Telemark Skiing Class

Telemark skiing is dang hard! It is the best form of back country travel because you can hike up hills and ski down them. On the bottom of the ski are scales that grip the snow in one direction allowing you to go up hills easier without slipping down. Of course we push ourselves and go the craziest routes and try and summit the hardest peaks around so it makes things a little more tricky. Basically your toes are clipped in with you heel free to go up and down and when you do a telemark turn you lunge down and then pop up the other direction. Its a killer leg work out and a tough skill to master. I learned to really like it and enjoy the trip up the mountain instead of viewing it as a lot longer and harder version of a chair lift. If you go for a hike in the winter you can do it with tele skis on and then when you get to the top instead of hiking down you get the added benefit of skiing down.
All of a sudden all of our avalnche class training became very real to us when we all heard a loud echoing explosion sound that bounces off all the mountains around us. We were quickly told that that was the famous "wump" sound and to be on the lookout. Someone then spotted on the face across from us a slide where an avalanche had just occurred. It was actually really cool because of someone just saying "ya wear a helmet when you ride a back...safety safety blah blah blah" the danger was all of a sudden very real to us. We were constantly digging pits to do tests and picking our routes very carefully based on snow pack, degree of the slope, and other things like tree cover.

By this time in winter skills they came to a realization that we were spendint o much time going up and down the mountain are speding lots of money on diesel gas, a broken thumb from the sterring wheel, and lots of time shoveling and hiking. So the decided we would just go up once more and stay up for the rest of the four days. This was a surpsie to everyone and an added challenge to be sure. The warm showers after ward feel so amazing. This last pic was the sun shining on us in the morning after waking up before heading to the summit. That was a good gift.