Spring, a notional concept

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.

Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”

Yoko Ono

The Scottish "Spring" has arrived early and as usual it is a very notional concept as we have some winter up high. Snow drops are popping up early, bulbs and daffys are growing and even Glencoe village has the sun threatening to appear after is long holiday below Am Meall.  Glencoe Massacre day on the 13th is when we at the lower end of the village get a blink. Ironic on a day of remembrance of a tragedy.

The best best time in the mountains is approaching with longer days, shorter nights, and you could say better weather (that's a very notional thing). Winter isn't over and has a few throws at us yet though. late Feb/March is a great time to get the touring ski's out, or the free ski's to get exploring. The spring snowpack is often a granular corn and much les avalanche prone too. But as we all know we can end up with big dumps, high winds and full winter conditions right up until May. Don't let you guard drop too early.

I am always banging on about avalanche risk as in a way it's my bread and butter as a Recco trainer and Ortovox retailer, also working with the great folk of Glencoe ski patrol on a mountain that has many interesting slopes. Being a three sided polygon the ski mountain always has an aspect that loads, and two of the aspects give great off piste itineries with the main one the best snow holding in Scotland. Spring snow days with good cover and folk are dropping off into the back and having fun or venturing over to Clachleathad and Creise.

Selling avalanche equipment and teaching avalanche rescue is very satisfying.  The courses I used to run were not really about rescue though, which is a misconception some seem to have. They are about awareness of the weather, causes of avalanches, how to avoid them through planning, thinking about group dynamics and communication, and terrain interpretation. In this context the rescue and recovery scenarios are very much about acknowledging that we get things wrong and bad things happen. If you have not succeeded in avoiding the risk then by practicing with the rescue tools (beacon, shovel, probe) in realistic scenarios you can reduce the consequences. No enough emphasis is given on risk exposure and risk acceptance. Basically off piste skiing you are tugging the tail of a dragon. The more often you tug the more likely that one day it will flame you out. You can dig pits, look at crystals and do all that stuff but keep dropping 32° slopes on new snow days and one day your burnt.

It's dead easy to slip a red ski patrol jacket on, or become an armchair expert and be risk averse. But, most of us have learned more about the subject by our own errors, and most often if you work or play hard in the mountains with risk exposure, sadly with time your number will come up. That's the mountains and specifically when off piste skiing where the line between the best day of your life and the last day can be ephemeral. Unless folk accept that as a basic premise they might as well take up knitting. Skiing the steeps and the deeps can never be made 100% safe by ski patrollers, bombs or fences. It's down to you the skier, ski patroller (or mountaineer) to get out, and get experience away from your familiar areas of recreation or work, so you that you are forced to learn to make plans, decisions and terrain choices in unfamiliar places.  That's where you learn quickest.  You have to do this to stay alive.

There are no shortcuts. Only time in the mountains (a lifetime), respect for them (humility) and learning to read them (terrain) will keep you alive.  Oh! and a defecit of hubris helps.