WIML Ass 16 – 20 Jan 23 Schwarzsee Switzerland

Day 1 Gurnigel Selibüel Summit – Me, Jo, Jeroen & Phil
Nav & ETAs
Environment
Movement skills, backwards & turning
Safe travel under suspect slopes
Snow profile
Feedback nowt really
HW Bavaria snowshoe plan

The chalet I had use of for bathroom, washing up and hanging out with Cat, Rachel, Louis, James & Phil

Phil’s Pine cone talk with gluwein out of the vicious wind

Waiting for customers at Louis’ snow profile

Tue Schwarzsee W of Lake – same group
Group check
Nav
Single burial 4 mins to find rucksack/transceiver 1m below snow, including running in (uphill) from 50m
Easy ropework
Movement skills recovering a downslope fall
Putting a track in uphill
15 min minimum teach
Digging van out
Feedback demo run walk from sig, low and slow from 10 crawl from 5 crawl bracket from 2, use gullies/deep snow for track as shallow snow destroyed for back marker
HW La Clusaz

Wind whipping snow off the roof and building a lot of slab last few days

Wed La Berra Me, Phil, Lærka & Scottish Jo
HW debrief
Lift (bubble)
Nav
2 transceiver burial 8 mins (5:00)
Bucket belay & buried sack back-up
Range/full function check
Nav

Approaching La Berra summit (not as gnarly as appears – is only 20 mins from top of lift)

Stu McAleese, Phil, Scottish Jo, Lærka …

Double burial test – 8 mins to run/wade in and find 2 separately buried sacks at 1m depth – nearly drowned in powder during crawl/fine search and struggled to get up even with flat poles

Buried sack back-up for bucket belay in stomped powder

Had to use kettle to get in then get jump start

Day 4 Me Phil, Lærke, Scottish Jo, with Graham Moss

Nav
Route choice
Snowpack assessment
Shovel-up

Jo’s kicking roof excavation was a bit masochistic

Day 5 Me, Jo, Jeroen, Phil

It was minus 18°C this morning, my 5 litres of water in the van was a solid block, had to go into the chalet and pour 2 kettles of water into it before i could cook breakfast in the van.

Mop-ups and repeats but we were all done apart from Jo’s Wolf talk
Mass burial scenario (not assessed) – Sandy’s Team staged a 7 victim avalanche scenario – surface clues, a foreign awol ‘helpful’ informant, semi buried victim and 6 transceivers buried in sacks (2 on top of each other)
I was chosen to lead it and appointed 3 searchers & 3 probers/diggers + Jeroen to manage the informant and try to get info
Found 8/7 transceivers in 8 minutes (Phil’s was still buried there from his Minimum Teach on Tue)
Swapped over to repeat then back to Ed Centre for debrief/results