Going into the 2012/2013 Winter Season:

In last few years, it was mostly me and a few selected other organizers to lead off trail winter trips and snow shoe events. Now we have many more organizers, so it’s a bit more challenging to keep our high standards up, or improve on them. Here a couple of guidelines to help keep everybody out of trouble and follow our motto to

“Bring them home safely, happy and together” :

1: Be equipped and make sure the members are too. Off trail and snowshoeing can get you into a lot more trouble then “just” a trail:

Water tied shoes, spare socks, plastic bags for wet shoes, dry spare cloth – packed dry.

Hat, gloves, extra Mittens, long thermal wear up/down, rain jacket and pants with full zippers…..If some members are not equipped for that event, you should leave them at the P&R, because this could endanger the whole team.

2: Group gear should include 2 person bivi-bags for every 2 persons, a 30m rope, ice-axes, stove….   So if someone stays out overnight, no harm will be done… and all will come home cold, hungry, but in good spirits and without any permanent damage!

3: Avalanche avoidance can be done successfully, by STAYING OUT of avalanche slopes. Ridges & deep forests need to be used and summer trails can not be followed.

While avalanche beacons and cords are great to find dead bodies, they really only buy you another 10 minutes if the debris inside the avalanche don’t kill you… thus, avoidance is the best way to come home in one piece.  Gullies can be crossed with long ropes, spacing will make sure that only one person is at danger, but all that is already pushing it.

4: Staying together is even more mandatory, as tree wells and holes can swallow one up and you won’t be found till the spring…. So the first person needs to easy see and be able to talk to the last person, ok?

5: Some of you lead numerous outings this last summer. Winter is different! Map reading and route finding is much more important, GPS will not be enough. Tracks get covered, so getting home in bad weather is often much more difficult. Don’t push weather or daylight, unless you really know who to do that AND are equipped to stay overnight !

6: If you are in trouble, by all means call me and other organizers for help or guidance, or others for help or rescue. But do not rely on reaching anybody, be self-sufficient.  

7: Watch out for new members on steep snow and snow covered rocks. Newbie’s with ice-axes DO NOT know their capabilities, thus it is up to the organizer to rope up, no arguments. Let’s be careful, slow & deliberate.

Val

The Slow Mountain Turtle