IML Snow-shoe training Course - French Alps

Today, was the first day of the IML winter training course being held near to the town of Grand Bornand in the French alps.

There had been a fresh covering of snow overnight adding to the sense of being in a true "winter wonderland".

The course started with general introductions, before moved on to look at the construction, history, and wide variation of snow shoes being used to journey in the mountains.

After this brief talk we then had an opportunity to get to grips with using the snow shoes to complete a small journey in the valley concentrating on movement skills and how to manage groups over a variety of slopes and different terrain. This quickly gave everyone a chance to see the limitations and benefits of using snow shoes in powder snow.

There then followed a comprehensive look at avalanche awareness and evaluation of the snow pack by digging pits and conducting a number of stability tests. Later in the day, we started to explore the environment we would be working in over the next few days and investigated signs of evidence of animals in the local area.

PJ