18 January 28 - February 10, 2022
ENVIRONMENT & OUTDOORS
Explore Big Sky
Humility in the mountains
Gaining avalanche knowledge for safe travel in the mountains BY MIRA BRODY TOBACCO ROOT MOUNTAINS – The rhythmic sound of 10 sets of skins bounces off the limber pines as we glide along a narrow track of packed snow. Under clear sunlight, pillowy powder is mounded across the imposing peaks of the Tobacco Root Mountains which welcome us into their embrace. We will eat, sleep and work in this wild landscape for three days of undistracted, immersive learning. I am one of eight students accompanying two guides with Big Sky Backcountry Guides who are leading us up the 2.5-mile, 1,600-elevation gain skin to the Bell Lake Yurt to earn our Avalanche 1 certification. For those who recreate during the winter in Montana’s many mountain ranges, avalanches are a very real threat. The 2020-21 winter season saw a recordmatching mortality rate, with 36 avalanche-caused deaths recorded in the U.S. Two occurred in Montana, one locally in Beehive Basin. Winter backcountry sports is a game of risk versus reward—the pull of those wide-open mountains of fresh powder you earn, weighed against the risk of losing a friend, or your own life. A yurt permit has existed in the Tobacco Roots, a 43-peak range sandwiched between the Jefferson and Madison rivers, for around 40 years under various ownership. Drew Pogge, owner and lead guide of BSBG has skied the Tobacco Roots for years. He was a patron of the yurt while on assignment with Backcountry Magazine before he jokingly asked the previous owners if they were looking to sell.
Guides Nicolas Westfall and Shannon Regan demonstrate a fine search beacon rescue. PHOTO BY MIRA BRODY
What started as a joke turned into reality in 2008 when Pogge—who was teaching at Montana State University at the time and looking for a career change—was offered the sale. He saw an opportunity to bring the yurt to life, initiating cosmetic and functionality updates so it could be used as a classroom and comfortable place to enjoy the backcountry. Now in its ninth season with Pogge and BSBG, the Bell Lake Yurt has been the hub through which many adventure-seekers have gained the knowledge necessary to stay educated and safe in the beautiful, treacherous mountain ranges of Montana. “I’ve been avalanched a couple times in my career as a skier,” Pogge said. He’s a longtime member of the American Avalanche Association, a nonprofit devoted to avalanche safety education and outreach, and has taught avalanche courses for most of his life. “Once I sort of figured it out and sought out education elsewhere, it opened my eyes to not only how dangerous the backcountry can be but also how easy it is to manage once you get the proper education,” Pogge said. As we approach the yurt, our guides pause and point to a ridgeline jutting off from the prominent Long Mountain. The slope will be the site of our field education and we will later learn it’s between 34 and 45 degrees steep; prime avalanche terrain. One of the guides, Shannon Regan, explains there was a fatality here back in 2019 due to a persistent weak layer that slid, throwing two of the four men on a self-guided tour down the mountain, killing one and severely inuring the other.
When a long day of lessons are over, students take some time to relax with a round of games in the yurt. PHOTO BY MIRA BRODY
According to our guides, the average amount of snow you’ll be shoveling to retrieve a buried partner after an avalanche is between one and two tons. The gravity of that statistic weighs on our minds during day two of our course. We’re standing along the side of the mountain we’ve just skinned up in snow pits we’ve dug. The crest of each pit reaches the tops of even the tallest student’s head and wind gusts peak at around 45 mph. My fingers and toes are completely numb. Inside our pits, we conduct a series of snow stability tests: identifying weak layers by poking the snow with our fingers, hand and fist; the compression test, a series of methodic arm taps atop a shovel to test the weight- and impact-bearing ability of the snowpack; and the extended column test, pulling an isolated snow column toward us to see where exactly it breaks free. All of these tests gather data about the characteristics of the snow and ultimately help determine our decision about whether or not the snowpack is safe to ski on. While there are many courses that offer the same information, there’s nothing quite like being in the mountains while doing it. The two-mile-long skin up to our practice site raises the stakes and makes the rescue drills feel that much more real. “As soon as you step out of the yurt, you’re in avy territory,” Pogge said. “It’s virtually impossible to show people how to travel in avy terrain if you’re not in avy terrain. You can’t approximate it in a parking lot or ski area. It’s about practicing traveling through it with guides who can explain the real questions you have as they come up.”
The North American Avalanche Danger Scale is a tool used by avalanche forecasters to communicate the potential for avalanches to cause harm or injury to backcountry travelers. GRAPHIC COURTESY OF AVALANCHE.ORG
Although he doesn’t think we’ll ever reach the point where no one dies in the backcountry, the good news, says Pogge, is that even with the explosive growth
