Glossary

VOC Jargon	Definition
ACC	Alpine Club of Canada, Alpine Choppers Club, Airborne Climbers of Canada
AT	Alpine touring: refers to backcountry ski equipment where the heels can be locked down for descending.
ATES	Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale
Bail	To announce that you are no longer going on a trip at the last minute. There are several versions of this, notably the "I am sick", "I have too much work to do", or "I found a trip that is cooler/hotter than yours". When bailing, it is courteous to let the trip leader, your driver and food/tent partners know as soon as possible. Especially let your driver know, to avoid the situation where two drivers stop at your place at the same time, to pick you up for two different trips. If you bail too often, you will get a reputation.
Beginner Friendly	In short, a euphemism for a guaranteed epic. Beginner friendly means that the trip is not necessarily easy (in fact it may be quite difficult), but that any people on the trip with actual skills are obligated to be nice to the beginners. When the label 'beginner friendly' is attached to a trip, the usual result is that many keen beginners are attracted to it and experienced people stay away (since they know what beginner friendly actually means). The result is usually a 10:1 beginner ratio which guarantees epic results. See related definitions for "Sufferfest" and "Death March".
BCMC	British Columbia Mountaineering Club, Big Cheap Mountaineering Club
CAA	Canadian Avalanche Association
CAC	Canadian Avalanche Center
Clusterfuck	Also know as "Charlie Foxtrot", commonly used to descriptively generalize any situation with a large scale of disarray.
Crossword Puzzles	A euphemism for sexual activity. Eg. "they went to the hut to do some crossword puzzles."
Death March	To boldly go, usually ill-prepared and without sufficient experience, where nobody in their right mind would even think about going. See also: Beginner Friendly.
Epic	Hyperbole used to describe a particularly challenging trip. To call a trip an epic is to compare it to the story of classical epic poems, such as Homer's Illiad and Odyssey.
Faffing	Wasting time by doing absolutely nothing, see also Clusterfuck. Technically you have to waste the time of others on your trip; just wasting your own time is not sufficient. Arriving at the trailhead with nothing in your pack and most everything scattered in your car is classical faffing.
FMCBC	Federation of Mountain Clubs of British Columbia
Fun	A measure of your enjoyment of the situation. Since it's outdoors it's automatically 'fun', but it comes it three types. Some trips may have various amounts of all types of fun.
Fun (type 1)	This is what you normally think of as fun - you enjoy it at the time, and in retrospect. Like eating ice-cream, skiing pow when you know how to do it, or crossword puzzles with that special someone.
Fun (type 2)	Something you don't enjoy at the time, but will in retrospect and will probably do again (although maybe not until you've completely forgotten how miserable you were at the time). Your first real bushwack will likely be type 2 fun. With enough experience you will find many things that were once type 2 fun become type 1 fun for you.
Fun (type 3a)	Something you don't enjoy at the time, will never think back on fondly, and will strive never to do again. Like cutting the rope.
Fun (type 3b)	This type of fun has only recently been identified. Sometimes called "altruistic fun", is what you get when you do something mainly so that others may enjoy it. An example might be building a school in Pakistan, or working on one of our Huts, or going to a beginner ski area with a bunch of beginners, mainly to instruct.
Gnar	Skier's term to define snow condition. Somewhat soft packed powder, heavier, denser than pow.
Gong Show	An event marred by confusion, ineptitude, and shenanigens. See also: Clusterfuck.
Heavy Breathing	Caused by physical exertion near or above your fitness level, such as trying to keep up to a High Output individual
High Output	As a person, somebody tougher than you; a trip preferred by such a person
Hustlers Handbook	List of Members with Contact Information
Kick Turn	An in place turn across the fall line. The kick turn starts with both skis across the fall line. One ski is turned 180 degrees to face the other direction across the fall line, then the second ski is brought around. To execute a kick turn, the skier has to lift their legs quite high up in the air, hence the name kick turn. When wearing climbing skins, the turn can be less than 180 degrees since the skis will not slide backwards. Kick turns are usually used to climb steep slopes by switchbacking, or to descend when the skier does not want to do a regular turn. Kick turns may be executed uphill or downhill. For the uphill kick turn, the skier turns uphill and the uphill ski is moved across the fall line first. For the downhill kick turn, the downhill ski is moved first and the skier turns to face down the hill. Some people with extreme flexibility can make a turn in the uphill direction with downhill ski first, but this is not the normal technique. See also: Survival Skiing.
Low Output	See High Output. A low output trip is generally suitable for anybody, and likely won't make you breathe too hard.
NARSID	Non Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death. a.k.a. I've fallen and I can't get up. Most NARSID incidents occur when people fall into a conifer tree well in soft snow conditions.
Ninja camping	Camping where it is not specifically forbidden, and where nobody will likely find you, and there's nobody coming around to collect camping fees.
Pow	Skier's term to define snow condition. Fluffy, loose, dry, deep powder snow.
RMOW	Resort Municipality of Whistler
Sea to Sky	Refers to the region along highway 99 from Horseshoe Bay through Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton to Lillooet.
Significant Other	Somebody who will drive you to one end of a long ski traverse, or pick you up from the other end
Sketchy	Sketchy
Struggling to keep warm	Masturbating for the purpose of warming yourself or distracting yourself from your hypothermia.
Sufferfest	Any experience involving considerable suffering. See also: Beginner Friendly.
Survival Skiing	Skiing, with the goal of making it down the slope alive. Survival skiing involves two primary techniques, the snowplow and the kick-turn/traverse. The snowplow is employed to control speed and avoid trees in gentle terrain while traveling generally straight down the fall line. The kick-turn traverse method is used in steeper terrain. The skier does long traverses across the slope and uses kick turns on either side to change direction without the fall line commitment of making a proper turn. Worm turns may be substituted for kick turns at the discretion of the skier.
Telemark	In skiing, telemark is a style of turn where the inside knee is dropped and the heel of the inside foot lifts off the ski. Also refers to skis boots and bindings used for telemark skiing. Telemark equipment does not have the option to fix the heels to the ski in order to allow for telemark turns. Modern telemark boots use plastic shells with a liner, but boots have a flexible bellows across the toe to allow the boot to flex. See Tele School.
VOCene	The VOC's weekly e-newsletter (also posted on the VOC website).
VOCJ	VOC Journal
Worm Turn	An alternative to the kick turn. To execute a worm turn, the skier lays down in the snow, brings both skis across the fall line (while still lying down) then gets back up with skis facing the other direction. Worm turns are most effective on very steep slopes, because the skier's centre of gravity is closer to the slope to begin with. Worm turns generally require less balance and coordination than kick turns.