EVERY YEAR THE SAME
By November, you can already feel your fingertips tingling. Restless, I cast a glance over the weather forecast, study the long-term weather prognoses and even consult folklore. This year should finally be the one. After three years of a modest showing, Frau Holle* should be feeling strong enough to firmly fluff up the beds once more. Will there be snow? A white Christmas? A real ski winter?
And then it happened. Picture perfect, like a fairy tale. Well-deserved after this lengthy no-show. All big, white, thick flakes and everything that a real winter should have, even the downsides. Avalanche level 3-4 on the schedule and the first victims. An insightful reminder that this white fairyland disguises some real perils.
Care must be taken! That is the least I can do. And even if you think you know everything, after a long summer, theoretical knowledge has well and truly melted away. You have to suffer if you want to ride. Or in other words, like every year, slog through the theory and practice, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect and gives you that warm feeling that you have done your best both for yourself and for others.
So let's head out and escape the office, deep into the avalanche camp of Globoalpin. A whole weekend to listen, try it yourself, repeat, practice, be tested and soak up all the knowledge. Learning from and alongside experienced mountain guides. Just perfect for me.
In one of the most beautiful areas of the Dolomites, the Pragser Wildsee in Puster Valley is where the 5th Globoalpin ski tour took place. Saturday began with a brief introduction to the theory, followed by the first practical exercise: Avalanche report, weather report, topographic map, a selected ski tour and then the question: are we doing the tour or are we calling it off considering the conditions? Interesting discussions ensued. Courage vs safety. Ignorance vs experience. Just like in real life. After we had made the theoretically appropriate decisions at the right checkpoints, correctly interpreted the snow and weather situation from the previous and current day in critical locations and had chosen the right ascent, we were able to put our theoretical knowledge to the test in practice.
We had to go through individual stations, accurately operating and searching using the avalanche transceiver, probing precisely and analysing the probe's feedback, employing methods for examining snow coverage quality and composition, and deducing the avalanche risk. And finally, the ultimate test; unexpected emergency. An avalanche with three buried subjects, two with avalanche transceivers, one without. What next? How will the group react? Will they keep their calm or will they panic. 15 minutes can be a pretty short time. This exercise reminds us all of the importance of retaining information, in order to be able to recall it quickly in emergency situations and, by extension, save lives. Or even, be saved ourselves.
After a long intense day, we had earned ourselves a little break. In the evening, we ended with a cosy get-together and put on our dancing shoes. The night seemed short but anticipation of the ski tour with our mountain leader Michi helped us to throw off our drowsiness. Michi had awoken our curiosity with his training route. And he didn't disappoint us. Our tour over the Kleiner and Großer Jaufen pass wasn't just a beautiful ski tour, but a lesson par excellence. We were repeatedly quizzed about our observations, how we would assess the area in terms of an avalanche situation; snow coverage quality, slope gradient and orientation, wind, avalanche flow, sounds, weather and other details that could give us information. The track choice that we would make, whether we would go together or individually and why the decision in each respective situation would be right or wrong. It was the best form of training that I've ever had, the way Michi passed on his knowledge was unique. I am sure that it will survive the next thaw and stay in my head forever. And then, when you have that "great" descent, reaching the bottom unable to stop smiling from ear to ear, with pure endorphins and endeavour, you know that it was more than worthwhile.
If you want to prepare for winter in the best possible way, take a look at the offer at https://www.globoalpin.com/en/.
