Overview
Curriculum
Dates
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Crevasse Rescue for Backcountry Skiers and Splitboarders

Overview

The glaciated peaks of the Cascades provide a wonderful playground for backcountry skiers and boarders to access to long, sweeping mountain lines, without having to deal with the ones you would find queuing up at the base of the resort. The heart of winter can be a challenging time to access this terrain due to the large, frequent, and heavy storms through the area. But the late winter and spring months reveal access to vast slopes and fantastic turns.

But before venturing out into this phenominal landscape, skiers and boarders must have the skills to handle the situation if something unfortunate happens. This 2-day course will give you the tools to handle one of the most dangerous hazards of skiing and riding glaciated terrain - falling in a crevasse. You'll learn the fundamentals of executing a rescue of a fallen partner, as well as how to identify these types of hazards so that you can reduce your chances of actually encountering these types of hazards.

Roped up skiers skinning up the Coleman Glacier of Mt Baker

A team of skiers are roped together while ascending the Coleman Glacier on Mt Baker. Being roped together allows the team to carefully assessing crevasse hazards on the ascent. Jason Martin

The Challenges and Rewards of Ski Mountaineering

Combining aspects of mountaineering with backcountry skiing, glacier skiing is an exciting sport that requires one of the greatest diversities of skills. In the backcountry, skiers must always take with them keen skills of observation and the ability to assess and interpret the day-to-day and hour-to-hour changes in mountain weather and snowpack. But on glaciers they must also deal with greater exposure to the elements and with the complexities of crevasse field travel.

Skiers must be roped, trained, and ready to execute both team and one-person crevasse rescue. Failure to follow glacier assessment techniques and these skiing procedures can place a skier in danger of crevasse falls, but with thorough observation, careful route selection, and proper glacier travel procedures, skiers can reduce risks and enjoy the world's most spectacular mountain scenery as they take on the challenges of spectacularly beautiful glaciated terrain.

Crevasse Rescue for Backcountry Skiers and Splitboarders

Curriculum

Skinning up the Coleman Glacier on Mt. Baker's north side.
Andy Bourne

Understanding the materials required for crevasse rescue using lightweight glacier cord
Building rescue strength anchors with skis and snowboards
Roped skiing techniques & glacier travel skills
Introduction to glaciology and crevasse recognition
Rescue techniques for both a roped and unroped skier/rider from a crevasse
Rappelling with skis
Lowering a fellow skier