Snow hiking preparedness

[Seamus]

Our water minister's recent adventures prompted me to think again about snow hiking.

I'm pretty geared up and have navigated off track in SW Tasmania and done most of the well-known walks there, but I've always been a bit cautious about hiking in the snow. Did the Overland in July a few years ago and brought hire GPS, EPIRB and snow-shoes just in case. That went fine but I still feel under-confident to hike through snow, having no knowledge of how to build a snow-cave, or of safety issues in mountainous areas where cornices, etc exist.

I am wondering, how do you get skilled up to do these hikes? Is there formal training worth doing? I'm not talking about mountaineering training, just feeling adequately prepared to hike through full-on snow. What sort of contingency plans do you need to have? When we did the overland in winter, our basic plan was if a blizzard came through was to stop walking - if we could not see the next snow pole, immediately ensure we were adequately dry/warm (I've seen a friend get hypothermia while trying to pitch a tent due to not changing any clothing after stopping), attempt to pitch the tent wherever we were and sit it out. Failing that (eg if winds were too severe to pitch), our plan was to dig a hole, wrap ourselves in the tent fly, and try to keep dry. Luckily we never had to use this plan.

Is this a reasonable basic plan? Or do people have any recommendations, on either training, strategies/contingency plans, or anything else for snow-hiking?

[loric]

http://www.wildernesssports.com.au/

Check out the snowcraft/backcountry training.
Excellent start and provides the fundamental skills.

Apart from formal training, joining a mountaineering club or learning off more experienced mountaineers/winter hikers/ski tourers is the way to go.

Some of the skills in snowcraft are counter intuitive and can potentially be lethal.
A good example is the 4 snowboarders who died in the Main Range a few years back. They were fully kitted out, knew how to dig a cave... they just put in on the wrong side of the slope (the lee side) and got buried alive. One would intuitively think that the lee side is more sheltered - which it is, but the windward side has the scour factor to keep the air holes/entrance open...
Similarly, camp site selection is different in the snow... Caffin has some good tips about this stuff, snow walls, platforms etc..

This is all the simple stuff too.

When on the steeps you will also have to know slope/surface stability (avalanche) skills, how to self arrest, belay/retrieve a fallen party member...

Snow camping is unreal fun though and i highly recommend it. Up in Vic we have heaps of places where we can practise in relative safety. (i.e. not isolated and with easily accessible bail-out options like snowpoled paths, huts, close to mobile towers...)

If you are keen to learn by yourself, i reckon camp near a hut, preferably not far from a ski resort or populated area. Take snowshoes and a snow shovel, a good insulating sit-mat and practise setting up camp, building snow walls, pits, cooking in the snow... Great fun - esp with a few mates!

Nav is no different in a blizzard that a foggy black night - just colder! And one can leave the dangerous ice steeps till you have more confidence - it's heaps more comfortable and less windy under the treeline anyway!