So here I lay in a cabin in Mt. Rainier National Park. I first want to say Happy Birthday Mike! I feel bad I could not call you today but there is no cell service or available phones here in the park! You are a wonderful older brother and I feel every year I get to know you better than the one before. I look forward to the future growth in getting to you!
So I have had a great last two days. Yesterday I took a National Park Service test on scuba diving skills, it was a 2nd test after passing my scuba diving physical fitness test. I passed my skills test so all I need to do is turn in some paperwork and I will be officially part of the National Park Service dive team at Olympic. The team is made up of some really cool people, all pretty much work on Lake Crescent. I am excited to be part of the team! One part of the test (luckily in a 12 foot deep pool) was to dive to the bottom in full gear and take off all my gear (my flippers, mask, BCD vest and of course the regulator (for you non-diving folks that is the piece I get oxygen through) then return to the surface, where the instructor then says ok now go put it on. I tell you diving down with chlorine in your eyes and finding your regulator first (I mean what else would you want first) was awkward but then putting all your gear on under water, well that is a work out and it was very interesting but it worked out. After I finished the test I had about 30 minutes to get home change and meet another Ranger to drive to Mt. Rainier (about 4 hours). I was pretty exhausted last night. You may think , well Brian why are you there? well let me tell you.
I am here for avalanche training. It was very cool first day, I learned a lot. (one being that running in snowshoes at 5400 feet is exhausting). The first half of the day was classroom and the second half of the day was n the snow up at paradise. It was so nice being out in the snow. I am looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday. I guess I haven’t told you yet but I am working the winter weekends at Hurricane Ridge. It sets about 25 minutes above our home in Port Angeles. It’s also over 5000 feet high, a beautiful place and such easy access. I am excited about “rangering” there” My first day was last Sunday and my supervisor showed me the ropes! OK I better go to bed I have a long day tomorrow.
Today we learned about snow stability. After the classroom we headed up to paradise to play in the snow. Our goal was to dig some pits and lean about the layers of snow and how secure it was. We learned a few different snow tests to understand the avalanche danger, as well as learning how to read the weather and weather trends and try to determine what was going on in avalanche areas, Good Stuff! Anyways…. So we arrive at paradise and split into 3 groups, one instructor per group. We all headed to a paradise valley, as we started to hike into the trees (the safe trail, since we were at a high avalanche danger) we spread out (which is safer) I was right behind my instructor and we hit the end of the trees, it was about a 38% slope and another instructor noticed across the valley (a beautiful valley) some crowns (areas where slabs have broke free, they were about 8 feet deep. As we looked around we noticed some cracks in the snow about even where the instructor and I were standing. I asked him if this made him feel nervous? (I know I was.) He said yes he was definitely concerned, and he stopped the group. He said that he had never seen so much avalanche hints at the park there (which meant a lot with his knowledge and experience). So here I am keeping my eye on the instructor in case something broke loose and he did a few slab tests, I was glad when he was done. We made our way back up the cliff and found a safe spot to do our dig tests. So much information I have learned in 2 days and I guess we are so lucky to have seen the conditions on the mountains that we saw. I wish I had pictures for you but I really don’t want to bring my camera into this weather. It snowed pretty heavy but wow what a view, I look forward to taking Janelle out on the ridge when I get back home! Tomorrow is my last day, I am excited for it but I am also ready to get back home to Janelle.
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