Eastern Mountain Sports Convergence (and Schools Training)

I know I blogged last week about the cool commitment EMS has to training its store employees though the new “Schools to Stores” initiative. That initiative is more of an on-going effort, like the 10 free employee lessons our store guides get to take every year. However one of the largest annual training events of the year happened to land right behind it, so bear with me while I chat about how awesome this company is yet again…

On Monday 50+ employees from across the EMS’s chain of 68 stores, from Virginia to Maine, traveled to Mount Washington Valley for 3 days of camping, rock climbing, vendor villages, product demos, free swag, and slideshows from some of the country’s greatest climbers! That same day 3 small groups split off to backpack the Northern Presidentials while the rest settled in at Great Glen for the next couple days of cliff-side training.

On Tuesday reps from Petzl, Black Diamond, CAMP, Five-Ten, and Sterling, La Sportiva, and Scarpa, ran round-robin clinics at Cathedral Ledge educating the store guides on product use and giving everyone a chance to get hands on. From climbing shoes to advanced hauling systems and fixed line ascension everyone got involved.

After a full day of knowledge saturation the store guides returned to the evening festivities at Great Glen with a vendor village, scrumptious catered BBQ from the Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewery, and slideshow from world famous climber Cedar Wright!

Busy North End

Fixed Rope Ascension, aka “Jugging”

Petzl Anchor Central

Petzl gear talk with Dave Karl

Free swag from Petzl!

On Wednesday EMS Climbing Guides from North Conway NH, Lake Placid & New Paltz NY, Boston MA, and West Hartford CT gave clinics on advanced anchor building, climbing movement, multi-pitch skills, and fixed rope climbing (LOL improvised Lhotse-face on Whitehorse) at 7 different stations. That evening wrapped up with another great slideshow from one of MWV’s own famous climbers, Janet Bergman.

While the Convergence ended for our store guides this was the first time in years we had just about our entire Climbing School staff in the same town so Charlie, Keith, and Eric organized a great climbing guide training day the next day.

Starting the day at the Classroom at Cathedral

Some small group chat

Some fancy rope work practice

Guess what kind of snake this in in the comments if you read this far…

Some guide-to-guide short-rope practice

Some mock guiding on Upper Refuse

I got a lot out of this entire week. I got to see yet again how committed EMS is to it’s mission statement. I got to see old friends from around the industry from store guides to gear reps, pro-climbers, and retired climbing guides. I learned 2 more ways to tie a clove hitch (I now know 5). I learned a great short-rope trick that involves a tree. But I think best of all I got to know some of my fellow climbing guides who work in other locales a bit better. Coming together, sharing ideas, a pitch or two, a quick lap up a classic climb at lunch time, a trail run I would later regret, some guide tricks, a mug (or three) at The Moat, a few funny stories, fewer scary stories, and a healthy bit of debate on gear preferences made for an awesome couple days of guide related work in an otherwise pretty slow time of year. La vie est belle!

Schools to Stores Training

I’ve worked for Eastern Mountain Sports in one capacity or another since 1994. A lot has changed since I was first “trained” in the small mall store in Salem, NH. We changed ownership 3 times. We’ve left some western markets and grown our eastern and online presence immensely. I’ve worked in 3 stores and in the last 9 years I’ve worked for the Climbing School and the last 5 years for the Customer Service Team. But one thing that hasn’t changed is this company has always stressed that the key to successful outfitting is through knowledgeable authentic expertise. While it sounds like a bit of a catch-phrase it is so true. To that end the company invests a ton of time and payroll to train folks to levels not very common in the retail industry where turn-over can make training dollars tough to justify.

This past week I was able to get out for 3 days with store employees from our Burlington VT, N. Conway NH, Portland ME, Nashua NH, Concord NH, Portsmouth NH, West Lebanon NH, and Manchester NH stores. On the cliffs of Whitehorse Ledge, Cathedral Ledge, and in Pawtuckaway State Park we shared everything from what kind of programs EMS Schools offers to how to properly size a harness and climbing shoes. It was awesome to see folks who never climbed before overcome their trepidation and send a route, or have an “ah ha” moment while discussing the difference between aid climbing and via ferrata. Here’s some shots from the 3 days. I expect to see many of these store guides back over the summer to take advantage of one of the coolest employee benefits we offer, free climbing/paddling lessons!

Wilderness Medicine Training

I first took the Wilderness First Responder course from Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities, or SOLO, back in April of 2001 when I first started thinking about becoming a professional mountain guide. Today, along with 7 other Mountain Rescue Service fellow team members, a fellow guide, and a local ski-patroller, I concluded my 4th WFR re-certification.

Bill Aughton explains how gathering vitals over time can help alarm us to a deteriorating patient

Before any re-cert I’ve always had a little apprehension regarding whether this would be time well spent (outside of it being a job requirement to stay current).  This year, just like 3 years ago, and 3 years before that, I leave amazed at how valuable these two days were. Unlike Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician’s (WEMT’s), who constantly use the skills they learned in their course while working for ambulance crews, or volunteer ski patrols in Tuckerman Ravine who get to practice splinting and laceration management on the bravest of Spring skiers, climbing guides don’t get to practice these skills often. That’s a good thing, as hurt clients are rarely repeat clients But we do come across injured recreational climbers and get called out on rescues from time to time, so it is a bit obvious why we need to stay current.

Practicing the “Back-Country Decrumble”

EMS Guide Joan V. was a very cooperative patient

Bill describes proper ways of building a traction splint for a broken femur

But what about you? Should you take a Wilderness First Aid course? I can help you answer that quite easily. Just answer this one question:

Do you (or do you want to) spend time in the woods/mountains?

If you answered yes, then the answer to the first question is a big YES!

Even in an urban environment a little bit of knowledge can go a long way while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. In many cases it may make the difference between needing an ambulance (not cheap) or realizing the injury is stable and we can drive the person to the hospital ourselves. If you’ve ever witnessed an injury you may have stood by watching helplessly… what should we do? It can be a very long 10 minutes for the ambulance to get there… if you are in the mountains it’s even worse, help is hours away!

Simply put, 2 days + $160 tuition could save a life. Or save a leg. Or prevent an infection. Or eliminate the need for an outside rescue. Or make someone way more comfortable while waiting for outside help.

The benefits are huge, the drawbacks are nil.

If you can make it to the SOLO Campus in Conway, NH I recommend it as the learning environment and culture there adds something to the course but don’t let locality prevent you from taking a course. They are offered all over the US and with 111 courses scheduled from now to the end of the year you should be able to find one you can make it to! Use this link and then sort by state to see if there is one near you. It’s definitely a well spent two days!

Mount Washington Ascent 4/6/13

This past Saturday I got to summit Mount Washington with three guys from NYC and a gal from Boston. The mountain was quite busy with early Spring skier’s and folks attempting to summit so we looked for way to maximize our fun without getting bogged down in the larger groups on the mountain, and we found it!

Hitting the trail

The bottom portion of the Tuckerman Ravine trail was super busy with early Spring skiers  many hiking up wearing downhill ski boots (ouch). We were happy to see the crowds thin out as we left the Tuck’s trail and started our ascent of the Winter Lion’s Head trail. As we neared treeline a couple groups that were ahead of us turned around. 60+ mph winds and -30 wind-chills were defeating anyone without goggles & facemask.

A bit nasty at tree-line, a few groups ahead of us turned around here…

The largest group ahead of us had seemed to lose the trail, or were following some random tracks 60 yards right of the trail, and were making there way through deeper snow on the edge of Raymond Cataract. We stuck to the packed trail and soon passed them.

Wildcat in the background

Started to clear below Lion’s Head

Molly poses with the top of Tuckerman Ravine behind her

Looking strong…

While all the other groups that persisted headed up to Split Rock, and a strong NW wind, I decided to break off and set a gentle traverse up the consolidated snow-fields to the right of the main trail. This route left us more protected from the winds right up to the lower parking lot, and with a few switchbacks we were able to maintain a solid pace…

Leaving the trail for a more direct (and more sheltered from the wind) line up to the summit

Success!

We descended a direct line back down the snowfields in cushy walking conditions (calf deep powder).

Romping down the summit snowfields in fresh powder…

Realizing that there would be some bottle-necking on the Winter Lion’s Head trail, and considering Lobster Claw gully had LOW avalanche danger and great booting conditions we opted for that as a descent.

A quick descent down Lobster Claw Gully

One last shot below Tuck’s

A great day with a great group, hope to see all of you on one of our Observatory Overnight trips next winter!

2012/2013 Avalanche Course Season Recap

While winter is not quite done with Mount Washington we finished our last avalanche course of the season this past weekend. Looking back on the season I can say with no embellishment that this has been a banner year for me along with the EMS Schools Avalanche Course Program.

We ran 11 AIARE 1 courses and 1 AIARE 2 course this winter. That’s 114 AIARE students! From our first course at the end of December to our last course that ended April 1st Mother Nature has provided excellent snow conditions for learning about safer travel in the back-country. In mid-January we had 4 EMS School guides travel out west to take an Instructor Training Course in Steven’s Pass, Washington. We are now the largest avalanche course provider in the East with 3 certified AIARE 1 Instructors and 1 AIARE 2 Course Leader on staff. That is exciting as we strive to meet the growing demand of back-country travelers seeking avalanche education!

Human involved avalanches on Mount Washington appear to be on an increase. Early this year a 12 person group triggered an avalanche in Central Gully that caused significant injuries and has stirred up quite a bit of debate.

An accident report from the USFS can be found here.

Then on March 1st a tragic event unfolded on Pinnacle Gully when a solo climber triggered an avalanche that caused him to fall and sustain fatal injuries.

Crown line is visible in this photo just below the rock constriction.

The accident report for this can be found here. That same afternoon an experienced mountain guide was ski descending Lobster Claw Gully in Tuckerman Ravine when one of his clients triggered a size-able slab that carried the guide who was able to self-arrest successfully and did not result in injury.

Just yesterday a skier triggered a rather large hard slab in the Lower Snowfields that could have easily taken a life.

Photo by USFS Snow Ranger Joe Klementovich, http://www.joeklementovich.com/

The Avalanche Danger rating for the day for all three of these incidents was “Moderate”. Nationally most human involved accidents happen during “Considerable” danger, but Mount Washington is quite different from our western back-country areas in both terrain and user group make-up.

The Mount Washington Avalanche Center forecasts on a “micro” scale, gully by gully, which may lead some climbers with limited avalanche education into a simple “Moderate means I can do it, Considerable means I can’t” kind of mind frame. The bottom line is “Moderate” means that while natural avalanches are unlikely, human triggered slides are possible. This means the traveler needs to be able to recognize signs of unstable snow, trigger points, terrain traps, etc. in order to move through that terrain.

Our user group is a bit of a factor as well. We have a disproportionate amount of highly skilled technical climbers with limited knowledge related to traveling in avalanche terrain. We’re an area known for breeding world class alpinists. New climbers can learn to competently climb Grade 4+ ice in just a season. They may master rope-systems and technical ice climbing but not understand the differences in wind slab or storm slab.

EDIT: 4/9/2013 USFS Ranger Chris Joosen just posted about “Moderate” and it’s implications in our area. It is very relevant and the post can be found here.

I took my first avalanche course 11 years ago after watching two climbers die in an avalanche in Tuckerman Ravine. I left that course, and subsequent courses, with a healthy dose of irrational fear and an inability to really “put it all together”. After years of practice and learning from experienced avalanche educators around the country some light-bulbs started to go off. I could go on about this for awhile, but I want to sum it up in one sentence.

Avalanche courses today are not like avalanche courses 10 years ago!

The good news is we, as a culture, are learning that. Word of mouth is spreading from partner to partner that a modern formal avalanche course is a wise investment for anyone who wants to spend time in the winter mountains. It goes without saying that what you do with the skills after you leave the course will determine whether or not you are any “safer”. Quality experience is as important as theoretical knowledge! However all the feedback forms this season indicated that time in the course was well spent and provided a great foundation for a life-time of learning!

While I still plan on getting quite a few more days up high skiing this season, I look forward to next winters avalanche course season. I’ll be heading back out west again to get updated in an AIARE 2 Instructor Refresher Course at some point and we’re tweaking some logistics and gear issues at the school to make our courses even more efficient and effective.

To all participants from this season, thank you. Your engagement in the learning process has helped me become a more effective course leader, and I hope to see you all out on the mountain!

AIARE 1 Avalanche Course, 3/30/13 – 4/1/13

Well that’s it! Today concluded the last avalanche course of the season. Without a doubt this has been the best year we’ve had for avalanche courses as Mother Nature has provided right up to the end! Later this week I’ll post a summary of the season, but for now I want to share the details from this past weekend’s course. We started the course as usual at the Highland Center and had a typical morning classroom session followed by afternoon outdoor Companion Rescue.

Early the first day looking at a local Case Study

EMS Guide Keith Moon talks about beacon care before we head out to our rescue site

After some morning classroom on Day 2 we headed to the western side of Mount Washington to skin up the Cog. The snowpack down low had converted to full on Spring concrete, but we knew there were still some layers to look at up high.

Base Rd

Half-way House

Looking back towards Bretton Woods

Ammonusuc Ravine

We found a small test slope on the Burt Ravine side of the tracks and dig a little digging while learning about layer identification, hand hardness, and tilt & compression tests.

Burt Ravine in the background

Today we met at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and after obtaining the day’s bulletin we headed up Tuckerman Ravine. While raining we we arrived at PNVC it turned into a great day up higher.

Moments of blue-bird

We ran into Jeff Lane, one of the USFS Snow Rangers who gave us some additional info which later turned up helpful to our Tour Plan

Quick chat with USFS Snow Ranger

One of the students points out roller balls that came down Hillman’s Highway and small wet loose snow avalanches that had recently occurred in the Lower Snowfields.

Arriving at Hermit Lake

After some discussion we continued up to the floor of the Ravine, and decided to head towards Left Gully. We spaced out across the main runout, as the rating for the day was “Considerable”.

Where did the blue sky go?

Heading up towards the left side of Left Gully

Poking around in the snow there revealed some buried grauple, pencil slab over 1F, CTM & CTH results 30cm and 60cm down with mostly Q2 and Q3 results. We scored a RB7 as well. I’ll post a field book page later when I get a chance to take a better shot of it.

 

After finishing our observations we skinned up to the mouth of Left Gully and got a quick short run in before dropping the Little Headwall and returning to PNVC to review the day and close the course.

I can’t thank the 11 participants enough for being so engaged through-out the 24-hour course. As silly as it sounds, I have to thank MN for providing such great conditions for every single field session we had this year. Exact numbers will come in my recap later this week, but I’m fairly certain we had over 120 people come through our 3 Day AIARE 1 program this year! Every single feedback form is being considered and I’m excited about making some changes to next year’s courses based on my experience this winter and all of your feedback. More to come in my re-cap, but for now I’m going to dry out and organize my back-country ski gear. What a great winter that was!

See you on the mountain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odell’s Gully, Huntington Ravine, Mount Washington

Today I got to do something a little different than teaching an avalanche course and returned to my roots so to speak… ice climbing! William, his son Billy, and close family friend Jeff have climbed with us a few times over the last few years. They’ve top-roped at Cathedral’s North End, sampled multi-pitch on Crawford Notch’s Willey’s Slide, and summitted Mount Washington via the Lion’s Head Route… but today they wanted an alpine gully. After gearing up with beacon, probe, shovel, and all the necessary technical gear for the climb, we made our way up to Pinkham Notch.

Start of the climb

We made excellent time to Harvard Cabin in about 1.5 hours, where we obtained the updated avalanche forecast. True “Spring” conditions have yet to visit Mount Washington as there was certainly a lot of info to ponder. “Moderate” danger means “human triggered avalanches are possible”, so I was glad we were equipped with beacon, probe, and shovel, but quite determined to use safe travel techniques and terrain selection to NOT be involved in an avalanche.

Checking the updated avalanche conditions at Harvard Cabin

The hand written bulletin for the day

We made our way up into the floor of the ravine in just under two hours from leaving Pinkham.

Entering the floor of Huntington Ravine

Here we donned helmets and harnesses, and conducted a quick beacon check to make sure everyone’s beacon was functioning properly. We then climbed up towards the mouth of Odell’s leaving the established boot pack to break trail in order to choose a safer line outside the run-out since we could see at-least 6 climbers in the gully ahead of us. After reaching the start of the climbing we stomped out a ledge and crampon’d up. Out came the ropes and I led up an easy 190ft pitch of snow climbing on the left side of the gully. Within minutes we were all established on our first anchor.

Ready to start climbing

From here I crossed the first snow field to gain the steeper ice on the right side of the gully. While more challenging this reduced exposure from falling ice from the party of 4 above us, along with the avalanche potential when they reached the upper snowfields.

Jeff finishes pitch 1 while Bill and Bill Jr wait below

The next pitch was nice easy grade 3 ice, despite the constant spindrift from the graupel falling from the sky. The camera didn’t come out again until we reached the top as I was a bit busy managing 600 feet of rope and 3 folks a bit new to such a big climb. They were amazing BTW, constantly looking for ways to help the team complete the climb in a reasonable time. After the technical pitch it eased up a bit, and after a steep 200ft snow pitch I gathered us on a small ridge to the left of the steepest ice. We put away two ropes and I “long-roped” us up to the top-out.

After topping out of the technical bit

We stashed the ropes, grabbed our goggles, and made for the Alpine Gardens… and were pleasantly surprised… despite all the blowing snow and spindrift it was quite nice up there.

Crossing Alpine Gardens in surprisingly pleasant conditions

We made our way towards the Lion’s Head Trail and contoured down a bit into Raymond’s Cataract to cut the corner and save some time. The snow was consolidated enough to make the travel pretty easy going.

A bit of white-out while contouring over to Lions Head trail via Raymond Cateract

We soon caught a few groups gripped on the steeper sections of the Lion’s Head Winter Route, and they allowed us to pass. Further down we passed some folks in Yak-Traks and Blue-Jeans, sigh… but made it back to Pinkham in good time.

It was great to swing the tools today, as I have climbed less ice this season than I have in the last 10 years as I have shifted so much focus to running avalanche courses. It was made even better by doing it with such a cool group of adventures guys! Bill, Billy, Jeff, hope to see you again!

And everyone else, it’s still winter up here! Last avalanche course of the season starts tomorrow!