Basic Avalanche - field work

I met the club at the Butler Elementary parking lot at 9am this morning. We broke into like groups (I went with the ski/snowboard group) to go to our site for field work. Our group had about 8 folks in it. We carpooled up to the Spruces parking area and started with beacon training and practice near the parking lot. The instructor taught us about beacon use and then we practiced searching for the beacon he would hide in the snow behind a stand of trees so we couldn't see him hiding the device. After each recovery we would debrief what had gone well and what we could have done better. Each time we improved our procedures as we worked on more difficult burials. The last time we searched the guide had buried the beacon right up next to a tree. It took a bit longer to find the beacon even though we had good readings from our beacons. After beacon review we started on a ski tour up Days Fork. The guide would point out what to watch for and how to select appropriate and safe routes. Some members of the group were new to ski touring. The guy I carpooled with Forrest, it was his first time ski touring with his AT gear. We forked off of the Days Fork trail to the east and then up a ridge for a wonderful powder shot through some aspen trees. This was the deepest powder I had skied in this year. It was real fun. The ski ended at Green Basin. Some of the group skinned back up to ski it again. I wanted to real bad but my ride back to Butler Elementary wanted to ski out. The guide said to just follow a skin track out which we did. It put us out to Big Cottonwood Canyon Road about 1 mile from the Spruces. We carried our skis back to the parking lot for the ride down the canyon. This was a real good learning and skiing experience. I traded phone numbers with some of the group so we could tour together again. Here is basically the trail we took up.