March 17, 2017 Team member Marian Krogh has been spending most of her northern hemisphere winter in Colorado. Here she participated in an AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) course focusing on studying the snowpack and determining it's stability. Read about what she learned here: The snowpack in the Tien Shen is a continental snowpack, which is very similar to what the snowpack is like in Colorado. I was therefore really interested in doing this course with AIARE as the knowledge and skills I gained were much more applicable to our expedition next year than with a similar course in New Zealand. A continental snowpack is relatively shallow and has less frequent storms with low density snow than a maritime snowpack. There can be very cold but variable temperatures causing more layers in the snowpack. Avalanches that occur can be direct action (immediately after a storm) and delayed action (between storms) from deep weak layers in the snowpack. Generally it's scary and unstable. In Colorado or Canada or New Zealand there are official avalanche bulletins posted online each day. Professionals have assessed the conditions and summarise them for us to read every morning before we go out touring and use them to help us make decisions in the backcountry. In Kyrgyzstan however there will be no online avalanche report. We will have to make that ourselves which is why I felt this course was especially important. The course consisted of a full classroom day to start. Reading, listening, watching videos and taking lots of notes about snow. How it falls during a storm, what happens to it once it falls, what happens when it's buried, has sun, wind or rain, different types of crystals, how the crystals change over time etc etc. Most interestingly and importantly we learned about conditions create a weak layer in the snowpack and yellow flags to watch out for to help identify when this is happening. The next few days were spent outside covering a few important topics which can never be practiced enough; companion rescue (Multiple, close and deep burials), navigation and map reading skills, route planning and weather charting. The majority of the second day consisted of digging pits to closely analyse the snow and perform different types of tests. We dug a giant pit to work with 3 different walls. On one wall we recorded every layer with temperatures, snow crystal analysis with type and size and hardness. Then we performed compression tests, Extended column tests and a propagation saw test to see which layers were weakest and might lead to collapse. It was interesting that they layers we thought to be weakest after analysing the snow weren't actually the same layers that failed with the other tests. We then took the information we'd gathered to plan a tour for the next day. This was also great practise; planning a route based on goals and objectives for learning with backup options, turn around times and safety considerations. We combined what we learned from the snow and other resources to determine the safest route and minimise the risk.
Overall the course was pretty intense but a great learning opportunity. I'm excited to study the snow some more before the spring adventures and continue to practise throughout the NZ winter in preparation for Kyrgyzstan next year.
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August 2019
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