Obiter Dicta | The Blog of Ehren J. Brav

This was a snowshoe conditioner around Rampart Ridge starting from the Longmire Museum at Mt. Rainier.   It snowed the entire time – big fluffy flakes mostly. The avalanche conditions that day were worrisome, so we were careful to stay around any exposed slopes.

We helped the students learn self-arrest, but the problem with training in such soft snow is that it’s too easy to stop – it doesn’t give you the experience of what it would be like if you really needed to self-arrest. Hard to find those conditions, though, in a safe environment with good run-out.