Free Avalanche Awareness Clinics 2005-6

FREE AVALANCHE CLINICS: <br>FREE BASIC AVALANCE AWARENESS LECTURE<br><br>DATES OFFERED 2005-2006:<br> <br>Nov 7, 7:00pm, Redmond REI<br>Nov 8, 7:30pm, UPS outdoor program<br>Nov 9, 7:00pm, Second Ascent<br>Nov 15, 7:00pm, Marmot<br>Nov 16, 7:00pm, South Center REI<br>Nov 17, 7:00pm, Seattle REI<br>Nov 29, 7:00pm, Backpacker Supply(Tacoma)<br>Nov 30, 7:00pm, Alderwood REI<br>Dec 8, 7:30pm, Feathered Friends<br>Jan 5, U of W outdoor club <br>Jan 11, 7:00pm, Seattle REI <br><br>FREE ADVANCED LECTURE: "DEALING WITH BAD LAYERS - Learning from Canada 2002-2003"<br><br>DATES OFFERED 2005-2006:<br><br>Dec 5, 7:00pm, Second Ascent<br>Dec 6, 7:00pm, Marmot<br>Dec 15, 7:30pm, Feathered Friends<br><br> www.geocities.com/garyabrill/avalanche.html

Thought I would add a few items to this thread:<br>Ok.... probably not free....<br><br>THE NEWS TRIBUNE<br>Published: December 22nd, 2005 02:30 AM <br><br>The Tacoma Mountaineers will offer a backcountry and telemark ski class next month. <br>The lecture will be at the Tacoma clubhouse, 2302 N. 30th St., on Jan. 4 and 10. On-the-snow sessions will be held at Snoqualmie Pass Summit West Ski Area on Saturday evenings. Participants are required to attend two of the four scheduled sessions, which are Jan. 7, 14 and 28 and Feb. 11.<br><br>The course also includes the Avalanche Level I class. Those lectures are at the Tacoma clubhouse Jan. 17 and 24, Field trips are scheduled for Jan. 21 and Feb. 4. The field trip locations will be determined later. For more information, visit www. tacomamountaineers.org. <br>

---

<br><br>Avalanche forecasters can't help those who ignore advice <br><br>JEFFERY P. MAYOR; THE NEWS TRIBUNE<br>Published: December 22nd, 2005 02:30 AM <br><br>When Mark Moore began working on the Central Avalanche Hazard Fore­casting research project, he and his co-workers first wrote their forecasts in longhand. They would then transcribe them on a Teletype machine. <br>The only remote weather station the University of Washington program had in the early days was one at Stevens Pass.<br><br>Now, 30 years later, Moore and his fellow forecasters at the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center in Seattle rely on computers and 42 remote mountain weather stations to warn backcountry users of avalanche dangers.<br><br>As the center celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, Moore took some time to discuss what has been learned in the first three decades and the challenges of the future.<br><br>"We started out forecasting primarily for Stevens, Snoqualmie and White passes. They were looking for more accurate mountain forecasts because the National Weather Service forecast was too general for avalanche control," Moore said.<br><br>The center now produces two forecasts a day for the public, covering the Olympic Mountains, the Washington Cascades and the Mount Hood area in Oregon. Taken together, the regions are about the size of Switzerland.<br><br>"We've learned a lot about how the snowpack responds to stresses, the makeup of the snowpack, how to test for instabilities," Moore said. "We still have problems because the snowpack is still variable. Snow layers can change dramatically over a short distance and in terms of time as well."<br><br>In addition to providing more and better information, the forecasters have learned themselves.<br><br>"We used to think we could do one or two snow pits and extrapolate that information over a long distance. But we've learned you can't always do that. The results from one snow pit are much more suspect," Moore said.<br><br>All the data that is now collected, and available through a variety of sources, has made crucial information easily available. <br><br>"People can create their own snowpack information just looking at the meteorology," Moore said. <br><br>The challenge, he said, is getting people to use that information.<br><br>"We've got the snowpack information, but the human factor seems to be the limiting factor in reducing avalanche fatalities," Moore said of back-country users. "The information will be there, they may be trained, but for whatever reason they choose not to use it or overlook it."<br><br>Part of the problem is the sense of bravado and immortality people take with them.<br><br>"People are willing to take a lot more risk. If you go out, the idea is if you don't get big air, you ought to go home," Moore said. <br><br>But even the professionals can be fooled, Moore admitted.<br><br>One recent spring, he and Rich Marriott went to the Stevens Pass ski area after it had shut down for the season.<br><br>"We had looked at all the information, and we were pretty sure it was a stable spring snowpack. We were feeling pretty comfortable about the stability," he said.<br><br>The two had stopped to look at the snow and even tossed a Frisbee before moving on. Moments later, the snow broke loose.<br><br>"Snow the size of boxcars broke loose above where we had been standing and came crashing down," he recalled.<br><br>From that point, Moore said, he has always taken one more look at the snowpack data before leaving on a trip.<br><br>Moore said that while the forecasters pore over all the data to prepare the avalanche warning in a way that's easily understood, people have to look for it and want to use it.<br><br>"They have to use these forecasts as a starting point and then use their knowledge to update the situation. They may have to make some micro adjustments or major adjustments," he said.<br><br>"You can't have this preconceived idea of something static. You have to look at the snowpack as this dynamic, an ever-changing mass that's responding to everything around it. Snowpack can respond really quickly, like honey. If you warm it up, it moves fast. Cool it off, and it stops."<br><br>In the future, Moore would like forecast information more readily available, including terminals at trailheads. But while technological issues remain, Moore urged people to be more aware of the snowpack as they head into the backcountry.<br><br>"We're trying to deal with the educational aspects, how to get people to objectively look at the snowpack and the terrain, plus the weather, and not contaminate with subjective ideas (such as) it's a nice day, it won't happen to me," he said. Northwest Weather and Avalance Center: www.nwac.noaa.gov


Friends of the NWAC: www. avalanchenw.org

Forest Service National Avalanche Center: www.fsavalanche.org/index.htm

Final free avy clinic on January 17th, 7:00pm, Tacoma REI. Don Langlois will present this program.<br><br>I have Level I courses beginning Jan 23 and 25. Also a LII Beginning February 11. Frank Baumann (Ava Blanche) will be instructing in the LII.<br>Since Ruper posted the Mountineers course, I'd figure it would be OK to mention these.<br>