Saturday, August 7, 2010

Day 3




Morning wake up at the normal time... 7:15... wake up is at 8:00 but my room mates like to set their alarms for real early and snooze them repeatedly... Real cool. So, I am opting for a change of roomies mid way through the session. We are just on two different sleeping schedules. I tend to be out later than most. But I wake up this morning with a sore thoat...

Anyhoo, Breakfast isn't really a big thing here. They wouldn't normally even serve it, but they are catering to us. Breakfast is usually not too exciting. Lots of tired campers. Next you swing by the front door and pick up the sack lunch they make for us and head out to the bus. The bus ride is rather short and sweet and then we roll up to the monstrosity of a mountain.

It was a little socked in today, bummin about the weather we head up the hill to do beacon drills. Beacon drills are when one of the coaches set up an "avalanche situation" where they burry their backpack with a beacon in it. We must then, one by one, go rescue the "victim". We put our beacons in search mode, follow the arrow, check the distance, draw a box when we get close, probe for the victim, and then dig like hell. Avalanches are serious shit. Not only are they real, we need to be ready. It could happen to me, and I think that we can't ever get too much of this training.

A camper at SASS was trapped in an avalanche not too many years ago... And he is still here today because all of the campers are fluent in this procedure. Randal Stacy is a repeat camper and now an intern here at SASS that I will be doing a video project on. Pretty amazing story. Check out the footage of the avalanche here http://vimeo.com/1868541 its at the end.

But after the drills the clouds began to lift and I sent it up to the top of the mountain for the first time. We hike over the ridge, and find a perfect chornus to build a jump out of and get a solid crew to put it together real fast. We had a special photographer in the group with us in the group today, Nacho. He shoots for most all of the local magazines and says that I have a good shot at making it in it.

The jump is set up and we only have a short time before the bus comes, so we all make the best of it. Kids from Jackson Hole holding it down with some serious cab 5's and 7's, 14 yr old Teddy does his first backie, 5 people hit their first backcountry jump, Tommy gets a concussion, and a girl does her first backie. I just mess around on it, get my flight legs back. Lay one out, get a nice tindy backie, and a switch underflip. Successful day none the less and I look forward to hearing from Nacho, or eating some. Both would be equally exciting.

Get home and I'm beat. I make it to my bed quickly for a nap before dinner which isnt till 9:00. Get some grub, hang out with some dude and gals, see a funnel and tube used to consume beverages. Something that I actually recognize from home. A sense of home is always nice when I feel it's so far away. 7,000 miles away with a shitty internet connection. My connection to the world is lost.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and sick.

Suns out Guns out.

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