In the middle of March 2013 there was a basic avalanche course in Malá Fatra (Slovakia), staying at the cottage called Chata pod Chlebom (1423 m). The weather had offered lovely sunny days as well as fresh powder.
The evening spent with a playing guitar & singing at Chata pod Chlebom
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The beginning of the course was shifted by half a day due to the weather conditions. The whole weather forecast was adviced being not very good that time, having brought a strong wind into the mountain ridge areas. As the prediction was posted precisely, we were afraid to face a very strong wind and low visibility hence we started climbing up to the hills. On the other side, our late evenings spent at the cottage were worthy being sociable as well as peaceful. There were melodic songs accompanied by friendly-wooden playing guitar going through the cottage vigorously.
Getting started digging … and we'll dig a wholet part of the day (CLICK TO
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By early Saturday´s morning, we devoted our time to all necessary knowledge you need to know for a winter staying in the potentially avalanche terrain – from planning and decision-making, the assumptions of avalanche situations, various passive and active tests of the snow stability, the burial of the participants under the snow, their probing and falling to work with search engines, etc.
Snow probing (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
In addition to the training, there was a great local mountain terrain that offered a range of the options for beautiful outputs and descents. All the acquired knowledge was suddenly taken into account hence further hike started. There was Chleba´s peak and Velký Křiváň´s peak waiting for us. That day some of us made a second climbing attemp one more time after the sunset. The evening was again handled well-socially with our guitar and voluntary singing.
The sliding part we did by a snowboard, sometimes good to forget a ski
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The next day we continued our avalanche course, subsequently claimed up and went downhill on some of the southern slopes. There was a deeper end of the downhill gone into the valley, reaching the local track, where there was an appropriate output route back to our cottage. Hence we reached the cottage, we packed all our stuff and had the last delicious meal. We set off to Snilovské Sedlo, where we planned going donwhill back to Vrátná. Each of us voted for the downhill route in its sole discretion. In the smaller group, we kept going down to the bottom of the ski lift as much as we could — see the last picture at the end of following article. As it seemed incredible, there was no scratch made on my skis at all.
Matěj aka Cabadaj under the snow (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Summary:
Based on all aspect going around we can say that following ski mountaineering
trip was very successful action of year 2013 – Great participants (group of
Mountain Rescue Service & us – fearless czech skialpinists), good
weather, great snow conditions … and great freeride sociable life spent at the
cottage.
On top of Chleb´s peak – the first downhill has been in front of us
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That would be Malo-Fatra´s powder? (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Location: Malá Fatra, Rider: Matěj alias Cabadaj (CLICK TO
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Who beat the powder, then behave… at least during the day (CLICK TO
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Location: Malá Fatra, Rider: Matěj alias Cabadaj (CLICK TO
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Location: Malá Fatra, Rider: Iva (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Direction to Velký Kriváň (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
A short distance below Velký Kriváň, at the background Malý Kriváň
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On the top of Velký Kriváň (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The peak of Velký Kriváň (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
On well-being on Velký Kriváň (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The upper part of Velký Kriváň (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
A typical portion at Chata pod Chlebom – Amazing food to be served
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Elááá, hop (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
We've got four buried persons somewhere here, the practical training with
digital searching engines (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Detection of snow profile (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Ready for next downhill (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Going downhill with the peak of Chléb in the background (CLICK TO
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With a lot of snow in the air (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The attempt of humorous version of adjusted pillar (CLICK TO
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Alternative shovel test with a rectangular base-cross section (CLICK TO
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Ski downhill going to Vrátná (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Picture taken at the place where we ended our ski trip – no scratches
made on our skis (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
