Technical Snow Travel Skillshare

Leaders
Andrew N Doig (A coB), Connor Williams (coB), Shannon Wing (coB)
Program
Winter School
Type
Hiking
Terrain level
A
Trip date
Saturday, January 19th, 2019
Difficulty rating
Easy
Prerequisites
Experienced winter hiker able to comfortably be still for hours at a time in deep winter conditions. Attended gear checkout with leaders before trip. Gear listed in the trip description.

This trip is designed to provide those who are interested in learning the basics of technical snow travel on steep slopes exposure to common techniques in a safe location; the leaders are amateur climbers with some experience.

Note: The leaders are not professional guides, although they have experience using these systems. We don't claim to take the place of professional instruction. Climbing is dangerous. This trip does not discuss additional techniques necessary for glacier travel but there is some overlap.

Participants are expected to have had winter hiking experience and are comfortable with their systems for staying warm fed and dry over a full day in full winter conditions. We want to focus on teaching new snow travel skills, not so much on rehashing the basics. This trip is not geared toward first time winter hikers and will have lots of standing around in the cold so previous layering knowledge is needed, and interest in non-beginner mountains.

Ideally, participants are looking for a new experience and find out what techniques they may use on large objectives and not to rehash techniques that they have learned in previous trips.

We will likely need participants who drive.

Location: We will be doing the trip near the kinsman ridge trail head next to the cannon mountain ski resort. Courses have been held here in the past.

We will head out from Cambridge early at 6:00am and headed to Cannon Ski Lodge. We'll be hanging out at the kinsman trail head running through our syllabus until just before sunset. From there we will be headed home. We expect to be within range to contact our wimp in Lincoln about a half hour after departing from Cannon at sunset at 4:00pm. We will be headed back to Cambridge from there.

Syllabus: Gear Setup (in most likely order) (3 hours): - SAFETY TALK: Why we do all this effort, risk management, expectations as a member of a rope team - Basic review of equipment and proper fit - basic alpine knots (figure eight, butterfly, stoppers)
- Dividing the rope and climbers coil - Attaching Prussic belay loop - Prussic belay technique
- Placing running protection

Big pot of Lunch with lecture (1 hour): - Objective/subjective hazards of the steep snow environment
- Expectations as a member of a rope team
- Knowing what could be potential risk areas

Technical Movement (3 hours): - Crampon techniques from all three schools, the rest step, axe gripping positions, pivot turns, uphill preference, Etc. - Self arrest technique and skills - Marking risk areas - Passing running protection - Travel on a rope and team arrest - Pitching out a section of snow - Glissading fun time!!!

Gear: The Basics (Layers and boots for extended cold day, food and water, headlamp etc.) Crampons Harness Helmet Ice Axe Prussic loops x 2, foot prussic (We can make these in the car if you bring $5 for material) Four non locking biners (May be borrowable from Andy) Three locking biners (May be borrowable from Andy) Pack tether (Parachute cord) (May be borrowable from Andy) Axe leash (Parachute cord) (May be borrowable from Andy) Spoon and Bowl

The weather reports for this weekend are in flux, and it is possible that weather will turn sour and cause modification/cancellation.


Signup

Algorithm
first-come, first-serve
Maximum participants
6
Signups opened at
Jan. 16, 2019, noon
Signups closed at
Jan. 17, 2019, 11:59 p.m.
Notes

Do you have a car? Do you have technical snow travel experience already? Do you have a food preference or can bring a meal that is preparable with only hot water? What are you looking to do with your new skills?

Signups for this trip are closed.