Category: Ski Patrol

As hard as it was to believe, the spring was racing by and June was already here, which meant that it was time for Nuts & Bolts 2025 at Mt Hood. I was looking forward to this year, since it was likely the last official “patrol” days that I would have with Shaun since he was aging out of the SPY program. It was also our 3rd season together at Nuts & Bolts, and a good time for some father/son bonding. Like the year prior, we left our house in around 5:00 pm, and after a quick stop in Coburg to pick up Atticus, we headed north on I-5 towards Mt Hood.

We stopped on the way up to grab a quick bite at Chipotle, then made our way to Govy, arriving at our condo at Collins Lake  around 8:00 pm. Ian and James were getting a bite to eat at the Mt Hood brew pub, so we unloaded our gear and grabbed a bunk. A bit later, Ian and James showed up at the condo, and a few others trickled in a well, including jenn, Mark, and Dan. A few hours later we headed for bed, ready for a fun day of turns and clinics on the mountain.

We woke early, and after eating my usual breakfast of two eggs and a bagel, I hit the road with Shaun and Atticus in tow. About 10 minutes later, we were gearing up in the Timberline parking lot, and checking in with other patrollers from around the northwest and beyond. The morning meeting was filled with the usual announcements and banter, and before long we organized into groups and headed out. Ian and I were on the same track for the weekend, with most of our clinics being instructor/toboggan related.

We took a ride up the Mile chair and then skated down to the Palmer, and zipped up to the top and were greeted with great views under blue skies. We skated over to the middle of the top of the run, and met up with our Toboggan Trainers group to discuss some optimal training exercises for new sled candidates. We dropped in for a few runs with the sleds, taking turns in the handles and on the tail rope. I snapped a few photos of the action before jumping in to the handles myself.

After spinning a couple of laps, Heather from Mt Hood snapped a photo of several of us in the instructor clinic, including Andy and I from the Pass. When she gave me the camera back, I offered to shoot a picture of her and Rich (who’s a National board member), and she was happy to accept.

After snapping a few pics and enjoying a break for lunch, we spun one more lap with the sleds before calling it a day around 1:00. Right about that time, Shaun met up with me at the top of the Palmer and we were able to ski a couple of laps together. It was nice skiing with him, since we didn’t get too many runs together all season since our regular patrol schedule was so busy.

Once we made our way back to the top of the Palmer, we met up with James, Ian jenn and Mark to spin a few laps before closing. A few more pictures followed, and Ian snapped a few photos of James, Shaun and I, as well as just Shaun and I. They turned out nice, and the second shot below is my favorite patrol shot of the season of Shaun and I.

We enjoyed a couple of laps on the upper Palmer before calling it a day and heading down through the lower Palmer, to the Mile and then into the public park. I snapped several photos of the crew as we descended. As usual, the halfpipe was in perfect condition, and a few of us enjoyed riding the walls (no air unfortunately) on the way down.

The further down we skied the stickier the snow became, but it was nice to slide all the way back to the parking lot. After changing out of ski boots and ski gear, we ditched the gear and headed to the Ram’s Head at the lodge to enjoy a cold beer. With the weather being conducive, we opted to sit outside on the patio in the front of the lodge with a great view south towards Mt Jefferson and beyond.

A little later, we headed back to the car and then down to Govy to get ready for the evening. The plan was to meet up around 6:00 pm or so at the Ratskellar, eat pizza with the crew, and take part in the raffle. We did just that, with the added bonus of watching the 1st game of the Beaver baseball super regional against Florida State on the big screen. It turned out to be a great night. Not only did Shaun win a Leatherman tool and enjoy a whole lot of pizza, but we got to watch the beavers win game 1 in the most dramatic comeback I’ve maybe ever seen. Down 4-1 entering the bottom of the 9th inning, they scored one run on a past ball, and then tied it up on a two-out, two-strike pitch that Jacob Kreig took into the outfield. The whole bar went absolutely berserk and did so again in extra innings when they walked it off. It was definitely a night I will never forget. To top it off, I played a few games of cornhole with Shaun, before heading out for a walk around Govy with both him and Atticus.

After our walk, we headed back to the Ratskellar to find the rest of the crew, and then made the short walk back to the condo to hit the sack and get ready for day number 2. Day 2 dawned clear and warm, and after breakfast we headed back up to the hill. This was going to be Shaun’s last day, since he was heading home in the evening for a planned get together with friends. We headed up to the check-in, got our skis hot waxed, and then headed out for another day of clinics in the sun on the Palmer.

Shaun was in a ski enhancement seminar, and I was back in the instructor series for toboggan enhancement. Like the day before, we broke into groups, and my lead for the day was Jim O’Conner, the current Outdoor Emergency Transportation director for NSP. He put on a great clinic, and had lots of good tips for skiers working with snowboarders and vice-versa. We started the morning off with some simple drills that became progressively more and more challenging.

We spent the better part of the morning running drills on the Palmer, and I learned several things I’m planning on taking back to the Pass for the upcoming season. Around 12:30 or so, the clinic wrapped up, and I caught up with Shaun for a few laps to free ski. Several others from the Pass joined in on the fun, and we spun a few laps on the groomed snow of the Palmer.

Like the day before, I pulled out the camera and shot a bunch of photos of the Willamette Pass crew harvesting the corn. We hung out on the upper Palmer for a couple of laps, and once the snow started getting sticky, we headed down to hit the lodge after an enjoyable day of clinics and turns.

The ride down the lower Palmer and the Mile was fun, and like the day before, we hit the halfpipe and popped off a few of the smaller hits in the public park, before riding it out back to the parking lot. 

Once back to the car, we ditched the ski boots and headed to the lodge for a deserved drink at the Ram’s Head. A few minutes later, Julie showed up to grab Shaun, and we enjoyed a few minutes at the lodge together. I walked them out to the car, and it was bittersweet to see them leave, knowing it was probably the last time I’d ski with Shaun in his SPY jacket.

After Julie and Shaun left, I headed back to the lodge and hung out with the crew for a few minutes, and then we headed down to Govy for the afternoon. I headed out for a run to get a workout in, and a bit later it was time for dinner outside the patrol area. The theme for dinner this year was Mexican food, and it the tacos hit the spot. As usual, the shot ski made an appearance, with money going to the Mt Hood ski patrol. And Matt (the Mt Hood patrol director), was busy blending up margaritas and passing them out to anyone who was thirsty, so it made for a fun evening.

Eventually, we all made our way back to the condo, and went to bed in anticipation of the final day of the 2025 Nuts & Bolts event. Sunday morning arrived early, and after a quick breakfast, we checked out of the condo and headed up to the mountain one final time. It was forecast to get warm, and it was already around 65 degrees in the parking lot when we arrived.

The crowd for the Sunday check-in was a bit smaller than the previous two days, but nevertheless it was a good representation of folks from across the northwest and beyond. After the morning announcements, everyone headed out and we made our way to the top of the Palmer.

I was in an instructor clinic led by Joe Harwood, who I’ve worked with a ton at the Pass and who was also my sled instructor during my candidate year, and Andy and Matt also took part. As was typical, we had to wait for Harwood for about 15 minutes at the top of the Palmer…

Once Joe showed up, we set to work running drills on the Palmer. It was fun discussing how to best work with new and experienced sled candidates back at our local hills, and we spent a few hours working the hill. As usual, I snapped several photos, as well as a few of Ian and jenn once we made our way back to the top of the Palmer – they were working a similar clinic.

Joe’s clinic wrapped up around noon, and wanting to play a little more with the sleds, I headed over to work with Whit, Ian, Amber and jenn. They were working with the edge, and practicing wheel-barrowing (how to handle the sled in the event it breaks away from the skier in the handles). I jumped in and gave jenn a few tips on the snowboard, and soon she had it down!

After a couple of runs, I was able to convince jenn to take the sled up for one more and let me sit as ballast and shoot a couple of photos from the patient view. It worked out well and I got a few shots as well as a good run. 

We ditched the sled at the mid-station, and headed back up to enjoy the last few free ski, lift served runs of the season. I snapped a few shots of Ian enjoying the action before we met back up with the group to head down.

For our final lap, I grabbed sled carrier that needed to be taken down, and Ian took the Edge, and we headed off. Someone took a cell phone shot (below) of our crew on the way down, and I snapped several shots of Ian running the Edge…

We milked the snow right down to the parking lot, and after depositing the sled and carrier where they need to be, headed to the car to strip off the ski gear and enjoy some snacks and cold beverage. I was excited to have a super tasty Log Splitter pale ale from Great Notion that I’d tried a few weeks earlier on a trip to Portland with Julie, and it definitely hit the spot on the warm afternoon.

A bit later, the crew all took off for home. I headed down to Govy – with a glimmer of hope that my original thought of spending the night and riding one more day on the upper mountain via either the south side or the Wy’East face might pan out. When I made it to town though, I knew that wasn’t going to work. It was 87 in Govy and supposed to be just as warm or warmer on Monday. So, I made a pit stop at the Mt Hood brew pub and picked up a 6-pack of Cloud Cap amber ale for later in the season, and hit the road home (it hit 101 in Estacada on my drive home!). A couple of hours later, Nuts & Bolts 2025 was a memory, but it’s one I’ll hold onto forever. I’m already looking forward to a return trip in 2026. Until then, hHere’s a parting shot of our Willamette Pass crew from this year!

After a long (technically the longest) and amazing season, closing day for the 2024-2025 ski year was finally here at the Pass. I left the house early with Shaun, for what would most likely be his last day as a member of the SPY program, and we drove to Dan’s house and headed up to the Pass from there on electric power. We were greeted to a flooded aid room when we walked in, which is somewhat typical during the two to three week period of intense snowmelt at the end of the season.

The rest of the patrollers on duty showed up a bit later, and soon we had our final morning meeting of the season. James was acting as hill chief, and we debriefed plans to get the gear down off the hill in the most efficient manner possible before heading out at 8:00 am to catch the first chair of closing day. The plan for the operating hours was to be open from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm for the public, so we’d have an abbreviated day to get everything off the hill.

I rode up the chair with Dan and a couple others, and after opening RTS and Amber’s, headed back up to head over to open Peak 2 with Dan. Once Peak 2 was open, Dan and I set about pulling all of the gear out of the lift shack and storing it next to the sleds in preparation for it to go down later in the day. With the exception of the expensive stuff (BLS pack, etc.), everything came out.

A bit later we headed back to the front and I spent a bit of time with Atticus pulling tower pads down off EPA since By George was closed. It was bit tricky getting down (especially with a big EPA pad in tow), but I managed to find a path through without having to take off my board and by only having to ride over a bit of dirt, sticks and rocks.

We spun another lap to the top, and this time I headed down and recruited Rob to help me bring down the fencing around the ski shack. With George closed, it was already taken down and just needed to be skied to the base. The race shack fencing is large and super heavy, and always makes for an awkward ski carry.

By the time we got the fencing put away, it was time for lunch before heading back out for some more work before meeting up to take the tower pads down off of Peak 2. I met up with Shaun and someone (I think James but can’t remember who) snapped a picture of us outside the bump shack. Looking back on this picture I can’t help but think of how much Shaun has matured in his three years on SPY and how proud I am of all he’s accomplished.

A few minutes later, I watched Shaun and Atticus take off to head to Peak 2 and then helped Dan load the sled from the Saddle Tube with unneeded gear to take down to the base. I snapped a few pics as they all took off…

Around 1:00 pm or so, a group of us gathered at the top of Peak 2 and closed off Northern and Down Under so we could head down and remove tower pads from the lift. We headed down and I snapped a few photos, and I smiled as I remembered that nearly 6 months earlier in late November I was putting the same pads up with Brian and Dan.

We hauled the pads down to the base and stacked them outside the lift shack so that the area could snowmobile them around to the front a few days later. Amazingly, it only took one run to get all the pads down and then we all headed back to the top to get ready for sweep.

Before we dropped in to close the runs, we orchestrated a picture of the closing crew for the final Peak 2 sweep of the season. Pictured below from left in the back row is Dan, Emily, Rob, Shaun, Atticus, Scarlett, James and Matt. In the front row is Raina, Toby, Kyron, Mindy and Kerstin.

After taking a few pics of the closing crew, we dropped in to close the backside for the final time of the season. I accompanied Shaun and we closed Down Under. It was a bit bittersweet knowing this was likely his final day as a SPY and final time “officially” closing Peak 2.

We regrouped at the base of the lift and loaded the chair for the final time for the season, and headed back up to the top to gear up for closing the upper mountain. 

At the top of EPA, we loaded the rest of the gear into the sleds and assigned runs for sweep. I snapped a few more pics of the action, and then once the call was made that sweep was on, I headed down KP with a loaded Cascade 100.

The tow of the sled down KP to the base was a bit on the sticky and sloggy side, but eventually I rolled in and there was a flurry of activity at the patrol room with folks unloading and organizing gear. Shaun and Atticus were putting the empty sleds away in the patrol room, and I jumped in to help drag some of the tower pads over to the lodge.

We worked for a half hour or so after closing to take care of all the gear, and then it was time to enjoy the final social hour of the season with the crew. I grabbed my beer of choice for the day – a well rounded Hazy Pale Ale from Icicle Brewing Company, and headed out to get a shot of it with the mountain in the background. Looking up at the hill, it was obvious that even though we were hoping to eek out an additional weekend, the mountain made a good call for this day to be closing day.

We hung out for awhile in the parking lot outside the patrol room, and eventually loaded our gear, including the skis and boards which were coming down for the season. 

Finally, it was time to hit the road and sign-off on a great 2024-2025 season. Here’s a parting shot of Shaun working the mop in the patrol room on closing morning 🙂

After celebrating Easter with the family a day early, I headed up to the Pass for a day with Patrol 2 on Easter Sunday. The weather was looking to be quite nice, with clear skies and warm temps forecast for the day. We’d planned an Easter brunch as well, and I was looking forward to some good potluck style food. After our morning meeting, we headed out to open the hill. At the top of EPA, I snapped a bunch of pics of patrollers getting ready for the day, including the two pics below.

Ian grabbed a few pictures as well, and even got me in one of them. He was nice enough to send it my way….

After spinning a lap on the front and getting the mountain open, I headed to the back and put in a bit of work there. At the top, I grabbed a few pictures of Emily and Andy before setting off for opening another run.

After getting the back open, I headed back down to the patrol room to tidy up the avalanche gear for the season and take care of a few other tasks. By the time I was done with that, it was getting close to lunch time, so I headed out to the car for a quick minute and snapped a couple of pics before coming back to enjoy the potluck.

On my way back to the patrol room I found Zach tending to some food on the grill, and when I entered the patrol room, the potluck was in full swing! I loaded my plate with some Easter ham, some salad, and a few other items, and wolfed it down before heading back out on the hill.

I rode up to the top of EPA to sit bump for an hour, and brought my telephoto lens along with me to shoot a few pictures of the peaks to the south of the Pass, including Diamond, Redtop and Lakeview.

I also snapped a few photos of my beer I was hoping to enjoy later in the evening – a tasty PFriem lager from PFriem Beer. After situating the can in some grass down below the top terminal, I found a composition that showcased the golden can.

A bit later, I heard some traffic on the radio and it sounded like Ian and Mark were going to be giving our dispatcher Kris a sled ride so she could experience the “ride down” that a patient experiences while in a sled. 10 minutes later or so, Ian and Kris arrived at the top of EPA and Ian began rigging the sled to take here down.

It was about time for my bump to be over, and before I headed down to shoot a few pics of Ian, Kris and Mark, James offered to take a quick shot of me and Diamond Peak. I returned the favor and snapped a picture of him and Emily, before getting a shot of all of us reflecting in the EPA camera.

A few more pics of the Easter crew followed — like I mentioned, it was beautiful weather and a beautiful day for taking pictures.

Eventually, I strapped into my bindings and slid down the toothpaste tube and caught up with Ian and Mark running Kris down in the sled. I snapped several photos as they headed down KP, including the three below.

Down at the base, we put the sled contents back in the sled, and returned the sled back to the top of EPA. I took a stroll through the patrol room to see if any patrollers were in need of assistance with their patients, and surprisingly the aid room was empty, so I headed up to the deck to get a view of the mountain. The below shot, while not seeming to be anything special, is pretty cool, since this spring marked the first time the outdoor deck had been open in many, many years (I can’t remember it being open in the last 15-20 years)!

The rest of my afternoon was spent spinning a few laps on EPA and riding RTS, which had corned nicely in the afternoon sun, as well as shooting some photos of a bald eagle at the top of EPA. There was actually a pair of eagles hanging out up top, but by the time I got up there only one remained for the photo op.

After walking down the toothpaste tube a short ways to get the optimal angle to shoot pics of the eagle, I headed back up and grabbed a picture of Michael, Craig and Ken hanging out up top, before heading down for a final lap on RTS before Peak 2 sweep.

I made to the top of Peak 2 in time for our afternoon sweep, and just before we began sweep we orchestrated a quick group shot of our Easter crew.

Sweep went quickly, and we actually had time to get one last lap in before upper mountain sweep began. James, Emily and I headed down across the James Bond trail and skied down Eagle’s, which was pretty soft in the afternoon sun, but still quite fun.

We made it back to to the top with ample time to spare, and a few minutes later the call came across the radio and upper mountain sweep was on. We had extra bodies at the top, so I doubled up with Zach and we swept Success, which is my second favorite run to sweep next to RTS.

Both upper and lower mountain sweep went smoothly, and soon the crew was down in the patrol room, happy to have another good day on the mountain come to a close. A few beverages and snacks after the evening meeting capped off the day, and eventually we threw the gear in the car and headed down the highway with another fun day of patrolling at the Pass in the books! 

The middle end of March rolled in with a storm for the ages, dumping about six feet of snow over the previous Saturday and Sunday, and it stayed cold for much of the week. After getting out the previous Saturday for a non-patrol fun ski day with Andy, I was back on duty on the 22nd and captured a few photos of the mountain looking absolutely buried. The snow stake was holding steady at about 138 inches, which is about as high as I’ve ever seen it. Someday I want to see the Boundary Pass sign completely buried!

Since we’d had about 4-6 inches of snow overnight, we decided to run the avalanche route, but my suspicions of nothing moving proved out after we ran the ridge and setup the belay to ski cut the meadow. Nevertheless, it was good to run the route because you never know what you’re gonna’ find.

It really was amazing to see all the snow at the Pass, and the backside truly was buried. When I got to the base of Peak 2 after doing the avy route, I had to snap a picture of the Peak 2 base sign nearly buried!

The rest of the day went played out like most patrol days had this season, we had a few incidents, a few sled rides, and some good turns. I snapped a picture of a few of the P2 crew in the patrol room when I came in to put the avalanche pack away, and then took the camera off for the day.

A couple of weeks later, I was back at the Pass for a day of patrol, this time with out Shaun since he ended up taking a baseball to the eye and was on light duty for two weeks. The weather was a start contrast to the month of March, and it was sunny and nice. I headed up to help open EPA and it was super icy and firm. Naturally nobody wanted to open RTS, so I volunteered. It was scary icy, and after making my way down, I ended up opening most of Twilight since the lift was having problems.

After doing equipment and weather, and stationing the sled near the end of the unloading ramp, I opened Swoosh, West Rough Cut, and Rough Cut, I headed back up to the top of EPA hoping to come down RTS and get the other runs before anyone else was able to get up Midway. My plan didn’t work out as folks topped on on the Midway lift just before I made it back to the top of EPA, so I enjoyed the view before heading down to help with the ski tests.

It had been a year or two since I’d helped out with the ski testing, and there was a slew of folks signed up for testing this year. We had about 12-15 ready to go on this day, so I headed out with Joe, Andy, Ian and jenn, and we made our way to the top of Twilight (via Midway) for a run before heading to EPA to spin a couple of laps on Eagle’s.

We put the crew through the paces, evaluating long, medium and short radius turns, as well as overall skiing ability and the ability to follow simple directions. The folks did well and we wrapped up just before Jen was done grilling burgers. Ultimately, we ended up passing 4-5 folks.

By the time we were done I was definitely hungry, and Jen’s burgers hit the spot. She was happy to grill for everyone and we were happy to eat! I snapped a few pics before taking my burger and chowing down with the crew in the patrol room.

The afternoon was filled with more sun, and it was nice to get out and make some turns with Patrol 3. I headed over to Peak 2 after lunch and enjoyed some good turns on the backside before heading up to the top at 3:30 for sweep.

Peak 2 sweep went smoothly, and soon I was hiking to EPA for upper mountain sweep. When I arrived at the top, I found Dan, Ian and Sarah all hanging out waiting for last chair.

I also snapped a few pics of Asa, Adair and Asher before we started sweep. It was just a good day for shooting some pictures with the beautiful weather.

Upper mountain, and then lower mountain sweep both went smoothly, and Toby held a quick evening meeting so we could jump in and enjoy some chips and salsa as well as some hard earned beverages. I had a cold Pale Ale from Ninkasi Brewing on the snow that I was looking forward to drinking, and that’s exactly what I did.

I hung around the patrol room for another half hour or so, enjoying the company of P3 and the rest of the crew. Eventually, it was time to head home, feeling good after having spent another enjoyable day at the Pass with good people.

After stumbling through a dry January and wondering if there would be fresh snow to make our Level 1 Avalanche course at the Pass more enjoyable, February arrived with cooler temperatures and a healthy dose of fresh powder. Needless to say, the stoke level was high as our crew headed out to the Pass for a couple of days of field work after wrapping up the classroom sessions earlier in the week.

After spending a few hours to put the final touches on the field days, we divided our rather large class of 23 folks up into two groups for the morning session on day one. Everyone was boot ready in the lodge at 8:00 am, and soon we hopped on the lift to head to the top of the mountain for some work with beacons, probing, shoveling and snow pit analysis.

Brian and Laurie led group one with small group rescue in the traditional spot near the Kris Kross closure, and I headed down to Lighthouse Knob with John Fischer and Jon Marshall to do some snowpit tests and observations.

After leading a discussion on the various stability tests, we dug a test pit for the students and then they dug their own pits. Everyone performed extended column tests and several of us also did the propagation saw test. Interestingly, most of the ECT tests were negative (no results) although a few results were in the range of ECTP25-28. The PST results, however, were mostly positive. Given all the new snow, the weak layer was 30-40 inches down, which appeared to be accounting for some of the variable results.

The weak layer was a crust sitting on top of a fairly large amount of depth hoar, something we traditionally don’t see in the Oregon cascades. It was a good experience for the students and also fun to be able to look at the crystals and see the facets.

Once the first round of rotations were complete, we switched groups and did the same work again. Once that was complete, that brought us to an hour or so of small group rescue. My team headed down to the bottom of RTS and did some work hiding and subsequently finding buried beacons. By 3:00 pm, the whole class gathered at the top of the Sleepy Headwall for an orientation on formal probing and probe lines. Laurie led that conversation and I snapped a few photos before we headed down to the top of Sleepy for some work with the probes.

The formal probing went well, and after a half an hour or so, the day was done and sweep was underway. Our crew headed down to the base to take part in the evening meeting, and also to collect all the patrol gear (beacons, shovels, probes, etc.) that were loaned out during the day.

The evening finished with some good food and cold beverages in the patrol room, enjoyed in the company of other patrollers. After the evening wore on, Shaun and I headed down to Oakridge to stay with Brian and Shannon, who graciously offered to let us stay at their place. We enjoyed a tasty homemade mac and cheese that hit the spot, and later in the evening Brian and I went over the last details of the final scenario that would take place on Sunday afternoon.

The next morning we woke early, had a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee, and loaded into the car and headed up to the hill. Like the day before, we met early in the lodge, and the groups did some trip planning for their tours before heading to the top of EPA

After everyone was on the lift and ready to head out of the area, Brian and I set about getting the gear ready for our organized scenario later in the day that would test all the skills the students had learned throughout the course. It took a couple of trips to get all the gear to the top of EPA, and then we headed down to Peak 2 so we could bring it up to SDN where everything would be placed.

The next couple of hours were spent creating the avalanche, which is always a ton of work, but lots of fun. With the help of SPY (Obende and Adair), we dug out the crown face, the flanks, and then spent some time digging out the toe. Next, it was time to hide the targets, which included beacons as well as plywood placed strategically below clues. This year, we strategically placed some tasty beverages (both beers and sodas) below the targets, which would be enjoyed after the class.

By 1:00 pm, we had a pretty good looking avalanche scenario built and ready to go. Satisfied with our work, we headed back to the top of SDN about the same time as some of the tour groups were arriving back at the top of Peak 2.

Since we were wearing coats, we headed down through SDN to get back to the base – one of the perks of teaching the class. If was the first time through the area for Obende, and he was pretty stoked by the time we got to the bottom of RTS.

Once down at the base, we enjoyed a quick lunch and then headed back up to the top of Peak 2  for a 2:00 pm meetup with the rest of the class. This year, Amber was serving in the role as “hill chief” and Emily agreed to be in the lead role of “incident commander.” The two ladies did an awesome job of assigning the first response teams (beacons and spot probers), and soon the class started filtering into the scenario. Steve served as the patroller who met with the reporting party (me), so we were able to watch the scenario play out.

The beacon searchers made short work of finding the three buried beacons, and soon a few other “victims” were also found downhill of clues with concentrated spot probing. When there were only two targets/victims left to find, the group moved to an organized probe line that started at the toe.

Eventually, all the targets were found, with the exception of one. After digging a hole that must have been about 10 x 10 feet, we determined that one of the SPY must have buried one of the plywood targets not in the area where we thought they put it.

Once everyone was accounted for, we headed back to the top of Peak 2 and got a class photo after debriefing the scenario. This year’s class was quite large, but it was an awesome crew made up of patrollers, hosts, SPY, backcountry patrollers and area employees.

We finished the day off by skiing all the gear back down to the patrol room and making sure all the patrol avalanche gear was returned. Brian, Mark, Emily, Haley, Dan and I took the opportunity to ski down SDN, and I snapped a quick photo of the group at the bottom of RTS.

Sitting in the patrol room drinking one of the beers we’d hidden in the scenario, I was feeling pretty happy that the weekend was coming to a close. Planning the avalanche class is always a big lift, and I couldn’t do it without the awesome crew of instructors we have on patrol. This year was no exception, and this year’s course was a resounding success, that was capped off with great snow and field conditions. Here’s to hoping the next class we hold is just as successful!