Be Careful: Are You Kidding Yourself When You Go Off-Piste?
January 2004, it’s my second ever snowboarding trip, a two week holiday in Chamonix. It was a powder day, blue skies, my brother and I were keen to do a little hike to get some fresh. Around the back of Le Tour, we followed the boot pack from the top of the lift, away from [...]
Fernie Day 7: On The Cat
Today we went cat-boarding, with Fernie Wilderness Adventures. It was an exceptional experience, but not everything was quite what I expected. Read on… An early-ish start, we were collected at 7:45 outside of the Cornerstone Lodge and driven by bus to the Fernie Wilderness Adventures lodge. Talk about being lucky with the weather this holiday? [...]
Fernie Day 3: Epic Powder
So much snow. The official snow report shows that Fernie had 71 cm of snow in the last 48 hours. Awesome. There was so much snow up there today. It was everywhere. Heading for the Elk chair first thing this morning, Simon, Martin and myself stepped out of the Cornerstone basement – the door was [...]
BCA Tracker Practice Session 2
Yesterday we went to the beach for a second practice session with the beepers. After seeing the multiple burial instructions in this video I was keen to have a go searching for more than one transceiver. The initial stage of the multiple burial search is the same as if you’re looking for a single signal, [...]
Avalanche Mountain Safety Video
I mentioned recently that I’d re-watched the avalanche safety clip that comes with the extras on Absinthe’s More dvd. The video is produced by Teton Gravity Research and is a great instructional aid. In the video they use the BCA Tracker, but I’m sure a lot of the principles apply to all beacons. I was [...]
Avalanche Beacon Practice (BCA Tracker DTS)
Simon, Sarah, Ciara and myself went to the beach on Sunday to get some practice in with the new transceivers. The beach is handy as it provides a nice open space to work with and sand that’s easy to dig in. The dune rushes are also good to conceal the exact placement of the transmitting [...]
The ABCs of Avalanche Safety: Review
This is the first book of its kind that I’ve bought and read. Most people would agree that when it comes to avalanche safety, a book alone is no substitute for regular practice with avalanche equipment, guidance from an expert or real life experience of travelling in the backcountry. I was looking for an introduction, [...]
Backcountry Tour In Lenzerheide
Yesterday, Sunday, three of us took a backcountry tour that started and ended in the resort of Lenzerheide. This was the first real backcountry riding that I’ve done – it was excellent. First off, we were real lucky with the weather. It snowed a fair bit on Saturday and then it was a total blue [...]
