AIARE Level I with Mountain Madness, December 26-29, 2013

This year I decided I was done with paying for ski resorts. After years of trying to convince myself to start splitboarding I've finally decided to delve into expanding my winter backcountry knowledge, while the primary mission is to have fun and  staying out of the resorts this year.

Thursday and Friday we met at Evo in Seattle for the classroom portion of our education with our Mountain Madness instructor Dallas Glass. Saturday we met at Paradise, where we meandered down to the meadow and started off with the basics.

Learning about snow and Rescues, far left is our instructor Dallas, far right is our second field instructor Todd.

Beacon searches followed by probing patterns for searching for the buried person. The hardest part came next where we practiced team digging to a probe strike. Honestly that was the eye opener, using a beacon previously and re-digging up a buried backpack, was like ok this isn't that bad... Actually digging down into a near meter ice crusted snowpack on the otherhand was exhausting. It really highlighted the idea in my mind that following the 7 P's (Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) is a way better plan than ever risking getting stuck in an avalanche.

Edith Creek Basin

Another great thing with this course is it has helped organize my focus with the trip planning. Before it was ok, this is that and this, and i'm sure we should be fine, or screw it I'm not really sure, so I'll just stay on flat land and snowshoe. The outline plan that the AIARE book has, makes it really Barney style as far as setting a base work for planning goes.

After doing observations and wrapping up the first field day of the course, we went onto NWAC and setup our plans for the second day of field observations and the best part, some turns! Overall the enthusiasm of the instructor and the way it was laid out was very clear.

Gorgeous view of the Tatoosh Range

 One of our field instructors, Todd.

 The Group below Panorama point gearing up for another snow lesson and lunch.

The end of the last day skinning up the Paradise Valley Road. 

Splitboarding in Paradise from Jared C. on Vimeo.