What a day!
Beautiful DAY!!! BLUE SKIES, white fluffy clouds, and an amazing picturesque view of delicious mountains just waiting to be ridden. I loved all the alpine enthusiasts out there enjoying the day like it were the last of the season, and myself strapped into some snow shoes learning about avalanches... Tell you where I would have rather been.
Today was brought to us by the concept of BEACONS... A device that is meant to save your life should you get caught in a slide. It transmits a signal at 457 FHRZ (something like that) so others can search for you. Learned all about the transmitting and receiving action. Then it was fun time. Bury a transmitter in the snow and try to find it blindfolded. The PEEP...PEEP....PEEP, gets louder as you get closer. Believe me at first it wasn't the easiest thing to get a handle on... I was standing amidst a rubble field of snow trying to find this thing, when another student was released with her DIGITAL beacon... I felt like a freaking dog all down on the snow fixing to sniff this little doo dad out of the snow. My instructor was like, "keep going brian, but I couldn't compete with the ferocity of this other girl," so i took the back seat, then was like, "no, I am going to find that thing." As she meandered around with audacity of an ant eater, I took a deep breath dropped to the snow and narrowed my search field. I felt like I was on top of it, used my uncovering skills (thank you Snickers, all those times watching you in the litter box finally paid off!) reached down and pulled out the yellow bag containing the perpetual beeping signaling device. We spent the remainder of the day with scenarios, digging out bodies, and missing partially buried ones. If there is anything one can learn its to ASSESS your location, look at all the details, don't get caught in the moment, and even though someone has X amount of experience they can still slip up. Luckily we weren't dealing in a real situation, (hopefully I won't have t deal with one of those any time soon if ever)...
The gorgeous conditions and depth of the powdery magma made it a day to remember. It was my first time heading north from Anchorage since we drove through that realm of the world what seems like eons ago. Truly some amazing sights. Little too much sun to get some good shots, but you can get a general idea...
Think education is expensive? Try Ignorance...
Cheers
