3rd Day

We arrived at school at 7:30 today in order to have enough time at Red Mountain, between Ouray and Silverton. The first thing we did when we got to the mountain was get basic training of avalanche beacons. Then one of our guides, Chris Landrey, explained all the devices that were located at the base of the the mountain. One machine sent information of the weather to NASA. The others measured wind, snowfall depths and finally the amount of water the basin shed. After we were through with that another guide, Mike Barton, began to lead us up the mountain. We climbed for a while and he explained avalanche sciences to us throughout the hike. We stopped to have lunch and dig a snow pit. From the pit we were able to examine the snow layers and determine the probability of an avalanche ocurring. We climbed a little higher, strapped on skis and went down the mountain.