Day 1
- Forecast/avalanche report
- 15 minute minimum teach: leader buries transceiver, clients follow searching demo, on transceiver find probes/shovels deployed x 3, digging demo < 1m dig down, > 1m x by 1.5 and dig this distance down slope, tunneling in v formation rotating every 4 mins
- Group check: Avalanche Transceivers – on/send/search, battery levels, leader on/send, approach each client their distance decreases; clients on send & stow, leader search, walks away till out of range, clients walk past individually, Leader’s numbers decrease
- Range/full function check: TEST CLIENTS’ SEARCH range; clients On/ Search, leader On/ Send walks away, clients raise pole when lose leader signal (this is their HOLD range), leader continues another 15m beyond last sig loss, clients approach individually stopping when they detect Leader’s sig (this is their SEARCH range); TEST LEADER’S SEARCH range; clients on Send, leader walks out of range on Search, clients approach individually, leader checks range of their device; everyone back on send & stow
- Nav
- Relative merits of different snowshoes
- Environment
- More group check & full function checks
Day 2
- Forecast/avalanche report
- Group check
- Nav/environment
- Bucket belays
- Single burial timed test – 4 mins
- Full function checks
Day 3
- Meet cafe
- Weather/Avalanche forecast – rather Scottish today
- 2 slips of paper: everyone write their gold nugget take away and one thing they need to work on for assessment, followed by expansion by Sandy
- Discuss homework task (route planned for fit group wanting a full day)
- Drive to pass for double burial test – 8 mins to find 2 buried transceivers
- Presentation of shovel-up
- Group check & full function/range check
- Avalanche triage scenario: informant running awol/lost it – bin him and begin linear search down the avalanche path with 4 searchers, informant still running amok with transceiver on send which fouled the search – switched him to send to ‘help’, one find broken leg – mark or switch him off & continue, 3 finds made
- Better to appoint a search manager if capacity to oversee safety of rescuers and direct diggers to probe strikes
Day 4
- Roping to an edge – leader tied on end, knots in rope for 8? arm spans (for friction over the edge), group hold rope and walk toward/away to lower/raise
- Lunch behind barn (my 2 min talks about raised footprints (fox) & drifts for shelter
- Night nav to contour features
Day 5
15 min minimum teach:
- You all have Transceiver Probe & Shovel so you all need to know how to use them in the event of your leader being buried
- Transceiver ON/SEND/TRANSMIT – battery levels?
- Transceiver SEARCH
- Repeat x 2
- Check all on SEARCH
- The full width of the avalanche zone should be covered
- Follow me as I demo searching for the buried transceiver
- Zig-zag running with group following
- Walk when signal found
- Crouch from 10m
- Crawl from 2m, using numbers to locate transceiver & mark
- Probes out – demo deploy & collapse then everyone x 3
- Demo probing perpendicular to slope in 25cm expanding square spiral
- Everyone to copy on the snow in front of them
- Shovels out, put together & collapse x 3
- Demo chopping block digging style
- Instruct <=1m dig direct & >1m move depth x 1.5 down slope & tunnel in arrowhead formation – 1 digging, 2 clearing, rotating frequently
- Probe workshop
- Café debrief
louis hume 