 Poster: A snowHead
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The story so far...
Day -3
Drive down from London to Chamonix via Morzine to pick up my kit. Eat too many crisps. But Moutarde Ancienne is a particular favourite and MrsPhillipStanton seems to have convinced the shopkeepers of Morzine to stop stocking them for this very reason.
Stop off in Les Gets for a drink and a bite to eat in the Pic - only to find most of Les Gets in there for an end of season party (season not yet ended, but you can't have too much of a good thing). Joe Beer (my telemark instructor) is on fine form.
Dodgy pizza somewhere else.
Lightening storm 
Arrive in Chamonix to dinner party where everyone is a tad too drunk to arrive sober.
Day -2
It's raining. SMALLZOOKEEPER sensibly cries off and Len Holgate's and my resolve crumbles like a very crumbly thing.
Go shopping.
Perhaps not the ideal preparation for an off-piste course, but there you go.
Particularly fine chicken with 40 cloves of garlic for dinner.
Day -1
It's not looking good on the navigation front for the old course. "Shirley" (Len Holgate's satnav) has navigated us to Tasche, only to declare that "You are in the general vicinity of your destination. Park your car and proceed as directed." We actually wanted Zermatt. But you can't have everything.
Nothing on satnav display.
Drive around Tasche noting all the other people driving around Tasche wondering what the hell their satnav's are doing.
Do what we should have done in the first place - i.e. read the instructions that were sent to us. Get bored half way through and phone hotel.
Park. Scary taxi ride. Wierd ride on electric milk float.
Discover our hotel and BASI hotel are at opposite ends of town. Town hilly. May well beat skimotterat's half stone weight loss.
Pre-meet in BASI hotel. Get taxi. Perhaps not then to that weight loss.
The course is structured as four days of training with one guide (no question too stupid) and then two days of assessment with another guide.
Meet our respecitve guides. Mine is Jim Kerr. No. Not that one.
Len Holgate shows clear attention to learning by forgetting the name of his guide.
Day 1
Attempt to meet everyone at lift station. Only everyone is now wearing ski clothing, hats/helmets and sunnies/goggles. Start to wonder why BASI don't get everyone to come to the pre-meet in their ski clothing.
Given that it's a clear day and the rest of the week is forecast to be pretty lousey, it's decided to focus the day on map reading and obervation skills.
But first - up Furi, Trockener Steg and then Furgsattel for a spot of transciever finding practice. Nothing too difficult - we are to find the buried transcievers within 4 minutes on foot. Anyone who says their DTS Tracker is as quick as a Barryvox Pulse really needs to try the Pulse. Everyone else in the group was quick to get to the general area of search, but slow on the micro-search. The Pulse just allowed me to go straight in. Under 60 seconds both times. The best anyone else did was 3 minutes.
Have a ski down the piste and prompty lose two of the group. Stand around studying the map whilst Jim finds them. In doing so I discovered that the Barryvox Pulse affects compasses. Quite badly. Much more badly than the DTS Tracker.
Find rest of group and then early lunch. Discover to annoyance that BASI members get 35% off at the restaurant on production of their BASI licence.
We then headed up the Klein Matterhorn and down the Unterer Theodul, Triftjig and Gorner glaciers - stopping frequency to discuss the various types of crusted snow that we encounter, do lots of map reading, discuss avalanche considerations along the route and do a fair bit of falling over (primarily because nearly every bit of snow is crusted in some way - if the wind crust doesn't get you, the melt crust will, etc...). Given that the weather was nice this was all done in a rather leisurely three hours - which used up our afternoon completely.
My highlight of the day was going into the ice cave at the end of the Gorner glacier and having a look at the ice.
Len Holgate's highlight of the day was not falling down the cravasse that he very nearly fell into.
Some people are so competitive! 
We had a whole 15 minutes off before two hours of lectures - an hour on navigation and an hour on avalanches.
I expect to sleep well tonight.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 13-04-08 20:56; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great report.
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| Anyone who says their DTS Tracker is as quick as a Barryvox Pulse really needs to try the Pulse. |
As the owner of a Tracker, I'd say 'amen' to that - having seen a Pulse owner walk straight to each of a couple of buried transceivers in a situation that foxed me, last month.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Phil,
You mean you didn't slide all the way through the cave at the end of the glacier and let your skis find their own way after dropping them shortly after you began the (somewhat involuntary) slide?? Our snowboarder had taken the 'cave route' the previous day and said that it was "ok". I just wished that I hadn't taken my head torch out of my pack the night before; it would have been useful for the points where I couldn't see my hand in front of my face... I think the most amusing part of that little journey was getting out the other side to find that our guide was having a cigarette... He seemed to have had far too much fun! Also, I think the hollow sounding noises when we could finally stand up and walk on the ice were almost as scary as the point earlier in the day where I was following in tracks of the guy who was following in the tracks of the guide only to find a cravase opening up just behind the back end of my binding as I skied over it. The guys following me took evasive action...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Day 2
Awoke to an aching body and a clear morning. I can see the aching body being a theme here.
We headed up to Gifthittli via Furi and Riffelberg and dropped down to Gant by way of some incredibly heavy and crusty snow and a icy 40+ degree little couloir. Nothing like a warmup to  The first difference today was the requirement that, off glaciated terrain, one of the group lead.
Then up to Hohtalli and down to the new Stockhorn drag. Up the drag, under the rope, bootpack up and then a 1.5km skin to the just shy of the top of Stockhorn. Optional bootpack to the very top of Stockhorn available - which I passed on - more below.
Shortly after starting to skin I realised that going from London to bootpacking and skinning at 3400m in a few days is not a good idea. About 500m into the skin I was feeling dizzy, lightheaded and had flashing lights in front of my eyes. The rest of my group have all been skiing all season and living at 1000m plus. I hardly ever go above 2400m when I ski - barring the odd top of the Grand Montets. So, whilst noone found it particularly pleasant, I was the person who really suffered.
Thankfully, after around 1km Jim stopped off to dig a snow pit (and, I suspect, give me a rest). He did a quick snow pit and worked his way through analysing the snowpack and doing a shear test.
The 450m to the base of the last bit of Stockhorn was not pleasant - which is why I passed on bootpacking the 45 degree slope for the last 50m.
By this time it was guide dog weather. And really, really cold. And snowing. Heavily.
As we set off I learnt a very important lesson. It's not a good idea to leave your skis tail down into the snow is not a good idea if it's really, really cold and exposed. When you set off there's a good chance that a clump of snow will freeze to the bases - the effect of which is very unnerving. It's always best to leave your skis bases to the snow.
From Stockhorn we headed down the Triftji glacier to Gant - navigating through the whiteout using a compass and altimeter. Until this course I'd never really understood the value of an altimeter (even though I've just bought one because everyone tells me how invaluable they are). But in a whiteout they really do come into their own - as long as you've remembered to calibrate them that day.
The basic tactic for navigation was to aim for a "handrail" - that is, to find a terrain feature, like a band of rock, that we could aim for and then use to identify where we were. The secret being not to aim for the top of the terrain feature, but about 75% of the way down it - so that you can't miss it. All very logical when you think of it.
For most of the route the snow was amazing - 30-40cm of powder on northerly facing slopes - although the consistency changed noticabley with slope aspect and altitude.
The route down to Gant was extremely tricky to navigate and, fortuneately, the weather lifted enough for us to be able to see enough to get good fixes on our position.
Having started at 9:00 from Zermatt we ate at 14:00 on a rock about 80% of the way down the route.
Near the very bottom we stopped off for an hour to do single and multiple burial (the latter isn't assessed) transciever practice. Once again, the Pulse came into its own.
At 15:00 we headed back up to Hohtalli and skied down to Furi at "a fair pace". It is, though, the first time that I've either seen such a flat "red" run and the first time that I've poled so much that I've suffered from lactic acid buildup in my "poling muscles".
And then lectures. An hour on bearings and route planning and then an hour on snow metamorphoses.
Half a stone might just be a conservative figure. I haven't been this tired from skiing in years.
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PhillipStanton, sounds like a very pleasant day 
I was thinking about doing this course next season, but now I'm not so sure! Looking forward to your next installment. Say hello to Trace for me.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| I was thinking about doing this course next season, but now I'm not so sure! |
You're not so sure. Frankly, sat here on day 2, I'm not so sure 
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Say hello to Trace for me. |
Will do. Are you going to bring NotMrsrob@rar to the London drinks?
Much fine advice skimottaret.
Heli signals though. Where the heck do I find those??????
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PhillipStanton, heli stuff not graded but you may get brownie points if it comes up...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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PhillipStanton,
If Jane doesn't have anything in work that evening she probably will come along.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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GrahamN, do the L1/L2 stuff in Argentina, over 2 months, that tends to make it a little less vile
PhillipStanton, It seems that Rule Number One for heli landings is NOT waving your arms, or you scare them off... See here, perhaps.
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You know it makes sense.
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GrahamN, take the IML course instead, sounds more up your street and the CSCF race course may be worth looking into as i dont think you need to have any instructor quals in order to enroll (but worth checking on that)
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Day 3
Feel the burn.
The day started with a trip to the top of Furggsattel, with the intention of skinning up Furgghorn and dropping down onto the Furgg glacier. But the weather at the top of Furggsattel was absolutely foul - so we dropped down the piste a litte and cut into the glacier lower down. I led (under very, very close supervision) The run was particularly uneventful as all we really did was cut straight across the glacier onto the (partly uphill) itinerary before dropping back down to Furgg.
From Furgg we headed up Schwarxee, dropped down the T bar and, from the top of the T bar, worked our way around Hirli - starting with a couple of very rocky, high-speed traverses and then a 1.3km / 200m vertical skin starting at 2600m. Whilst the experience was far from pleasant, it was nowhere near as bad as Day 2's experience - although there were several nasty rock bands on 30+ degree slopes to negotiate. We had a very (very, very) quick lunch in a very exposed spot at the top of the skin and then dropped down 800m through a series of gullies to Stafel through largely nice(ish) powder.
One thing that I'm finding particularly interesting is that I'm getting a feel for the importance of choosing line. You might be on something that's ok to ski, but 30m to your right might be some lovely fluffy powder.
After a (very) slightly more leisurely coffee at Staffel, we dropped back down to Furi, up to Furgg and then halfway up the T bar. On the way up we passed an assortment of BASI courses in action - the most insteresting of which were the ISIA snowboarders. The trainer(s) had set up a short turn run through some 20-30cm deep snow - almost a mini bumps run, but on flatter terrain. They had given the trainees full cups of water to hold in front of them whilst doing circuits of the bumps run. (Len Holgate has suggested that a cup of beer would have been a more effective training aid!).
From the T bar we dropped down and dug a line of snow pits, analysed the snow and did some shear tests. Everyone enjoyed this hugely - especially when someone found some classic depth hoar.
From there we started down at 15:00 in an attempt to find a route through two rock bands that Jim had spotted the day before. We found the entrance, but Jim decided that discretion was the better part of valour and sent us back via the piste whilst he went to investigate. "A bit nasty" was his description when he met us. Which I suspect is not a good thing for an experienced mountain guide to describe a line as.
Two lectures this evening. One on the weather and another on mountain injuries.
How tired am I? TIRED.
Len Holgate had a far less relaxing day - a day tour from Rothorn, via Spitxi Flue down to Tasche. 1000m decent, followed by a 2.5km / 500m vertical skin, some very nice skiing, followed by an hour walk out.
My group is doing that tomorrow.
Please all pray for bad weather for me.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Guys, you're not doing a great job of selling it to me!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for "tips of the day" skimottaret.
Len Holgate and I are difficulty selling it to ourselves right now.
I have realised partly why it's so knackering. Between 9:00 and 15:30 on average we get to sit down for a total of 20 minutes. On a good day.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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skimottaret, The tip about sitting back would have been more useful to me if it was yesterday's tip. I watched the guy in front of me do a classic "head between ski tips" fall on a slight downhill and then, after he'd picked himself up, I did exactly the same. I was trying to sit right back but, well, obviously it wasnt enough... Still, it's one way of cooling down after all that up hill stuff...
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Len Holgate, oops, sorry should have stuck that one in earlier... okay as penance how about a navigation tip.
Always try to to located the big stuff first before looking for small peaks or points on your map.
Dont bother with compass triangulation straight away just get a rough visual intersection of two obvious things (pistes, chairlifts, rivers, peaks etc) to get you in the right area then do a altimeter check second to guesstimate a spot point.... then fine tune with the compass.. Might not be classically correct but seemed to work quicker that way for me... and avoided obvious errors.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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That nav tip's good - provided you've got the vis to see enough features. Contours can also be very helpful when guesstimating that spot point - validate the local terrain features against the contour markings.
An alternative with the skins in the wind. If you have Black Diamond or G3 skins, they come with strips of gauze to keep the glue apart. Cut the gauze to be exactly half the length of the skin. As you start peeling the skin off the base, start sticking it directly onto the gauze. At the halfway point the skin wraps around the end of the gauze, and continues sticking back onto the other size of the gauze. That way you never have more than a cm or 2 of bare glued skin to flap around.
Another tip re the skinning downhill: remember your telemark lessons and just drop into a tele. It's not quite the same - you have less control of the rear ski as you're essentially on tip-toe - but it's good enough. Copes with steeper drops than the sitting back method, and also allows you to turn.
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Day 4 - Altitude stops play.
Well, I think it's altitude, but it could just be a virus.
But either way, I woke up this morning after a very good night's sleep feelilng dizzy, naseaus and with a headache. Breakfast and lots of water didn't help.
Adding a helmet and goggles to the combination at the top of Rothorn simply didn't help. I felt completely dissociated from the outside world.
I tried a ski down a very nice red run (ah, the joy of being on piste!) to the point where we were due to start skinning, but felt no better. Given where the group were going it would have been foolish to have tried the skin as it didn't have an easy escape route.
I slept most of the day. The assessment starts tomorrow, but I'll need to see how a feel.
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PhillipStanton, sh*t , hope you can battle through for the next two days....
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| PhillipStanton, sh*t |
Indeed. In truth it was a 50-50 decision and if there was an easy exit point at some point up the route I would have given it a go. But the slope we were due to skin up wasn't something the guide wanted to ski down.
I'm hoping (just hoping) that the pace is a little less frantic over the last one and half days, given that we've all got to do transceiver searches, etc.
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PhillipStanton, sorry to hear you're feeling a bit off. one of the toppest tips ever (for me) when moving around at altitude was about controlling your speed and breathing. try breathing in while you put one foot forward and out while you put the other foot forward. this helps set a good sustainable pace which makes you much less tired. if you are really high up or going up something steep you can breath in and out with each step.
hope you feel better tomorrow
skimottaret, ref your pole basket, there is a school of thought that only using one pole for skinning is more efficient 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks Arno, I'll give that a try.
Altitude doesn't normally affect me like this. But there again, I don't normally ski this high and have very little experience of skinning. Sorting out the pace is certainly going to help.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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PhillipStanton, if it is altitude, the day off will probably also do you a power of good.
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I definitely second Arno's pacing tip - to the extent that if I don't match breathing and pacing the rhythm goes completely to pot and I get seriously out of both puff and balance. Breathing in and out on each step I'm not so happy with - yes I do it, but only if I can see it's for a very short pitch, and I know it'll burn me out very quickly. If you can't keep your breathing down to one per pace then shorten your pace, and maybe even consciously take very deep breaths. Conversely, as the terrain flattens and you find you want to pace faster than your breathing, then lengthen the stride and get as much glide in as possible - that really chews up the distance big time. On a flattish slope you should pretty much be clearing water - i.e. toe of forward boot should be getting to at least the tip of your rear ski.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks GrahamN.
I'll save that second tip until some time when I feel braver - I just need to get through the next day and a half at the mo!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
I'm hoping (just hoping) that the pace is a little less frantic over the last one and half days, given that we've all got to do transceiver searches, etc
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I seem to remember the last two days as much easier, transciever searches, Individual digging of snow pits with guide seeing what you were learning. Also did practice team digging out deeply buried victims (man you get cold feet) no skinning from what i remember, navigation checks, written test etc.
much less strenuous keep battling
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well, I've just got back from today's session and it was much less hectic. We did a short skin at a nice sensible pace, some nice powder skiing, transciever search, lots of nav, individual leading and managed to set off three small slides after finding ourselves on a slope that had a nice thin (3") wind slab. A couple of the guys need to re-do the transciever seaches and we all need a bit more nav practice, but, hopefully, tomorrow will be reasonably relaxed.
No sign of PhillipStanton, yet though...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Len Holgate, is there any view amongst your group on which transceiver is the best to use? Hope Phil is OK.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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rob@rar, Phil's group was out a bit longer than ours, he's ok and is now resting in the bath with a beer.
I think the Barryvox Pulse is winning overall but in our group we had three DTS trackers, two M2s and an older Barryvox. The trackers and one of the M2s were well within the time allowed and the other M2 and the Barryvox were outside the time and will try again tomorrow. However, I think the main issue is that some people haven't had much practice at all with any transceiver and that tends to show (unless, perhaps, you're using a Pulse). I'm used to how my DTS works and I understand what is going on when it passes directly over a flux line so I find it reasonably easy to use for single burials. For multi's it seems to be easier to just switch to a more traditional grid based multi-search and ignore the DTS multi feature. The guy who failed with the M2 also has a tracker but he thought the M2 was better for mutli and thought we might have a multi scenario so brought that along rather than the tracker, I think he'll bring the tracker tomorrow.
Having said all that I expect I'll upgrade to a Pulse for next season; I bought my fiance one and it seems only fair that I should be able to find her as easily as she can find me
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Len Holgate, that was exactly my take on the tracker, good for single burials but confusing for multi. our guide said for multiples ALWAYS do a grid search as you will end up with everyone scattered all over the place following flux lines and never find a soul...
I thought the tracker had poor range compared to the pulse and when passing over flux points its slow update made it pretty poor IMO. Saying that if you read the literature most burials are single victim and having a simple easy to use unit is the way to go.
If i had to buy one now it would be a pulse
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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skimottaret, I seem to get around 40-48m out of my DTS, mine was the shortest range out of the other DTS users in the group, but it might be a bit older than theirs. The two M2s that are in use seem to be a bit broken re their range; one is only working at around 10m and is being replaced with a rental tonight and then sent for a service. I think PhillipStanton, was getting much better range from the Pulse.
The way I deal with the flux point confusion is to simply note the fact that I've passed over it and continue as if the display was still being sensible, it then usually comes back to being sensible pretty quickly. The problem seems to be when you just stop at the flux point... However, it's hardly the worlds best user interface I agree...
Hmm, note to self, I need to work out how to get my DTS serviced.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Day 5 - not so much "moral high ground", more "moral Matterhorn".
Felt much, much better today - clear head, no naseau.
First day of assessment. Very strong winds up top overnight.
We now have a different guide and assessor. I'm deliberately not going to use his name.
Our day started at the top of Furggsattel with a skin up to Furgghorn in what turned, very quickly into zero visibility. Not so much fun for Andrew, who was leading, but he did a sterling job of both navigating his way up and setting a very sensible pace. A huge thanks for the breathing tip guys - it made all the difference.
Lynn then had the tricky job of getting us down the first pitch of the Furgg glacier - again in zero visibility. (Very tight supervision before anyone asks.)
Then it was my turn off the bottom of the glacier and through what was described as "terrain where your map is of little use". Fortunately we could now see and I picked a reasonable route through some tricky terrain - leading us onto a 30ish degree slope, steepening to 35+ over a convexivity. Caution being everything I got the group to the top of the convexivity and then told them to do the next section one by one. And then made the school-boy error of going to far, too fast - so that the group couldn't see me. Duh! As I realised this I wiped out. Both skis off, face first, skis 20 odd feet up the slope. Not nice. After 5 or so minutes, the guide realised what had happened and lead the group down whilst I picked my kit.
We skied down to Furgg, where he had a quiet word with me to say that I'd done fine - except for skiing too far ahead. Not a problem.
We had a coffee. (Walk around that one. We sat down inside and had a coffee. YEAH!
Up to Riffelberg and then down to Gant, with the rest of the group taking turns to lead.
Up to Hohtalli and then down to another section of off-piste to give me a second go at leading.
The slope in question was 35-40 degrees and didn't look nice. I suggested a side entrance via a traverse. The guide suggested that going in from the top would give a better skiing experience. I looked down the slope - it was obviously wind-loaded and slabby. It's got a classic depression terrain trap at the bottom.
I looked down again, drew breath and said "In all honesty, I'm not happy to ski this slope. I don't know it, it's wind-loaded, slabby and above 35 degrees."
Silence. Thought and consideration.
"What do you see?", asks the guide.
"Tracks", I reply, "it's obviously been skied - but they're nearly filled in".
"The key there is 'nearly'. I slope is unlikely to slide as any slab will be stabilised by the old tracks. Really, it's ok."
I set off.
The slope was slabby, so I put in a gentle step turn - left to right. I traversed.
The snow behind me avalanched.
A 30-50cm deep by 6m wide slab (no idea how long) slides the entire 150m pitch into the terrain trap. Not enough to be buried. But certainly enough to break something.
Fortunately, I'd traversed right and didn't know it had happened - although it was a bit of shock when I turned back left to see the slope sliding.
Now, to be fair, the bit with the tracks was stable. I'd triggered the bit that hadn't been skied. And, if you looked carefully, it had a slightly different aspect to the bit that was skied.
Still.
I waved the rest of the group down one by one.
After another lead for Andrew, we then did some transceiver practice.
The transceiver was buried inside a backpack under 0.5m of snow on a 30 degree slope. We started out of sight / range on skis, with a target of finding and probing the pack within 4 minutes.
I managed it in under 2 minutes The best for the rest of the group was 5 minutes. The worst was 10 minutes.
Part of this was the transceiver and part of it was tactics.
I realised that the very worst thing would be to end up below the target. And flux lines, being bendy, are quite likely to do that to you. So, once I picked up the signal, I took a punt a where the flux line was likely to be leading me and did a diagonal sideslip, rather than following the flux line. This cut me across the flux lines - reducing the distance from 35m to 17m in about 2m - and then from 17m to 4m in another metre.
So, last day tomorrow. And, pass or fail, I'll be taking some moral highground home with me
Lesson of the day. Trust yourself.
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interesting stuff - i certainly listen to my gut, which probably stops me skiing plenty of perfectly safe slopes, but better to err on the side of caution...
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PhillipStanton, keep battling last day was only a halfish day for us as we came in early so the guide could write up asessment paperwork. Well done on the search sounds like you nailed it. dont be too concerned about the off day as person ski performance wasnt graded. I recon if you have done your nav work well, the transceiver and leading you should be fine. Our guy took a very learn by your mistakes approach so i dont worry about little mistakes like losing your group in the gloom
your slide sounds a bit hairy good job you didnt get knocked over by it.... Our guy purposely set off some similar sized slides during a steep skin up a ridge (while we were safely out of the way on on the ridge). I was really scared by just how much snow moved in even such a little slide.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Well, we both passed. And now Phil has passed out
My weakest area was navigation. I found judging distances to things hard and generally getting my head around the "scale" of the real world compared to the map. I also tended to get side-tracked by the man-made things around me; some of which are on the map and some of which are not (and, of course, there are lifts and things on the map that don't exist any more...). I'd recommend that people without any navigation expeience should arrive in resort a couple of days early, with map and GPS and ski around and test themselves on where they are and what they can see. Even people who had plenty of prior navigation experience found that the speed of movement that skiing provides got them confused as to where they were next. And, of course, you tend to be enjoying (or worrying about) your skiing and so ignoring the world around you...
All in all a good (very full on and very tiring) week.
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Len Holgate, Well done to both yourself and Phil... i would suggest burning your skins, getting some sleep, drinking and then re-passing out. All achievable now that you should be able to navigate to the bar. !!
the big question though is how much weight did you each lose
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FAQ
These ISIA-level courses you and 
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