MegèveSki

Dig it

We spent this afternoon running around in knee deep snow between La Rare and the Etudiants drag lift looking for buried rucksacks...

Ok, so we thought of it as running but in reality it was more a case of fast-paced stumbling as trying to run in ski boots in deep snow on a bit of a slope is harder than it sounds (and it sounds pretty hard...)

The purpose of all this exercise was to learn how to use our avalanche transceivers in search mode. We were being shown what to do by Fabian (a pisteur on his day off who Lucy had put us in touch with). After taking us to a reasonably flat area of snow Fabian explained what not to do when on the scene of an avalanche; in summary, don't smoke or take a piss as that will make it harder for the dogs if and when they are brought in... Next came an explanation of how to search with a transceiver and this was then followed by several practice searches where Fabian would hide his rucksack, with his transceiver inside it, and we'd then locate it.

It was an interesting afternoon. It's useful to actually know how to use the equipment we have brought with us for off piste forays and although I've read about how to search you don't quite realise how complicated it becomes when you're actually having to move around a large snow field whilst searching. The DTS Trackers that we chose seem to be easy to use, the shovels work (and are light to carry in a pack) and the 2m probes are easy and quick to assemble.

Fabian's parting words were that we should practice a lot and that once we get the hang of it we should try it in poor visibility or on a steeper slope... He was pleased that we had wanted to find out how to use the gear as he said that many people don't bother to learn and that the more people who know how to conduct a search the better as the quicker the search begins the more chance there is of saving lives.

Our searches were less realistic than they may have been as we had unpacked and set up our shovels and probes before starting and, I imagine, you probably wouldn't do that until you'd located your first burial... Note to self; running on snow holding a 2m probe and then falling over into the snow is likely to bend the probe - luckily it was easy enough to straighten out and the probe was sturdy enough to take a bend or two without fracturing.

Once we'd finished the search exercises I decided that it was time to make sure that Miche could dig - after all, if she can't then I'm the one in trouble. Her first attempts were pretty good and I managed to suggest a few ways in which she could be more efficient with her shovel; I let her stop when she was about half a metre deep... I didn't need to demonstrate my digging ability as I convinced her that 10 years as a builder meant that I was adequately qualified already...