Tom Pearson provides an insight into one of the MCofS Avalanche Awareness Courses held in January 2008

Before attending the MCofS Avalanche Awareness Course, run by avalanche observer Tom Rupar, my perception of avalanche hazard was blinkered to suffocation and crushing, and that couldn’t happen in Scotland…surely. “What’s the avalanche risk today? Category 3? That’s fine then, Point Five it is”. Coming away from the course Tom has, in a single day, made this attitude seem ridiculous. What I have taken away from it is a deep relief that I had taken the time to go on the course and the realisation that anyone operating in the Scottish mountains in winter without this vital information is increasing the risk they take. Tom began by scaring us. The most memorable image he created for me was of a scarp exit slope on the Ben avalanching with us on it. We only had a couple of ice axes in soft snow keeping us from clattering down the route we had just almost completed. He then fed us the practical information we were craving to avoid such nightmares. What Tom imparted was that, although the study of snow is a science as complex as any other, the practical information to manage avalanche hazard in the mountains can be learnt and developed by all mountaineers. We can't completely remove the chances of being avalanched but we can learn to manage the risk.

Tom Pearson
January 2008