Little Fella Here There and Everywhere!: Avalanche Skills Training and Backcountry Pow

So with the end of contracts at Evergreen came a fair amount of spare time! Al and I decided that to fill this we would do the avalanche skills training levels 1 and 2. This turned out to be a brilliant idea as meant that we got to enjoy 5 days of backcountry touring, fascinating snow skills and the best snow in 3 different resorts (Tsugaike, Cortina and Happo). With brilliant guides Dave Enright and Bill Glude we were in safe hands even on the high risk avalanche days, however this didnt mean that the days that passed were uneventful! I had a near miss on the first day of the level 2 after falling and sliding headfirst into a very deep hole around a metal telegraph pole. I managed to then get buried under the snow that fell in on top of me so that only my legs, skis still attatched in true comedy fashion, were left sticking out of the snow! I managaed to dig my face out just in time for another bunch of snow to fall in on me. Had to just lie there and wait for the others to dig me out and quite frankly it was pretty terrifying! thankfully I was only down there for 3 mins and got away with just a bit of sore neck. Following this event I avoided all large holes in the snow and enjoyed some epic powder and tree runs over the next 2 days including a hike in to the happo north bowls which was what you could describe as big mountain riding! An amazing few days of learning and loving life!