Nome backcountry travelers earn avalanche certificates
Three instructors from the Alaska Avalanche School, AAS for s were in Nome from February 26-28 to conduct a Recreational Level One Avalanche certification class. The coursework included an online component and provided three days of hands-on instruction. Sixteen Nome residents representing a wide range of backcountry travel modes attended.
Lead instructor Brooke Edwards of Girdwood and her fellow instructors shared their vast experience. Edwards has been a teacher at AAS and a backcountry ski guide for seven years. She also works at the Alyeska Ski School and has been involved in the heli-ski industry for 20 years. When not working for AAS, Juneau's Mary Gianotti instructs for the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS. Caleb Rauch lived in Nome when he was young and learned to ski there. He currently resides in Homer and has studied snow science at Alaska Pacific University.
“It's been the mission of the Alaska Avalanche School to reach out to as many communities as possible,” said Edwards. “And the smaller communities have been on our radar.”
Hands-on instruction
Edwards said Saturday's session was dedicated to companion rescue situations. “If someone gets buried in an avalanche, you don't have time to call 911,” she said. Edwards cites a consequential statistic from The American Avalanche Association there is a 92 percent chance of survival if an avalanche victim is rescued in less than 15 minutes. “So, it's up to you to get them out quickly,” said Edwards.
With that in mind, small groups of five or six learned techniques for single person and group rescues. They used small portable snow shovels and collapsible probes while leading mock searches of buried avalanche beacons behind the NACTEC building. Beacons are safety devices carried by backcountry travelers that emit signals and pick up other beacon signals.
Next, students headed up to Newton Mountain for field observations and snowpack testing on Sunday. “Digging a snow pit is just one of those things,” said Edwards in regards to the tools a backcountry person can use to detect potential dangers.
Edwards’ group dug a 225-centimeter pit in a gully at the 600-foot level and found a solid, cohesive snowpack, but then moved up to the 800-foot contour and found several weak layers at depths as shallow as
50 cm. Snow at lesser depth contained several icy base layers that might aid future avalanche formation if found on steeper slopes.
Backcountry travelers need to “play investigator and hunter and use their curiosity to add more pieces to the puzzle in order to understand what 'Avalanche Dragons' are in their backyard,” she said.
“There is one certainty in the mountains and that is the terrain,” said Edwards. “Slope angels between 30 and 45 degrees are avalanche terrain.” However, she emphasized that danger is not only fund on slopes high up in the mountains. "There is a lot of micro-terrain that could get you into trouble,” she added. “Those angles can even be found on a 10-15-foot high river bank. It is possible for a 15-foot bank to bury a person.”
Monday's instruction focused on decision-making strategies and techniques in the field. The instructors led students up King Mountain by traveling from “decision point to decision point.” As each group reached the next predetermined destination, they stopped to evaluate the upcoming travel section. Then, using information available to them, they decided to either proceed with or alter their routes. “Communication is the key,” stated Edwards.
Red Flags
“In all the avalanche fatalities ever recorded, there were at least one of six Red Flags present," said Edwards. The first of three weather-related red flags occur when the snowpack is loosened and weakened by rapid warming. The second is heavy winds. A 15-mile-per-hour wind is enough to move snow around. Heavy wind-blown accumulations can create wind slabs that can stress out the snowpack. These present some of the most prevalent dangers in the Nome area.
The third weather-related red flag
is heavy precipitation, either rain or snow.
“Avalanches run in packs,” said Edwards, indicating that recent avalanche activity is another red flag for backcountry travelers. “If one is running, that means that all the ingredients exist to cause more avalanches. Sometimes the snowpack is just waiting for someone, or something, to act as a trigger, and set it off.”
The final red flags are visible cracks in the snow and “whumpfing” — a sound heard when the fracture of a weak snow layer causes a heavy upper layer to collapse. Both are apparent signs of snowpack instability.
Useful tools
“Anchorage has the luxury of the Chugach Mountain Information Center and Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center and professional forecasters who are looking at the snowpack every day,” said Edwards. “For the smaller communities, you don't have that luxury.”
However, Edwards said there are tools available to help people in rural Alaska mitigate avalanche danger. “One of the tools is the website CalTopo, which has a feature that uses avalanche shading and coloration to show avalanche terrain (on topographical maps),” she said. Edwards added that trip planning starts in your living room, and CalTopo can help identify dangers before you go out in the field.
Another valuable tool for backcountry safety is the Theodolite app, which can be linked to a phone’s camera. Theodolite provides slope angle, compass direction, elevation, latitude and longitude.
Edwards uses the GPS app Gaia when traveling in the backcountry. "It's possible to overlap the slope shading from CalTopo over the Gaia app," she said.
Community data base
“One of my takeaways from the class was that the avalanche risk here is higher than I perceived it,” said backcountry skier Vince Villella. Shortly after the course conclusion, Villella acted on the instructor's suggestion to increase local communication by creating a Nome Snow Report page on Facebook. “The goal is that there is an informal database of snow information for people going out into the backcountry,” stated Villella. He says people traveling in the mountains can use the page to share their findings, such as snow data and red flags.
Local dog musher Jessica Lemaire discovered that the class was not only geared toward the ski community. "I learned how important it is to have avalanche safety and awareness when I am mushing my dogs,” said Lemaire. “It's beneficial information in the backcountry where we are often in valleys and gullies that could have increased danger of avalanches.”
Chase Gray took the course as a Nome Volunteer Fire Department and Nome Search and Rescue representative. “After taking the class, I learned how small an avalanche can be. Even a small one can take somebody out,” he said. “I've always been super cautious when going through little valleys and gulleys,” he added when referring to his recreational snowmachining. “But now, I know more of the avalanche signs and the reasons behind snow build up and have a better idea of whether something is safe or not.”
“This class delivered the opportunity to be more studious and responsible adventurers,” said Zeph Jennings, who used snowshoes for the ascents during class and rode down on the snowboard he carried on his back. “I now have a better understanding of backcountry scenarios and can help my group get back home safely.”