BIG SHEEP BASIN, WALLOWA SKI TRIP

Kitchen/Guide Tent

camp

morning beacon check before heading out for the day

Low avalanche danger determine - we proceed down one at a time 

looking back at our lap tracks  

At the end of March I am heading to France to do the famous ski traverse; the haute route, more on that later.    While I have put in a lot of ski days this winter, I have not put in any multi days of climbing and skiing and I was starting to get nervous about my upcoming adventure.  I called CB at Wallowa Alpine Huts who was happy to help me out with a few options.  I signed up for a 6-person exploration trip.  Turns out that CB/Wallowa Alpine Huts is in the process of buying Wing Ridge Ski Tours and they are exploring the areas that are new for them to be guiding in.  The purchase of Wing Ridge Ski Tours gives CB a monopoly on the huts in the Wallowas.The trip began Thursday morning with a huge breakfast at Chandler’s Inn in Joseph, OR.  After filling ourselves up with food and caffeine, we got our stuff together, checked beacon batteries, then loaded into our cars for a 30-minute drive to the parking lot where we would begin out skin up from.  The weather was beautiful – cold and sunny.

A beacon park was recently built near the parking lot and warming hut;we were able to test our beacons out before we set off over Wing Ridge.  We skinned up over Wing Ridge and did a few laps on a south facing ridge that we could ski right to the tents from.  The tent camp consisted of 4 tents; an A-frame wood shed; two guest tents that slept 5 + people, a cooking/guide tent and a sauna tent.

We quickly settled in; got a fire going to dry our clothes, then met up in the cooking tent to exchange adventures and to get to know each other.   This group was primarily from Seattle; 4 lawyers, 1 doctor, 1 chemist and me, a land use planner.  I did a lot of listening.  The group from Seattle was a close knit activity group - they did many b/c ski trips, and skied at Alpental every Wednesday night.  This was their annual guy trip, but they were very accommodating to have me crash their trip.  We all settled easily into the routine of camp; 7:00 am coffee, 7:30 breakfast, out of camp with lunches packed by 8:30, skin, ski repeat for the day, return for happy hour around 5:00 pm, dinner around 7:00, early to bed repeat, repeat.  Good living!

This trip was an excellent preparation trip for my upcoming adventure – I left with having to figure out my boot situation and blisters that need to heal.  

Luckily I have enough time for both.

RESOURCES:
Big Sheep huts
Wallowa Alpine Huts
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center

North Cascades - AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course

In January I headed up to Mazama Washington for an Avalanche course, the AIARE Level 1 course.  I figured that if I was going to be spending more time in the backcountry I should get smarter about understanding the conditions for both my own safety as well as those that I travel with.  The class was also an excuse to go back to the Methow Valley, North Cascades – I special spot for me. 

The class was 2 ½ days for a total of 24 hours; half of that time was spent inside.  The last day was intended to be out in the field touring around.  The class was packed, 24 people cozily crammed into the Mazama community center.  Saturday we spent a good bit of the time in the classroom learning about snow conditions, decision-making and terrain.  My big take away was – 90% survival rate in an avalanche if found in 15 minutes; that is burial to excavation.  After 15 minutes the rate of survival goes down dramatically - travel with people that know how to respond quickly!  Slope angle; 38% slope angle is the most dangerous for failure.  Concerned about the conditions = lower slope angle

Loading the Cat 

The second ½ of the day was spent outside getting familiar and comfortable with our beacons, shovel and probe.  Sunday morning we met early to board the cat for our day out in the backcountry, I was super excited to explore.  The weather did not cooperate with us that day, woke up to a ¼ inch of ice on top of the snow, ick!  Weather always changes the plan – instead of exploring potential avalanche areas we focused more on snow conditions.  

We learned how to observe the snowpack by hand hardness tests to determine relative strength of each layer, compression test by preparing a column and loading it to failure, rutschblock test to test the snowpack.  We broke out into smaller groups and did a few avalanche scenarios – 15 minutes really isn’t that much time you want to be organized!  We never had the chance to take our skins off our skis.  It didn’t really matter that we didn’t get to tour – the purpose was to learn about avalanches and how to respond and be prepared and the North Cascades Mountain Guides; Larry and Jeff did a great job ensuring that we did that in a comprehensive manner and with humor.

Larry demonstrating slope stability

Larry demonstrating the snow stiffness test;
fist, four fingers, pencil or 1 finger

Class outline:

1. Intro to decision making
2. Avalanche fundamentals
3. Plan
4. Observe
5. Choose terrain and travel wisely
6. Emergency response
7. Where to go from here

Jeff demonstrating the
Rutschblock test

 


















The class was timely – there have been several tragic avalanche fatalities in the NW this winter.  I feel better prepared for being in the backcountry, I look at slopes much differently than I did before the class.  It is dangerous out there – but like everything else get good information about the conditions, travel with safe, knowledgeable people and have fun. 

http://www.ncmountainguides.com/

http://avtraining.org/Avalanche-Training-Courses/AIARE-Level-1.html

http://www.nwac.us/

http://www.mvsta.com/ski.html