Just back from a fun two days on the rock pile with 9 great participants! Conditions could not have been better!
Info on these trips here:
http://www.emsoutdoors.com/north-conway/ice-climbing-mountaineering/mount-washington-observatory/
Last Friday I got to summit Washington for the 1st time this winter with two motivated USN Seabees and one civilian contractor from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. We enjoyed fine weather, some deep drifts, burly windchill, and an almost empty trail.
Info on this course here:
http://www.emsoutdoors.com/north-conway/ice-climbing-mountaineering/mt-washington-ascent/
I have used a lot of different back-country shovels over the last 10 years of avalanche courses and last year I had the opportunity to review a Brooks-Range Sharktooth Pro Shovel. This year Ortovox sent me a Kodiak Shovel to demo and I’ve been extremely pleased with it, so much so that I have tried convincing fellow Mountain Rescue Service members to pick one up.
There are a lot of positives to this shovel and only one negative, so let’s get that negative out of the way first.
Weight: At 1lb, 12oz (790g) this shovel is a bit on the heavy side for someone who only visits the back-country occasionally and doesn’t do a lot of pit work. However it still breaks down and easily stores in the avalanche gear front pocket of my EMS Wintergreen Backpack.
And now for the positives that make this shovel a digging machine;
Blade: This large blade, (11.8 x 9 x 2.4″), has almost 2 square feet of volume. It easily moves more snow per stroke than any other shovel I have used. The sharp serrated blade cuts through hard debris (and parking lot snow banks) like no other edge I have used. It also is flat on the bottom axis allowing for smooth pit walls to aid in quality snow-pack observations. Finally the top of the blade has some non-slip step grooves to facilitate using your ski boots on the blade to cut through cement if need be.
Shaft:Â This telescoping shaft extends from 20″ to 28″ but still fits easily in my avalanche gear pocket when collapsed. The oval shape of the shaft is really comfortable to dig with compared to traditional round shafts and the rubberized portion adds control when wearing iced up or slippery gloves. The shaft quickly inserts and self locks into the blade due to a well designed self-feeding slot that guides the locking button into place with little effort.
Handle: While D-shaped handles add a little weight to a shovel they add a ton of control, especially if wearing mittens. T shaped and J shaped handles are very hard to operate with mittens on, and since our avalanche terrain is often brutally cold and half of my students often have mittens on this style of handle should preferred, especially if you deal with cold hands alot.
Added functionality: This is the first shovel I have used that has a 90 degree clearing function, essentially making it an entrenching tool (memories of USMC Boot Camp coming back). While using this mode did not feel effective at first I quickly realized this is a great mode for secondary shovelers moving snow further back from the main shovelers in a companion rescue scenario. I think it would also be quite handy for digging a quick snow cave while on a mountaineering trip.
I put a quick video review of the shovel up on my YouTube Channel:
Final thoughts: This is an aggressive powerhouse of a shovel perfect for avalanche professionals, search & rescue teams, and hard-core mountaineers. While slightly heavier than other models it makes up for it in utility & durability. Final grade: A
Yesterday Dan & Paul joined me for a 1 day avalanche awareness course and intro to back-country skiing. While not an official offering from our course programs we are always happy to customize a day for someone. The crux here though is realizing there is only so much info and practical application you can squeeze into an 8 hour day. However we did cover quite a lot of ground, metaphorically speaking, when it came to basic avalanche awareness. The 2 hour skin up to Hermit Lake was filled with chats about snow climates, basic snowpack metamorphism, and types & characteristics of avalanches. When we reached the bowl we poked around in the snow under the Sluice and found some of the layers I had posted this video about the day before:
After finishing our observations we got a nice run back to the floor of the ravine before hiking down to Hermit Lake and skiing the Sherburne Ski trail back to Pinkham.
We finished the day with a 1 hour companion rescue introduction at Pinkham, and Dan & Paul left with quite the appetite for more information. As Dan commented “Today has really shown me how much I don’t know”. That’s good to hear, and I expect to see both of them back for a formal AIARE 1 Course in the future!
To see what courses still have spots available please go here:
Just wrapped up an awesome 3 Day AIARE 1 Avalanche Course. Conditions couldn’t be better with reactive Wind Slab, Storm Slab, and Persistent Slab all making an appearance. 13 inquisitive and engaged students helped contribute to a very productive 3 days ending today with an excellent field day in Tuckerman Ravine.
I took a minute at Hermit Lake to review the shovel I have been using this season:
Some cool Compression Test Results, not sure why I am having an issue embedding these at the moment so for now here’s the link:
Avalanche Awareness course tomorrow followed by an Observatory Overnight this weekend, and our one and only AIARE 2 course the following weekend. Two big storms in the forecast, so things should be exciting!
Happy to put this short post together for the EMS Blog!
http://www.emsoutdoors.com/wordpress/safe-winter-hiking-advice/
Last Sunday we finished another amazing avalanche course. Despite the lower than average snow depths we have some fascinating conditions to contend with and learn from. Long periods of intense cold have led to Persistent Slab conditions much more common in Continental snow climates like Colorado. Added extreme high winds to the equation and we have created potential wind slabs sitting on persistent slabs. A better set up for an avalanche course couldn’t be made up… well… it could have been a little warmer last weekend. However 7 equipped and motivated students attended the weekend’s avalanche course and this strong team learned a lot about traveling in avalanche terrain during Considerable conditions. We are about halfway through our avalanche course season so if you haven’t signed up for a course yet don’t delay, some of the remaining dates have already sold out:
http://www.emsoutdoors.com/avalanche-training/
Course schedule here:
A bit late posting these pics from a brutally cold day last Wednesday.
Uploading for distribution… my White Out Navigation Plan for Winter Head Lion’s Head route.
Another great avalanche course ended yesterday. Despite being a couple feet behind in seasonal snowfall the ravine had Considerable avalanche danger for our field day.
Ortovox Kodiak Shovel Review coming soon!
