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Rocky Mountain National Park
How to not die in the backcountry

Ever since we decided that we wanted to ski in the backcountry on this trip, Nate and I have wanted to take an avalanche course. We finally took a three day course, and now feel a lot safer and smarter in the backcountry. The course was put on by the Colorado Mountain School, and included everything from avalanche forecasting, snow analysis, backcountry travel techniques to how to rescue someone if everything goes wrong. Avalanches are no joke, and someone already died in Colorado this year from one. A little education and some intelligent decisions can keep you out of harms way and make traveling in the backcountry much safer. Having finished the course, I can say it was definitely worth it, and fun besides.

One great part about the course was its location: Rocky Mountain National Park. We showed up a day early and got some turns in at an abandoned ski area inside the park, which was a quasi-backcountry ski day. Then it was back to school for both of us, and time to act like students again. Friday night and Saturday morning were all classroom work. Saturday afternoon we practiced rescue techniques, which are fairly simple when it’s an open powder field and no one is in danger of dying. I hope I never have to find out what it is like after a real avalanche. Sunday we had some short in-class work, followed by a day skiing up into some impressive peaks and field work to put all our new knowledge to use. Everyone was excited to also get some turns in, and the slope we were to ski looked like a lot of fun. Once at the top, we found out that it was 4” of breakable crust on top of 5” of powder. It was the hardest snow to ski I have ever been on. I pledged a beer to anyone who could make it down the 500’ slope without crashing. No one was even close. All too soon, the day was over as was the class. Hopefully it all sank in and we’ll be smart backcountry travelers.

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