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  1. #1
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    Dec 2004
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    2017 EASTERN SNOW & AVALANCHE WORKSHOP = NOVEMBER 11

    Even though I returned only a few days ago from Shasta, and even though I still have at least one more ski trip planned for this season...
    ... already time to start prep for the 2017-18 ski season!
    So for all of you on the East Coast, as always the don't-miss avy-related event is the Eastern Snow & Avalanche Workshop.
    For 2017, ESAW will be held on Saturday November 11.
    Note that this is one week later than usual.
    Venue will as always be in the broadly defined Mount Washington Valley, most likely just across the state line at last year's sweet venue at Fryeburg Academy (specifically the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center).
    More details once we're closer to the fall, but expect a similar presentations mix, admission fee, event schedule, etc. as in prior years (http://www.esaw.org).
    Okay, back to summer everyone!
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  2. #2
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    Dec 2004
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    ESAW flyer:

    Name:  ESAW 2017.jpg
Views: 489
Size:  96.8 KB
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Amherst, Mass.
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    ESAW update:

    All, This is a reminder that the 7th Annual Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop, ESAW2017, is Saturday, November 11th, at Fryeburg Academy’s Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center in Fryeburg Maine. We are excited to be back at this very comfortable venue with cushy seating, a raised professional stage, and dedicated sound room. As in the past expect socials, give-away raffles, great speakers, relevant topics and awesome networking opportunities to dominate the experience. One big change this year is the drop in the day's registration price to make it as accessible as we can for everyone and still pay the bills. After these are paid, all proceeds go the White Mountain Avalanche Education Foundation charged with bringing education to snow excited youth across the Northeast. Go to www.esaw.org for the agenda info and registration links.

    Avalanche education opportunities continue to increase with every season. This positive progression is something that motivates us to make each annual ESAW a day that keeps you on top of the snow in the winters ahead. We give our speakers and topics a lot of thought to bring a unique and meaningful spectrum of presentations in a workshop format. We appreciate your dedication to learn more about snow science and the human factors that drive our decision making each winter. The passion that you bring to your snow sport is the same burning desire that grows in young people across the mountains of the northeast. They are the next generation to endure winter risk so they deserve to hear whatever we can teach them and learn the lessons we may have gained the hard way. Time goes by quick and in a blink of an eye this generation will be through our local schools, off to colleges across the west, and just minutes from snow country. If we wait to engage snow impassioned youth they'll be gone and off in big mountains of the world with perhaps less knowledge then they should.

    In what seems like yesterday, in 2001, many kids were born across our region to parents who loved to ski and ride, many of them could ski better than walk by age 2. This summer, after 16 years, they got drivers licences and now they're planning a trip with friends to the back country in Dad's Subaru. The White Mountain Avalanche Education Foundation (WMAEF) was established to assure these athletes and their classmates have a way to receive avalanche knowledge when they may be more focused on new gear like helmet cams. This past year, we received full Non-Profit status and have a diverse Board of Directors who are year-round educators, avalanche educators, avalanche forecasters, ex-forecasters that just can't let go, community organizers, and entrepreneurs. We couldn't do it without them, and we can't do it without you, so please take a look at https://www.esaw.org/white-mountain-...on-foundation/ to learn more. If you like what you see and want to help the next generation stay on top, please consider a donation or support us through your ESAW attendance and participation in the auctions.

    We'll keep you up to date with any new info regarding the ESAW17 Agenda and new Sponsors when we have them confirmed. Please spread the news, forward to anyone who might be interested in this workshop, and see you there on Nov.11th!

    Joe, Beth, Frank, Blake and Chris
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Montreal, Canada
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    Sweet! I will make an effort to attend!
    27° 18°

  5. #5
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    Dec 2004
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    And another update:

    https://www.mountwashingtonavalanche...ember-11-2017/

    Mark your calendars for the annual Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop that is taking place on Saturday, November 11, 2017. We liked our hosts at Fryeburg Academy so much last year that we’re going back to the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center. Check out who will be presenting:

    • Jerry Isaak, born in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, has his masters in Outdoor Education and is currently the chair of Expeditionary Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh. He has traveled the world as a guide and expedition leader for both climbing and skiing. Jerry spends much of his time studying social influences on risk tolerance levels and decision making. Please check out his paper titled Social Media and Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain which he presented at ISSW 2016 in Colorado.
    • Sarah Carpenter is currently co-owner of the American Avalanche Institute as well as one of its instructors. While not running the programs for AAI, she ski guides for Exum and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides.
    • Eric Knoff has forecasted for the Gallatin Avalanche Center since 2009. He has guided for Exum, Rainer Mountaineering Inc., and Adventure Link as well as for the Khumbu Climbing School in Nepal. Eric studies snow with some of the best in Montana and as is such, will happily fill your time informing you about the cross-slope PST.
    • If you follow the weather on Mount Washington, you surely know the name Mike Carmon. Mike graduated from Rutgers in 2008 with a degree in Meteorology and immediately joined the Mount Washington Observatory team. He has been a shift leader since 2014 and a daily resource for our avalanche center.
    • In addition to those above, Frank, Ryan and Helon will also present on their hard work over the last year.
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Some more thoughts in advance of ESAW:

    https://www.mountwashingtonavalanche...cate-yourself/

    LOOK AFTER ONE ANOTHER: EDUCATE YOURSELF

    Now winter is truly coming. In the winter, we must protect ourselves. Look after one another.

    -Ned Stark, King of the North

    Perhaps the phrase winter is coming has been played out. I’ll admit I’ve used it at least twice and probably even #hashtagged it more than that, but Ned Stark does have a point. Most of us ski and climb with a partner. There are days when I go alone, but I alert someone where I’m going. Most of the time it’s my wife. Sometimes I tell a friend as I’d like to not admit to her what I’m going to do until it’s been done… I digress.

    Look after one another. When Frank, Ryan, and I go into the field for work, looking after each other is more important than any data we collect. If one of us fails to go home at the end of the day, we didn’t do our job. I try to instill this on my recreational partners as well. Look after each other, have fun, then get to the summit.

    This is not intended to say don’t ski it. In fact, if the time is right, go for it! You and your partners’ (who are looking out for each other) job is to determine go or no go. Just be sure you’re protecting yourself the best you can. One great way to protect yourself is becoming more knowledgeable. The Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop is the perfect venue for this. Come spend the day with snow professionals and start your winter off on the right foot. This is a great event to come to with your ski partner and talk about how excited you are for propagation saw tests, capped columns, Norlun troughs, and rite in the rain notebooks.

    We have a stellar line-up of presenters this year returning to the Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy. The lobby will once again be filled with vendors showcasing the latest and greatest. Our friends at Saco River Brewing will be on hand in the evening. While the workshop is aimed at continuing education for snow professionals, all are encouraged to join as this event is a good way to kick of the coming winter.

    Helon
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    And again from ESAW:

    I’d love for this post, just days before the 7th Annual Snow and Avalanche Workshop, to be an avalanche advisory. Heck, I’d be content with a General Bulletin warning of potentially unstable pockets of snow. But the reality is that the weather, and the climate, sets the stage for mountain travel conditions and the snow stability issues that spring forth. But, as the West continues to get hammered with snow and we skiers, riders and mountaineers suffer through our western friend’s Instagram glory, I will soldier on through this prolonged Fall gloom and rain knowing that it is best to be careful what you wish for. The days will get darker, the air colder and all this moisture from a super-heated Atlantic is likely to bring plenty of snow and ice to our hills.

    I’ve enjoyed lots of good rock climbing weather and I know the surfers, mountain bikers, trail runners and other mountain/outdoors folk haven’t been lacking for good conditions for their chosen sports. All of these games that we play outdoors come with some degree of risk, to our health or even our lives. Many of us face risks that threaten our health, or life, at work. Some risks are palpable and clear, like re-roofing a steeply pitched roof, felling a fire damaged tree with a chainsaw, flying an airplane in challenging weather or climbing and skiing a steep gully. Other risks that we face don’t present as direct a threat or at least they seem more routine. Providing patient care in an ambulance, driving a car on the highway or making healthy food and lifestyle choices. All these things involve some degree of risk and all require us to make decisions as active participants, either alone or with others. We may make decisions that affect other people’s lives directly. According to research, an adult makes 35,000 conscious decisions a day. Most are mundane, like the 226 decisions about food that we make per day. But others are more serious. How do we make the right decision at the right time?

    Our state of mind when we make these decisions is one of the major factors that determines when and how we live and die. It’s an awesome responsibility when you step back and look at it from a distance. I’ve been privileged to attend most of the ESAWs put on here in the Mount Washington Valley and I’ve travelled to 2 International Snow and Avalanche Workshops. Each one has sparked my curiosity in directions that have lead me to challenge my views, not just on the mechanics of snow and avalanches, but on the assumptions that I make about how I relate to those high-risk snowy slopes. This year, at the 7th Annual Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop, we’ll be looking more closely at risk decision-making. The speaker’s presentations and our panel discussion will allow us a glimpse at their world and engage risk from their perspective. Their many years of work and play in snowy places along with the effort they’ve put forth to unravel the process, will likely shed light on my process, and yours too.

    In 2009, legendary Canadian ice climber Guy Lacelle was killed in a small slide in terrain just like ours outside Bozeman, MT. Gallatin forecaster Eric Knoff will share this tale and hopefully shed some light on the incident that could easily have taken the life of you or me. Similarly, an accident in a deep weak layer claimed the life of a friend of our own Ryan Matz. He will tell this tale in a similar spirit of learning and gives us an opportunity to check ourselves. Jerry Isaak will share his approach to forecasting in remote area of Kazakhstan with no data but direct observation and the questions required for safe passage. Sarah Carpenter, co-owner of the American Avalanche Institute, will share her thoughts on checklists as tools for making the right choice. These are just a few of the presentations on tap next Saturday.

    The speaker’s agenda is set and I’m making the final adjustments to the list of discussion topics for the round table session. It’s an exciting line-up, heavy with experienced backcountry ski mountaineers and guides and forecasters that share our passion for snow and travelling on it. No matter what the weather this week, or this winter, brings, we’ll all be facing decisions traveling in the mountains soon. Save the day to tune up your mental process and challenge your assumptions, not just about decision-making on powder days but anytime you face a choice when uncertainty of outcome looms and various pressures take their toll.

    But it won’t be all serious! You have plenty to get excited about. Not only have you made some good decisions so far, at least since you’re reading this, you’re alive at least, but you’ll have some opportunities to win some great prizes though silent auctions and giveaways. The new lower cost of entry continues to buy you an adult beverage ticket from Saco River Brewing and a bunch of tasty snacks served through the day. And if that’s not enough, we have a number of big ticket items from skis, to jackets and packs to bid on, and a bunch of free stuff as well, so most folks will walk away with some sweet gear or schwag.

    If you haven’t registered yet, do it now at esaw.org so we can get a close handle on how much food and beverages we need. It’s $50 General Admission, $25 students and military, just bring your ID. Folks that serve on our local SAR teams get the student rate as well, we’ll have team rosters at the door. Proceeds pay for the cost of the workshop and any profits will go to the White Mountain Avalanche Education Foundation’s effort to educate youth in snow science and avalanche safety…we’re working on an awesome curriculum to plug into Middle School science classes this year!

    Thanks to our many sponsors donations to help fund this event and the WMAEF – the American Avalanche Association, DPS Skis, Outdoor Research, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Sterling Ropes, Julbo, Acadia Mountain Guides, Equinox Guiding Service and Friends of Tuckerman Ravine.

    I hope to see you there!

    -Frank
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

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