By Philip Peterson II
Special to the Turnagain Times
Hats off to Girdwood’s own Matt Murphy, Kris Dudley, Stretch, and Skip Repetto, as well as the many folks that assisted in the Feb. 23 avalanche rescue on Sunburst. And while we’re celebrating courageous feats, I want to recognize the single-handed, life saving double-extraction of two snowmachiners preformed on the Seattle Creek side of Turnagain Pass on Feb. 15 by Kevin Bennett. Directly saving the life of another human being is one of the greatest deeds we can accomplish in our lives. In decades gone by, we would have loaded these people on a decorated float and paraded them through the streets of our fair hamlet. These people are the real thing. As soon as I get my new sewing machine, I’m going to make each of you a new ski suit made entirely of bright colored spandex (briefs on the outside) complete with Gore-Tex capes.
With all this avalanche rescue talk I figured it might be an appropriate time to pitch the Alyeska Beacon Park. The park has a number of beacons buried beneath the snow. A switch board is designed to randomly activate various beacons to simulate single or multi-burial situations. It is free to use, and although I’m sure they are hoping that it will lead to a few beacon sales in the new second floor ski shop, I think it must be viewed a real gift to our community. Avalanche rescue is tricky stuff and the beacon park is a classroom to refine your rescue skills before they are put to the test in a far more frightening situation.
On a different note, I have heard an awful lot of trash talking regarding both the Sunburst burial and the snow machine triggered avalanche on the Seattle Creek side of the Pass. In response to these statements, I just want to remind everyone that accidents happen. As arm-chair quarterbacks armed with 20/20 hindsight it is easy to sit back and judge the actions of others, and to scoff at their decision making, but risk assessment is an extremely personal decision. Risk can be intoxicating, and a perfect, creamy-white, untouched powder field is about as tempting as it gets. We should all aspire to a greater level of snow science education, but according to statistics, even education and experience can occasionally lead us astray through over-confidence.
Many of us feel as though we have a functional back country skill set built by time spent in the mountains, but how much experience do any of us really have? We witness only a small fraction of slides each year, and we study only a small fraction of the overall topography of any given slope. Even the “experts” have a limited amount of experience to draw from (with which they are doing an amazing job) when confronted with the difficult task of analyzing the complex and ever changing layers of the snow pack.
The model that we use for avalanche forecasting is great and getting better every year, but the true number of variables in the equation is staggering and far outside the scope of our current models. Someday we’ll have a hyper-intelligent Roomba-like snow pack analyzer that sweeps back and forth giving us a total picture of the snow pack of each mountain, until then we have to work with what we’ve got. We use the information available to us and make an educated guess. Remember, unexpected slides occasionally happen on the well controlled slopes of Alyeska Resort, despite Howitzer bombardment, hand charges, Ava-launchers, and a whole team of skilled Professional Ski Patrol.
The patrol has long recommended that we wear our beacons while skiing at the resort.
The Sunburst and Seattle Creek rescues represent education, practice, and an unfathomable amount of luck. I’m not suggesting that any of the individuals involved in the slides were correct or incorrect in their decision making. I am suggesting that we practice some humility and try to empathize with them rather than pass judgment.
It is good to step back and learn from any mistakes that were made leading to a human triggered avalanche and then add this information to our overall forecasting and backcountry safety model, but snap judgments and assigning blame does not benefit anyone… and it just isn’t cool. Everyone makes mistakes, watch your karma.
Let’s learn from the bad, celebrate the good, and pay homage to the heroic. The bottom line is: we all need to work on staying humble on the slopes of these great mountains.
To wrap it up, I’ll leave you with an affective solution to the avalanche dilemma from Anchorage resident John Schick, “Yeah, there’s always a risk, I guess the safest thing is to just stay home… model trains, now that seems like a safe hobby.”
By Ginny Grupp
Special to the Turnagain Times
Ah, vacation. Warm, sunny beaches, hikes in the dessert, long and lazy days. Spring break is coming and for many of us Alaskans, that means one thing … escaping from winter. Whatever your passion when you leave your everyday life, there is no reason to leave fitness at home. Vacations are a great time to re-energize your workout routine. You are in a new setting, one that is likely completely unfamiliar to you, so take advantage. Here’s how.
Go for a walk, a run, or rent a bicycle and explore your new surroundings. Get a more intimate knowledge or the place you are visiting by exploring the immediate area. Learn by-ways and back-roads while saving gas money to spend on other fun activities. Check with local staff for recommended routes and get out there.
Try a new sport. You are miles and miles away from home, none of your regular crowd is around, so why not challenge yourself? No one you know will see you fall off the surfboard. You are never too old to try something new and who knows ... you might find a new passion.
Plan an active vacation. Not all vacations have to be lie-around-on-the-lounge-chair vacations. There are also backpacking vacations, ski vacations, SCUBA diving vacations. You can plan your trip around a particular activity that you don’t include in your regular workout routine. You can also use your vacation as a reason to train harder day-to-day to be in your best shape to accomplish new challenges while you’re away.
Sneak activity into every day while you’re away. So you’ve planned the lounge-chair vacation and are looking forward to a lack of phones, fax machines and computers. Great! Before you hit the lounge chair, why not do a few lunges, squats and/or push-ups in your room before you begin your day. Even working in a few yoga poses will keep you from falling behind on your fitness routine and having to start over when you return.
Enjoy your time away. Most of all enjoy your time off. If you’re not going to be gone for an extended period (a week or less), you may decide to completely break your workout routine. Rest is often the most neglected piece of a training program and it is just as important as putting in the work time.
So, enjoy the time off and you can work on your training plan for when you return. You may find you return feeling more refreshed, energized and you may even be “jones-ing” to get back to those tough workouts you were dreading before you went on vacation.
Ginny Grupp holds a Master of Science degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion and is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. Visit her online at www.AlaskaFit.com.