Old Dogs Can Learn

Allow me to introduce Mahmet

Mahmet is from Turkey and is 2-1/2 years old. The day we met, I thought he was 3, per the information supplied to me from the booking. That first day, I thought I had totally lost my touch with kids, or that maybe Mahmet was just really small and a little underdeveloped in a couple ways, but we still had a pretty good time. I found out he was 2-1/2 after the lesson from his mother's instructor. I have always appreciated the things I learned about teaching kids from Rachel Milner, Amy Zahm and Jodi Taggart in the PSIA-NW Children's Specialist events, but the stuff really helped Mahmet and I out this week! 6 months doesn't seem like a big difference in age, but the real differences between these two ages are quite important to be aware of and make adjustments for. I ended up realizing that Mahmet was in no way underdeveloped or "behind" in anything... quite the opposite actually. I also found out that though I have not been teaching enough children during the more recent years of my career, the time I have spent on continuing education has been very valuable. Also, I have not lost my touch with kids, I just need more practice.

2-1/2 year old kids need food
and drink more often than most 3 yr. olds

Look at that face! Happy that someone understood.
Banana, water and a cookie that did not pass inspection.

Mahmet is learning English in a school in Turkey already (he speaks Russian too), but I really had to work hard to figure out what he needed/wanted sometimes. I ended up emptying my backpack AND my pockets several times, but as long as I was looking for his answer, Mahmet did not cry. He really only cried if he tried to communicate and I didn't at least try to understand. It made all the difference to determine if it was a need or a want. A couple things I learned about Mahmet:

- He is far more interested in waxing our skis than he is in stuffed animals. He carried around my chunk of emergency wax from my pack for two days and NEVER even tried to put it in his mouth!
- When I give him a cookie, he breaks it open, inspects it and if it does not meet his standards he prefers fresh fruit. Later, when he has thought about the cookie long enough the broken one is mine. Mahmet gets a fresh one (which takes 5 runs and 30 minutes to eat while skiing). I really wish I had taken a picture when Mahmet decided our break was over, then put his skis on while carrying the entire package of cookies, fully intending to take them skiing. I was surprised when he asked me to get just one out for him.

Check this out! Mahmet tests all the adjustments on my field glasses.
Who could have guessed a fully stocked BC pack would be so useful?
Too bad I didn't get pics of our shovel rides.

Mahmet scopes out a military aircraft dogfight training scenario, true story.

When I started teaching at Mission Ridge, my first year as a full-timer I taught a lot of kids. At the time, I thought I was just paying dues. Later, Loretta Schroeder pointed out that Calvin did this to his noob full-timers because an instructor who is successful teaching kids is really learning how to teach. With adults, a teacher might think they are teaching well with lots of explanations or telling people "what to do", but with kids, especially young ones, it just doesn't work like that. Demonstrations, realistic goals, activities or games that create success... etc. are all necessary. Calvin gave us kids to help us! Mahmet is doing this for me again, in a way. I have to admit, though I was happy for the work, I was a little scared to take on a 3- year old (much less 2-1/2 year old) for a week. Why? Because over the last several years it has been apparent to me the that I had moved away from teaching kids so much that much younger, or "less experienced" instructors were doing a much better job with groups of kids than I could on any given day. Here I am in a new place, having pedaled around a very well put together resume (thanks Jojo!) and it was time to prove it on the beginner hill with the rest of the instructors there to see it all!

Then he scoped lines through the cliffs and chutes above La Marlenaz

Object Permanence! That says it all!

Maybe it is a Turkish thing, maybe not, but as much as Mahmet is the same as other kids I have taught, he is different. I have new respect for functioning in the realm of Object Permanence after teaching a 2-1/2 yr old for the better part of a week. I drew the line at the camera and the phone. No touching these. Mahmet though, would NOT give up on the phone. He knows the word telephone, and he knows exactly where I keep it. What I ended up doing was reaching into my phone pocket and slipping it up the backside of my sleeve, then letting him inspect all of my pockets during our last break. He inspected the phone pocket 4 times! I resorted to this after well over an hour of "telephone" requests. When this kid makes a decision, he sticks to it! The first day was all Mahmet. He made almost all the decisions.

Not fair, people call the cops if adults lay down
for a rest when the feeling strikes!

Life can be so good! Checking out the scene after
ripping it up for an hour. We chased the balloon around
on our skis, He even rode it like a hippity-hop, on skis!

So far Mahmet has always gotten back up and gotten his skis back on after our breaks, though some of them have been a bit long. He has good decision making skills. I noticed this after I quit trying to rush or push his decisions. Eating, bringing one cookie skiing instead of the package, when to rest, when to ski. He has a process, but he needs the time to go through it too. I had to tough it out through some "I WANT" tears. I had stationed a series of rubber cones around the teaching area and hidden certain known and unknown items under the cones. We took 3 runs just touching each cone before Mahmet discovered our treasured block of wax under the cone highest on the hill. This is where Object Permanence matters. On an alpine ski hill, the best way back to the desired cone is not always the straight line. Furthermore, if your instructor is out of practice, or the hill too big, you might have to get used to leaving the cone behind FOREVER because you can't even SEE it anymore. It took 3 heartbreaking rides up the carpet back to the treasure cones before Mahmet got even a little used to the idea.

Epilogue:
WEEKDAY AT BERNIE'S

This is Bernie. He is Austrian.
Bernie loves to get home to his
terrace for beers in the sunshine.

This is Matthias. He is German and loves
baseball. He coached it for many years.
When we met he called me Stan the Man
and knew who I meant when I said
"That is who I am named after."

This is me. I am happy to be out of my boots.
I have been skiing in boots that are too small for
too long. I want no more of it. Comfort please!

The course

On Sunday evening, Jan 23rd we were required to meet here at 8:00 pm for orientation.

We were informed of the following.

- Daily starts 8:00 sharp, finished at 7:30 pm. Various locations TBD

- Evaluations based on scores in the following categories:
-- Experience: Overall participation, work and application during the week

-- Practical Exams: DVA (beacon) Search & Shoveling
Cartography and Orienteering
General Application of Knowledge (interview)

-- Theory Exam (written): 13 pages - a mixture of essay, multiple choice and various
theoretical exercises: Nivology(Snow Science), Weather, Avalanches - general knowledge,
Avalanches - Risk assessment and tactical decision making, First Aid and Rescue,
Cartography and Orienteering.

The first two days began with lectures, approximately 1 hr each, after which we would go out on snow to apply the general principles from the lectures as a group, mostly led by our guide. Each day ended with a lecture, again about 1 -1.5 hrs.

We went home with an assignment: Plan either a day of randonnee, or hors-piste (yes they are different) taking into account the following: Avalanche and weather bulletins, overall group makeup, timetable, route and terrain selection, tactical considerations, plan for continued evaluation and preplanned variations ready and calculated in case a plan B or C were needed.

At 8:00 each morning we had to present our map and notes to the guide & group for discussion. The rest of each day was spent with one of us leading the group at a time for a portion of our chosen route. Throughout each day we would also have beacon, shoveling, probing, cartography, navigation, nivology, slope angle/exposition estimation and risk assessment exercises thrown in at the guide's behest.

The pic at the top of the page was the location for all of our indoor sessions; a makeshift discotheque creatively fashioned out of curtains and lighting in the bowels of the Hotel Mont Fort's remodeling zone. The curtains and lighting were a 360 degree effect. I am once again in touch with Abba and the Bee Gees. You can see me in the back (black jacket) of the room trying to write my entire exam in French, which took me too long so I had to revert to English to finish it.

Doing one of our estimation exercises.


Looking over the next stage of our route
during lunch at Col de Momin. Rosablanche
in the background.


Another day another tour. Me as "guide," last pitch up Le Ferret,
with Bec des Étagnes (link is not my video)
looming over 700m vert of pow and variable snows.

During my Le Ferret ascent, Xavier intervened with several situational considerations, changing a 1/2 hour angled traverse into a 45 minute fall-line bootpack variation for human factor/snow condition considerations ( 1 snowboarder w/snowshoes, and 1 alpine skier sans vibram soles). In reality it turned out to be more of a "possibly needed" variation, but lessons were learned and eyes opened further to what "continuous assessment" of every factor can mean. We were rewarded for our work, which included a short skin out at the bottom, followed by multiple burial scenario training and more timed shoveling. The shoveling wasn't TOO hard, but it is revealing to find out exactly how quickly one tires when shoveling AFAP and just how well, or not well one's shovel works. After all, the digging out of victim(s) is likely to be the most time consuming part of getting in under that 15 minute mark.

Xavier, changing our itinerary once again!

Though this isn't my FAVORITE picture of Xavier, it really sums up how simple and direct the man is. He didn't make points often, but he made them in the company of very final looking hand gestures, visibly relevant physical evidence and with a moment of silence to soak it all in: the point, the hands and the evidence.

In this picture and the first pic in the "Xavier Fournier" post, we weren't exactly suffering from "L'Ivresse Blanche" (literally translates as The White Drunkenness), but after weeks without snow, touring and hiking to areas with available freshies proved to be distracting. Xavier always chose a beautifully untracked slope just after areas of transition from less-fun to more-fun snow to do "manteau de neige" (snowpack) inspections or tests. His moment of silence allowed us to weigh our desire for turns in the good stuff against the point, the hands and the evidence. In each case, his compression columns failed upon isolation to a depth of at least 22 cm, 30 in one, of combined weak layers and crust layers. Admittedly the results were not super dangerous. Each of these areas was highly localized mostly due to aspect, but they were still during level 1 avalanche conditions, which would seem to say not to worry..unless one has read and understands the daily avalanche bulletins entirely.

And again... because this is my favorite pic

This is not my pic, but we did see some of these
'bouquetin' (locally), or ibex as we might know them.

I don't have enough action pics of the course, to tell you the truth. I wish I had pics of 13 people simultaneously digging individaul 2m x 2m square pits as deep as they can go in 7 minutes, or video of multiple close proximity victim beacon training, or the scene when Xavier gave us coordinates for our next meeting point and disappeared over the knoll while we got out our maps. I can see how people get interested in becoming documentarians.

Stan