just going out into the mountains and \u201clearning\u201d things, without knowing what you’re doing, leaves you ignorant of what you don\u2019t know. And some of those gaps may be essential.\r\n\r\nAs far as avalanches and the layers the constitute the snowpack are concerned, the toolbox you assemble on a course or two, systematically, with direct feedback, with processual decision-making, theory, and learning through trial and error acquired in orderly conditions, are what\u2019s required if \u201ctrue\u201d experience, in all its danger, were to intrude on you in the mountains..\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Reflection<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We have to be honest here and say that after taking courses, acquiring some avalanche training, reading theory, applying what we learned in snow on days out and discussing things with people who know more than we do, the more we’ve realised that we’ve made some pretty stupid choices in the past. We have been lucky. That\u2019s why \u201cexperience\u201d is a loaded word as far as avalanches goes. To respect an avalanche is to understand the gaps in our knowledge, too. What really goes on down there, down in the layers?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The advantages of training<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On an avalanche course, participants learn how to find and interpret information offered by the landscape. One learns to dig snow profiles; to conduct stability tests; to learn the proper context for conducting the tests you\u2019re taught. One also learns to select a safe route, to classify and read terrain.<\/p>\r\nNature offers us the clues we need to interpret the danger. We simply need to learn how to read these clues and to use them to our advantage. Your best protection on the mountain is the knowledge shared by all the members of the party. Those are the parties you want to join.\r\n\r\nA course confers quality knowledge you can test in practice \u2013 gained in a controlled environment, with supervisors who can give you feedback on what you can improve<\/strong>. Reflection is essential, even on the very best and finest of days. On your own in the mountains, you only get feedback when things have already gone wrong..\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On an avalanche course. Here, participants learn gradient measurement, terrain assessment and classification.\r\nPhoto: Crister N\u00e6ss v\/ \u00c5snes<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Before you head out<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Be sure of what you know. Get an idea of what you don\u2019t.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n