NSAS This Weekend! $25 for TAY

Class event, Michael,

Accolades go out to:
-Michael Jackson for all the planning and behind-the-scenes activities that are required to organize such an event,
-Steve Christy for his great job as MC for the event,
-The presenters for their work, preparation, presentation execution and in some cases long travel,
-For the volunteers for their contribution in having the event come together so seamlessly,
-The sponsors for the work, time and resources to help make the event affordable for all, and,
-Especially for the participants for sitting in one place a whole day to cause this event to become a reality.

I also especially want to thank the presenters for the new insights I have gleaned from them from the new, and some cases hard developed, information they imparted.   

It was also very enjoyable for me to see so many of our fellow backcountry sisters and brothers in one place; to see all familiar faces; to meet new ones, and to look forward to meeting the ones I have yet to meet.

Thanks to all.

Okay, since Oyvind convinced me that I need to carry my iPhone in the mountains, and since Karl Birkland explained the Extended Column Test (ECT) more clearly than I've heard before, I combined the two and loaded a quickie checklist into my iPhone task manager (Toodledo) to remind myself how the ECT is supposed to be done:

_Dig pit with exposed face at least 90cm wide
_Use probes to define corners of a 90cm by 30cm column
_Isolate column by cutting around probes using knotted string
_Place shovel flat atop one end of the column
_Angle shovel so downward force will be parallel to force of gravity
_Tap shovel (10 from wrist, 10 from elbow, 10 from shoulder)
_Does the column fail? Does failure propagate across column?
_Failure across entire column indicates instability
_Lack of failure doesn't necessarily indicate stability
_Slope angle doesn't matter much
_Number of taps doesn't matter much
_Test is only usable to about 1 meter depth

Did I get it right? Feel free to copy and use ...

Nice summary Lowell. My daughter, and newly minted backcountry devote, texted me asking what the best thing that I learned was. ("#1 idea").

I texted back:

"ECT-I will teach"

And I will.

Again, what an awesome event. Still digesting all the great info.

MJ - your leadership and devotion to all things snow is an inspiration. Thank you my friend.

"ECT-I will teach"

After thinking about it a little more, I remembered that Karl stressed how you mustn't use the test to verify stability. It can only tell you instability. So I added the following item to the checklist:

_Lack of failure doesn't necessarily indicate stability

I've updated my previous post.

I think somebody could do a whole presentation on the psychological challenge of trying to hold in your mind the notion that you should not use tests like ECT to confirm stability. As Karl Birkland was describing that, I was thinking, "OK, I understand that conceptually. But how many of us can actually do it? How many us aren't strongly reassured by a negative instability test."

More food for thought...

Another awesome NSAS event. Mad props to MJ and his great crew at ASAP.
Lowell - I think the topic of ECT demands more discussion. I'm going to start another thread so as to keep this thread about NSAS.

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...93.msg95318#msg95318