We at Alaska Snow Safaris have been thinking about putting a field class schedule together for next season. We will try a pilot program this winter to see how the response goes. We would like to see a one day in the field program on different dates for beginners, intermediate, and advance level's.
We feel that there are plenty of class room environments to teach the concepts. We would like to see a place for riders that can train with beacons and probes in the field, work on route finding and decision making skills as well as practice with some made up scene scenarios.
We are talking now with Carl at the USFS, Blain at the AK Avalanche School, Warren at the Alyeska Resort and our own Mike Buck from Valdez to help with the instruction. I want instructors who are accomplished riders and understand our use and needs.
We have done this type of training for our own staff each year and I always have had requests from other people wanting to tag along with my guides if there is room. I feel that there is more and more interest in this type of program. Please pipe in on any thoughts or if it is even of interest?
I would also like to put a class together for glacier travel since more and more riders are going up onto glaciers and ice fields and might not understand what's going on up there. This would be for route selection, self crevasse rescue, and so on.
I have been holding out on posting anything up for awhile as I collected my thoughts but since we jutst spent today involved with the inter-agency avalanche training in Turnagin Pass, its fresh in my mind and I am even more motivated to get it going sooner than later.
We hope that we can change our current permit to start our pilot program just after the new year and see what happens??? We hope to use our new Placer Base Camp at the corner of the Portage Hwy and Seward Hwy to head out into Skookum, Placer, Squirrel flats, and Grandview depending on the level of the class.
Feel free to PM or post with any questions and we will update as the process moves along.
Chris
