Avalanche Training

Last week we had our Avalanche/Winter Rescue Training. We do it yearly and it is loads of fun. We hike into an area near Sundance, look at all the avalanche damage, talk about winter saftey and rescue techniques. Then we have a "volunteer" victim and we rescue him, splint his injuries, craft a rescue sled out of whatever is available and then pack him all the way back to the cars.

This year, due to all the recent snow and such, our director checked out the area that morning, left at 11am and met us all back in Provo. We left about 1:30 and right at the Sundance turn-off there were a bunch of police and a big sign saying, AVALANCHE: No Stopping! Had we gotten their earlier, we probably would have been stuck on the other side of that sign!

We turned around and went to a back up spot (Bridleveil Falls). The police saw us all putting on our snowshoes and told us they were closing the entire canyon due several avalanches and danger of more.

We finally went to a small canyon (Rock Canyon) right in Provo for our training. The opening line of the lecture... "Well, I think we all can see why Avalanche Training is important!"

-Mark