13th February 2014 - winter skills with ATM 1

Today i was out with 6 students from the ATM 1 course at West Highland college looking at winter skills with a particular emphasis on the decision making that a leader or instructor goes through through out the day. The students had very little experience of the winter hills, so the first item to cover was clothing, equipment and how to pack our bags. Then we looked at the avalanche and weather forecasts to help us decide on a suitable route and venue for us to go to.

With this done we joined dave and his group in the bus and headed for the upper north Face car park. We only made it half way up before we came across several vehicles kind of parked by the track. We negotiated our way past with a bit of difficulty and finally got parked up. Groups split, we headed on foot to the cic path. I stopped with the group every time i was making a decision or judgement in my head, and used these opportunities to discuss these judgments along with a few other skills that may come in handy. It was getting increasingly windy, with plenty of snow being scoured and deposited about the place. It wasn't the best learning environment but it was good to get the guys operating in tough conditions. We got behind a boulder and put crampons, goggles and helmets on before going past daves team digging snow holes. We chose a good slope to look at hasty pits, trench tests and snow pack analysis before performing basic self arrests under an increasing bombardment of depositing snow.

With time against us we cracked on back to the bus, only to spend the next hour struggling to get it turned and dug out in the snow. A sterling effort from all involved, and plenty of digging practice!!

Today was a good example of transferred learning for the students, as well as exciting conditions in which i had to change and adapt my intentions through out the day. A similar follow on session planned tomorrow.

Saw a few interesting decisions being made by teams out today, given the snow pack, and with much of the same forecast for tomorrow please stay safe!!