Archive:Avalanche Course 2005

January 15-16 2005

Organiser: Matt Brown

Three groups of 8 took part in avalanche school with guides from Canada West Mountain school. The course involved a pre classroom session, 2 field days (day 1 Seymour, day 2 Whistler) and a post classroom session. For the classroom sessions, we booked a room in the SUB, and also borrowed a TV/Video, OHP and screen from the AMS. The group rate (based on groups of 8) was a substantial discount over the usual CWMS price. I handled the cash flow myself (writing 3 cheques to CWMS as the money came in). I had people sign up on a signup sheet, then chose groups puttting snowboarders together, and 'advanced' skiers and 'intermediate' skiers in different groups.

Next time I would have a system whereby cheque dropoff secured a place, rather than the signup sheet, as several people signed up and dropped out without paying, some at short notice. Another problem was that several non-members signed up. Though many would have bought a membership, we had more people (38) than CWMS could accomodate for that weekend (24), so we decided to restrict the course to current members. Another issue to think about is snowpack, you definitely want interesting layers in the snow to make this course worthwhile. We were originally considering December, but very glad we switched to January.