January 2011 Blog Posts (2)

For 2011 there’s a new Avalanche Danger scale put out by the USDA Forest Service National Avalanche Center and Parks Canada.  The new scale reduces some of the uncertainty of the preceding scale, provides more authoritative avalanche safety advice for backcountry travelers, skiers, climbers, and snowmobilers.  The new scale incorporates risk by referring to typical avalanche sizes expected, and utilizes icons recently adopted by European countries.

 …

Today was a quiet day at work so a few interesting chats cropped up. My friend Derek mentioned our climb up Ben Ledi and how hard he found it. Derek had gotten a stitch or cramp almost as soon as we had left the car park and Raymond the most experienced hillwalker of us was beginning to feel the strain about halfway before we reached any serious scrambling up or over rock. I do not consider myself fit. As maybe seen in some photos, I have a bit of a belly due to excessive beer intake but I…