Andrew, I again wish you safe and fun adventures! If you're already familiar with the aforementioned links, awesome; if not I encourage you to check them out
Eli Boardman wrote:Someone pursuing all of the winter 14ers, especially in one season, is certainly very aware of CAIC. On the other hand, I noticed that you (Jared) <likely> haven't done any winter 14ers.
Harsh bro!
Groups with a mix of experienced and novice mountaineers often make poor avy decisions because the novices assume the experts know what they're doing and wind up keeping their mouths shut about safety. A clearly accomplished guy has stated his clearly respectable goals in an area that he says he hasn't got a ton of experience in. We're on the internet and not in the mountains right now, but you (Eli) seem to be saying "this guy has set speed records, we should assume he knows everything he needs to know about winter safety and keep our mouth shut about it, especially if you don't have any winter 14er summits on your checklist". If you bring that mindset with you into the mountains it will have a negative impact on the safety of your group!
My checklist is accurate, I haven't bagged a single 14er in winter. I have begun to gather winter and snow experience and aspire to much more. Too bad there's no checkbox for "gained valuable experience and had a wonderful time on this mountain, didn't summit". I have to drive 8 hours and take vacation time to get to the mountains, and since I'm fat and slow I won't always hit the summit checkbox. Notable among my accomplishments though:
1. I have decided when and where to go in the mountains in the winter based on CAIC and mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org -- so I can say from experience that the link I provided to CAIC is very useful to anyone.
2. I have canceled trips to the mountains based on information on CAIC, again very useful.
3. I have taken an AIARE level 1 course like the ones in the link -- so I can say from experience that those classes are very useful and fun. They help you understand the information on CAIC and its implications, and some things to watch out for to avoid getting in over your head on the ground. An avy class isn't complete until you've gained much experience in avy terrain, as the instructors are quick to point out repeatedly. But it gives you a great lens for your experience and helps you avoid learning the wrong lessons from repeatedly surviving and/or summiting in spite of bad choices.
At a CMC climbing course our (awesome) instructor unclipped while demonstrating how climbers can forget to clip back in while setting up at a cliff edge. In the course of demonstrating he started pacing around with his back to the cliff edge, not realizing he had not clipped in. A lot of time went by, and he got closer and closer to the edge, before someone (not me..) finally got up the nerve to point this out to him. He laughed and clipped back in to our relief. It was a very instructive moment. Perhaps he secretly knew all along and was just teaching us to speak up
