International Mountain Leader (IML) winter training in the Grand Bornand

This week I have been in the Grand Bornand with 11 other aspirant IMLs on our winter International Mountain Leader Award (accompagnateur) training course.  During the five day long course we covered a variety of topics with the aim to prepare us to lead snowshoe walks in the winter alps and further afield safely and enjoyably.  (for those of you considering the award, this also included leading 'within remit')  We were split into two groups of six and were trained by two different trainers.

Below is a summary of the course and what we covered.

Snowshoeing on the Plateau de Beauregard

Day 1 - 26th January 2015

Very much an introductory day today.  For some of the group it was their first time on snowshoes, and most had less than 10 days of experience on them.  However if you are a competent winter walker and at home in the snow then you will pick it up quickly.  We stayed local to the Gite today, and covered basic transceiver use, snow analysis and leading on snowshoes.

Trail breaking in snowshoes

Day 2 - 27th January 2015

Building on skills learnt yesterday we headed down the valley to the Plateau de Beauregard.  Normally it is a 'plateau of good views', but despite the cloudy weather it was a perfect location for snowshoeing (as most of this area seems to be).  A Telecabine up at around 8 Euros meant we skipped the uphill trail breaking and got straight into training.  We practiced a single burial transceiver search, covered more environmental and leadership skills, a bit of simple navigation, remit of the award and route choices.

Transceiver search practice

Day 3 - 28th January 2015

Today we drove to the Nordic ski centre at the Plateau des Confins.  Here we looked at some two burial transceiver searches, some winter ropework (and why you might need it), snow assessment and some snow pit tests - shovel shear, hand shear, rutschblock test etc...  The emphasis was on simple snow assessment, showing there are different layers, why - if you know, what are the weak layers and showing they are weak.  No columns, dendrites or metamorphics here!!!  

The highlight of the day was when we headed down towards Grand Bornand as a student team (the trainer headed back to collect the bus) and really tested the limits of the snowshoes, physically and in terms of fun.  Summer paths are harder to follow, stay away from streams and thick forest.

Taking snowshoeing 'to the max'

Day 4 - 29th January 2015

Heavy snow fell though the night and was forecast for the entire day today so we stayed locally and headed up above Lormay and Les Plans.  Breaking trail in knee deep heavy powder uphill taught us that we couldn't do it all day with clients.  Today we mainly covered emergency shelters, shovel ups, and transceiver searches.

Spot the bird in this picture - fulfilling some of the environmental parts of the award

Day 5 - 30th January 2015

This morning was spent training to do multiple burial (of unknown quantity), worse case scenario transceiver searches.  As a team of six we had to find six rucksacks with transceivers in, buried in the snow in an 150 x 100m area.  Both teams managed around the 19 minute mark, which wasn't bad considering the thigh deep powder swimming going on.  Things learnt were if your transceiver sends you in weird directions 60m away, keep following your channel until you get a smaller signal.

We also covered probe lines, and then had a group debrief on the assessment format as well as individual debriefs.

Super amounts of fresh snow fall

To summarise: It was great to spend a chunk of time out snowshoeing with other aspirant IMLs, refresh and learn some more skills in the winter environment, with a bit of revision and time out snowshoeing I will now be ready for the assessment and final step to becoming an accompagnateur; but boy was it an expensive way to do it!  

Digging the snow out from our Gite on Friday morning

Lastly, I hate to admit it (being a skier), but... I am actually quite psyched to go out and explore the Alps on my snowshoes now.

Perfect snowshoeing terrain, 'rolling nordic slopes' with great views and good snow