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![\"DIG!](\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pic-1--150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t- \n\t\t\t\tDIG! In an avalanche rescues you have less than 15minutes to find and uncover your friend. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
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![\"A](\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pic-2-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t- \n\t\t\t\tPlanning our ski tour. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
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Last Friday, a group of five eager backcountry skiers gathered at the Outdoor Research Retail Store in Seattle for Day 1 of their AIARE Avalanche I Course.\u00c2\u00a0 Surrounded by awesome OR gear and beautiful mountain photos, it was impossible to not be inspired to explore Washington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s majestic winter wonderland. That afternoon we dove into the fundamentals of avalanche safety. We talked about avalanche terrain, the winter snowpack, and how, we as travelers, make decisions.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a great day of prep for our two days in the field on Mt. Rainier.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forecast was anything but perfect. Rain, rain, and more rain. As the group gathered at IMG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ashford, WA based headquarters the rain continued to pour down outside. Our team set down to the task of planning a fun short tour to practice avalanche rescue and to view some avalanche terrain. Then we all donned our goretex and jumped feet first into the puddles of the Paradise parking lot. The only bad days in the mountains are the days not spent in the mountains. Our team kept great spirits as we practiced avalanche rescue and ski toured towards the Paradise River.<\/p>\n
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![\"Making](\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pic-3-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t- \n\t\t\t\tMaking it look good, AIARE student Mike slashes the soft snow. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
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![\"It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s](\"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pic-4-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t- \n\t\t\t\tIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about the fun in the mountains. Ryan stops to scope the bottom half of our first run of the day. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
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Back in Ashford, the group found dry cloths, warm meals, and maybe a beer or two. One of my favorite parts of IMG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Level 1 courses is that all the students are welcome to stay in IMG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guide Lounge upstairs in Ashford. This allows for some great informal education and team building that can only occur when we all relax, laugh, and share. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say we talked and laughed late into the night, but after a full day in the mountains we all hit the hay a little earlier than normal.<\/p>\n
With our spirits slightly damp from the rain on Saturday the team regrouped for our Sunday adventure. This time it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rain but SNOW! The team planned for the conditions, sought out the best snow, then went to the field and executed their plan. Knowing visibility would be a concern the team set themselves up for some lower angle tree skiing. Minimizing their risk and maximizing the accumulating snow at Paradise. And what a day it was; exploring the winter wonderland.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m confident that this group will all be competent and safe backcountry travelers. Knowing where to find the fun and the safe snow in which to play.<\/p>\n
Are you getting out into the mountains this winter? I know we are!<\/p>\n
AIARE Avy 1 Courses
\nFebruary 13-15<\/a>
\nMarch 13-15<\/a><\/p>\nDallas Glass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
January 21, 2015 Like most Washington based mountain enthusiasts I appreciate the Cascades long winters and propensity for enormous amounts of snow. This season however, while storms keep rolling through, the snow just hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t piled up. That is except on the slopes of Mt Rainier. As one of the snowiest places on earth, Paradise, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-rainier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13238"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13254,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13238\/revisions\/13254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mountainguides.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- \n\t\t\t\tIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about the fun in the mountains. Ryan stops to scope the bottom half of our first run of the day. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
- \n\t\t\t\tMaking it look good, AIARE student Mike slashes the soft snow. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
- \n\t\t\t\tPlanning our ski tour. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
- \n\t\t\t\tDIG! In an avalanche rescues you have less than 15minutes to find and uncover your friend. \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t