Avalanche training key in preparing for backcountry outings

When the groomed runs of Big Mountain aren’t enough, skiers naturally look out-of-bounds for fresh powder turns. The caveat, however, is the danger of avalanches.

Near the end of my first full ski season in Whitefish, I joined a three-day Patrol Fund course with the goal of learning to better understand the terrain I’d recreate in as a mountaineer and, in the future, a backcountry skier.

Fifteen groggy Avy 1 students trickled into the Mount Jackson room at the Base Lodge, myself included, on the day of our first lesson.

Adam Clark, an avalanche forecaster for BNSF, welcomed us, along with fellow instructors Zach Miller and Erich Peitzsch.

Clark grew up in Whitefish and thus grew up playing in avalanche terrain. He took his first course when he was a senior at Whitefish High School, and after moving back to Whitefish several years later started working on ski patrol on Big Mountain. He holds a master’s degree in glaciology from the University of Montana.

Day one was a classroom-heavy day, though the following two days added on another four or five hours of presentations.

Among my classmates I was clearly the least experienced and at 24 years old, the youngest by at least a few years.

We started with the basics. An avalanche is a mass of snow that, when triggered, slides down a slope. They can be sluffs, but they can also be deep slabs that brutally clean a mountainside.

Then the information started piling on. We discussed the different types of avalanches, different kinds of terrain we could expect to see in the mountains, and various ways to try to mitigate the dangers of avalanches.

We watched demonstrations of how to use an avalanche beacon, probes and a shovel. There’s even a different, more efficient way of digging that, sadly, I realized still wouldn’t save my back and shoulders when shoveling out my front door all winter.

We took Chair 1 up to the summit, headed out toward Hellroaring Peak and split up into groups of five. Then they threw us into a rescue scenario.

I am sad to report that only one of two victims were found during that scenario, and after the 18 minutes or so it took to dig them out the chances of survival weren’t great.

It was humbling.

Luckily the beacons transmitting from under the snow weren’t close friends, and we spent the rest of the day practicing various aspects of beacon tracking and probing. When we got another crack at it, we found both victims in less than 10 minutes.

Over the next two days things got more technical. In the classroom, we dove into the different types of avalanches in more detail and heard from avalanche survivor Sam Kavanagh and local psychiatrist Dr. Sara Boilen, who explained the many ways cognitive biases can mess with our decision making abilities.

In the field, we skinned (snowshoes for me, rental skis strapped to my pack) up Ghoulie’s Ridge to evaluate terrain and dig snow pits. Clark stayed behind with the one novice skier in the group, waiting patiently as I fell between attempts to turn among the trees.

Despite digging pits and performing other tests in the field, Clark and other instructors stressed the importance of gathering information even before leaving home.

Resources like the Flathead Avalanche Center’s online forecasts can be invaluable tools, along with weather forecasts and trip reports from others who have been out skiing recently.

Closer to the slopes, reading terrain is the big takeaway Clark said he wants students to have.

“Avalanche terrain is the answer. That’s not a simple concept necessarily, but you have choices, you always have choices about travel. You can’t go out and control the avalanche problem, the hazard, but you can control your safety by deciding where to go,” he said. “So the key is being able to know when you’re in avalanche terrain and just knowing how to either avoid or manage it.”

Sometimes that terrain judgment goes out the window, however, especially when skiing in familiar places, Clark said.

“Sort of a theme that I’ve seen is just that familiarity, that idea that people have been going to the same place, they’ve been skiing or riding their snowmobile in the same place for years and years and they’ll say things like, ‘And I’ve never seen an avalanche there,’ and it’s just important to know that avalanches are just a matter of timing,” he said. “Just because you have been there when an avalanche hasn’t occurred doesn’t mean that they don’t occur there.”

The course offerings for avalanche education in Whitefish are good, but they’re limited and the demand can make it a challenge to get into a class.

Clark said he’s seen more and more people interested in avalanche education in the Flathead every year. He said it’s promising to see more people trying to be safer in the backcountry.

“Everyone wants to be safe, everyone wants to come home safe and have a great day and have fun. I think I would say, in my time growing up here, I think our community is becoming more educated overall and more avalanche savvy as a whole,” he said. “I think there’s more and more people who value and understand the need for that avalanche education and there’s just a greater awareness.”

For more information, visit www.thepatrolfund.org and www.flatheadavalanche.org.