Going, Going, Gone

I'm a big believer in tipping points. The idea that, things change incrementally and often unnoticed, but, at some stage in the process, a certain point is reached, and the entire system falls over the edge.

In my opinion, my local mountaineering club (and I use the term mountaineering very loosely) is at such a tipping point. The club, originally, and, in years past, full of very active people who actually did a lot of climbing and ski touring, has over the years gradually slipped towards the point wherein there are virtually no longer any mountaineering trips on the schedule and the most popular trips are easy half day hikes on trails and easy ski tours to little cabins.

We had a brief resurgence in climbing interest a number of years ago, that lasted for three or four years. This was soon after Doug and I joined the club, bringing fresh enthusiasm and energy to the club. We organized weekly climbing nights at the local gym, week long climbing camps, ran workshops and courses, and led trips. And, for a few years we had good attendance and interest. Climbing nights used to attract 6 to 12 people, climbing camp 6 to 10 people, workshops upwards of 10 or 12 people, and trips were reasonably well subscribed.

And, then, gradually and incrementally, interest waned. Weekly climbing nights staggered on for a couple of years with between 1 and 3 people showing up, until I canceled it due to lack of interest. Climbing camp garnered between 1 and 3 people, again, not enough to keep it going. Attendance at workshops and courses slowly trickled off, until even very well designed and taught courses offered at bargain prices could not be filled. And, finally, any enthusiasm for offering harder trips was lost because no-one signed up for them.

There has recently been a push to reinvigorate the club with membership posters and flyers placed around town, advertising at local outdoor events, and an honest, but disorganized effort to recruit more leaders who might lead more aggressive trips. While I am in favor of all of this in principle, I fear that the club has reached and fallen over the tipping point from which there is no return. 

A Good Turn Out For An Easy Ski Tour

A Good Training Day on Mount Grohman

Today Doug and I drove to 1400 metres on Grohman FSR and skied up Mount Grohman at about 2280 metres.  A nice almost 1000 metre elevation gain over about 9 km (one way).  Not a big day by any means, and, it didn't take us that long, but the snow was stiff from the recent wind and we had to break trail all the way so we got a decent work-out.  Days like this are good early season to get yourself back in shape for trail-breaking.  Particularly if you've spent the last month rock climbing (with short approaches) in Mexico.

The south ridge of Grohman was hugely wind-rolled, as ridges frequently are in the Kootenays, so skinning up this took some work.  The visibility was pretty much nil - in fact, we had some of the thickest fog I've ever skied in.  Skiing down, then, was necessarily by our up-track so we had some idea of where we were.  Lower down, in light timber, we were able to leave the track and ski the fall line.

A break in the weather as Doug nears the south ridge of Mount Grohman

Technology and Avalanche Beacons

As a society, we all want to run out and buy the latest and greatest gadgets—but sometimes the fanciest beacon with the most features isn’t right for a particular user. Bruce Tremper.

Recently, I've been inundated (at least it feels that way) by people telling me I should buy the (relatively) new Barryvox Pulse avalanche beacon. I have resisted this pressure; which is actually not that difficult given the almost $500 price tag, and the fact that my current beacon works well, and I can find multiple buried beacons in under 5 minutes.

However, I have been out on numerous occasions now doing various rescue scenarios with at least a dozen people who own the Barryvox Pulse - from novice skiers to CAA Level 1 tail guides, to cat-ski guides - and I have seen enough people having trouble with the Barryvox Pulse to convince me that, as Tremper says, the fanciest beacon with the most features is not necessarily right for a particular user, or, in this case, multiple users of varying levels of expertise.

Here is a short list of the problems I have seen with the Barryvox Pulse:

1. Multiple people unable to find a single buried beacon in a small area when the beacon is not deeply buried (the simplest scenario there is);
2. Instances of Barryvox Pulse users walking right past more than one buried beacon (under 30 cm) but not being able to locate any;
3. One relatively skilled operator unable to mark beacons and move on the next in a series of buried beacons in a timely manner;
4. Instances of the beacon "seizing up" completely and having to be rebooted;
5. Multiple instances of users becoming confused by widely swinging direction indicators in simple single burial scenarios such that they have been unable to find the beacon;
6. Multiple users who choose to use the "group check" function without understanding what the group check does and wrongly supposing it checks all functions of all beacons.

These instances are disturbing as, they suggest to me, that a searcher with a Barryvox Pulse is NOT a reliable searcher in either simple single burial situations or more complex multiple burial situations. In fact, it seems likely to me that Barryvox Pulse users will be worse than other beacon users in multiple burial situations as they are unlikely to have practiced/learnt any other methods (such as micro-grid searches) to resolve multiple burials and are more likely to be reliant on technology.

I am unable to determine whether the beacon is at fault or the searcher. But, at this point it seems to me to be a moot point. I no longer trust the beacon, so I'll no longer trust anyone using one - unless I have documented evidence that a particular user is skilled not only using the special features of the beacon, but also in search strategies (such as the micro-grid) that do not rely on technology.

So, I'll continue to ski cautiously relying on avoidance rather than rescue, expertise over technology, and I'll have an extra $500 in the bank.

 Better to not get caught.  Skier below a size 2.5 in 
Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park

Companion Rescue

Today I took the field component of the new CAA Companion Rescue course. We started out with shoveling (the V conveyor, but any other similar system would work as well), then moved on to single beacon searches, then multiple beacon searches (the micro-grid technique works well), then various scenarios. I can't say there was anything dramatically new for me, but I keep up with what is going on, which not everyone does. In any case, the course is well worthwhile and gets you out practicing with your beacon and practicing shoveling. The more practice you do, the more efficiently you will respond if something goes wrong.

A smart solution for a probe target

Avalanche Involvements and First Day of the Season

Out for the first ski day of the season. Doug commented that it is only four months since he took his skis off. Summer is short in Canada. Conditions really are extraordinarily good. There is nearly 2 metres (170 to 190 cm) of snow out there, so coverage is as good as a normal January. The last storm dropped about 60 cm of snow. Pretty sweet skiing.

Last night I attended the first session of a new course the CAA is running called Companion Rescue. Although, the course is pretty much review for me, I always find there is some little tit-bit you can learn and getting out for structured practice sessions is really invaluable.

One of the more interesting things to me from the class room session was this list of common factors leading to avalanche involvements:

• Ignorance of persistent weak layers (PWL);
• Underestimating wind effects;
• Rapid temperature change (usually rise);
• Surprised at size propogation;
• Not recognizing terrain traps;
• Solo travel;
• Underestimating run-out potential;
• Distractions;
• Human factors.

 Some powder mining in the Whitewater slackcountry

Why Travel?

On my recent trip to Mexico, it was hard not to notice the fact that many gringos complained about various things about the country (such as the food, the accommodation) because they weren't as they were used to back home. Why travel I wondered - if things were the same in a different country as they are in your own, would their be any reason to travel?

The thing that most peeved me about the complaints was how much people kvetched about the food. Personally, I couldn't see anything to complain about. Local Mexican produce, eggs, beef and chicken (fish was hard to come by) far exceeded, in taste, anything I have been able to purchase in North America, including the most highly priced organic products, and was cheap, costing the equivalent of a few dollars for many large bags of assorted produce. Really, what is to complain about?

I guess it comes down to people who must have brand name orange juice for breakfast and absolutely can not, under any circumstances, substitute a wonderful local orange or grapefruit, you Or, can only eat westernized pasta for grains but not locally produced corn tortillas. Whatever. Doug and I ate marvelously on the local produce, in fact, I really am missing my guavas and pineapples and wonderfully ripe avocados, not to mention the eggs, the peppers, the bananas, the papayas..... 

Cruising the Hidalgo market

Ya Gotta Watch Out

My philosophy in life is that we can all learn something from the people we encounter every day, but, a recent climbing trip to Portero Chico, reminded me that checking the facts with reliable sources is sometimes a good way to make sure what you are learning is, in fact, correct. When climbing with other experienced (yes) climbers, I noticed a number of gaffes being made which a less experienced climber could have mistaken for "best practices" - which they certainly were not.

Among the gaffes witnessed were:

• The climbers who studiously put rubber bands on the bolt end of their quick draws and wondered why that handy rubber stabilizer wasn't put on both ends of the quickdraw in the factory;
• The climber who used an ATC guide in auto-block mode to belay the second but used only one bolt of a two bolt anchor;
• The climber who tried to "belay" himself as he was climbing using static dyneema sling;
• The climbers who clipped the bolts with the bent gate carabiner on their quickdraws. 

 Seconding a three pitch route