Hi Lori,
Just wanted to drop you a line and say thanks for coming up and putting on the classes for us up here. Before taking the class, I never knew what ‘gorillas’ looked like, and certainly didn’t realize how many were out there. With being fairly new to the sport, I was very much blinded by the expert halo. Putting 100% faith in my group, simply because I didn’t know any different; they had all the experience, not me. There were so many key points that really hit home for me and made me really think about some of the situations we have been in. Did the other guys (‘experts’) already know that slope was stable? Or did we not die just by pure dumb luck?
Since I entered the sport 2 years ago, I always thought that an avy course would be a good thing to have. Now after taking it, I have realized it’s a really dumb, stupid, and irresponsible NOT to have!
I will be pushing hard for the others in our group to get trained as well, and now that I know how much I DON’T know, I’ll be watching for more opportunities for training for myself as well. If you’re considering coming back up here, I sincerely hope you do. I would be interested in taking some more advanced or supplemental courses here, obviously whatever you can do in a classroom setting.
As far as your course evaluation goes, there wasn’t one minute that I was wishing to be somewhere else. I have to sit through an unbelievable amount of safety training for work, and I can tell you I’ve never taken a class where I’ve been that engaged and had my attention kept so well. Excellent job.
Thanks again,
Matt A, Fort McMurray