Last weekend I went to an avalanche class put on by Aspen Alpine Guides and 10th Mountain Huts. It was at the Sangree M. Froelicher hut, above Leadville. I went up there for three days with about sixteen other students. It was great, especially since I got out of school. I wish my class rooms at school were like the one at the hut that we used. It was on the bottom floor of the hut, had big windows with a great view, comfy bed/couches to sit on, and best of all, you could go skiing on your breaks. We also spent quite a bit of time practicing and doing stuff outside the classroom. The weather was bad and the snow was bottomless so we didn’t get to do as much as planned, but it still was great to get out there and practice what you learned. I learned a huge amount about avalanches, including lots of recently researched stuff like human factors and how to dig somebody out of an avalanche most efficiently. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but my dad and mom are the photographers in the family. I just ski.
The website for Aspen Alpine Guides is www.aspenalpine.com. You can sign up for an avalanche course there. They still have a few left for this season.
Louie Dawson earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University in 2014. When he’s not skiing Mount Baker or somewhere equally as snowy, he’s thinking about new products to make ski mountaineering more fun and safe.
