From volume 88, spring 2009

By Wren McElroy

An AST instructor discovers some striking similarities between staying alive in avalanche terrain and staying alive in Afghanistan.

Smiling soldiers with their civilian instructors Wren McElroy and Keyes Lessard.

 1 Combat Engineer Regiment—the privates, the sappers. These are the young men and women who fight in the Canadian Army. Most of this group has been to Afghanistan and some will go back on another tour of duty soon.

On a two-week training session in Trail BC, this Edmonton-based regiment took an AST 1 course in preparation for the Olympics. They won’t be visible at Whistler Village or any high-profile events; they will more likely be patrolling the surrounding mountains ensuring no danger threatens the games. They know how to be close to danger. These young people are the ones we hear about on the evening news, when a report is read of yet another Canadian soldier killed.

As I write this, news comes again that the 108th Canadian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, this one a 25-year old sapper, a Combat Engineer who hit a roadside bomb. During the evening classroom session, while I was explaining the waivers for the course, one of the soldiers said, “Ma’am, we’ve been to war.” Right. These people know about risk.

What this group didn’t know about was avalanches. Keyes Lessard, CAA Professional Member and Instructor with Selkirk Colleges Renewable Resources Program and I spent two days at Kootenay Pass with this group to help prepare them. What struck me and inspired me was how similar some of our collective experiences were. At first glance one wouldn’t think so. How could you compare skiing powder in the Kootenays to combat conditions in Afghanistan at 60° Celsius? One has cold smoke to choke on. The other has fine silt-like dust invading the eyes and lungs. What we did have in common was exposure to risk.

I was very impressed with how well these soldiers assimilated the information presented. In the classroom we did an exercise to go over the steps of avalanche rescue. Splitting the soldiers into three groups we gave each group a small bag with the steps for self rescue, companion rescue and organized rescue. Each step was cut out and their job was to put the steps in the correct order. With their experience in order and prioritizing it was an easy task.

After signing out rescue gear on Saturday morning at Kootenay Pass, we headed across the highway to the Ministry of Transportation compound where MOT Avalanche Technician Robb Andersen and his CARDA dog Aquillo met us. A happy soldier volunteered to climb into a snow cave and be blocked in while he waited for Robb to give Aquillo the signal to start the search. Within minutes Aquillo was digging at the entrance of the cave ready for her reward—a game of tug-o-war.

The engineers described arriving in Afghanistan and, with no previous training or introductions, being assigned a dog team for sniffing out explosives. This group is very well adapted to learning on the fly, yet they appreciated the opportunity to see an avalanche dog at work and get an understanding of the needs of the dog handler. Robb answered all of their questions while Aquillo happily sniffed all of the green camo.

Probing avalanche debris, or probing for land mines. Which would you rather do?

In the field, as we taught them how to do transceiver searches, they spoke of how they trust their equipment, and how they felt confident with the new skills. While we discussed and practiced spiral probing, they described “prodding” for land mines, which they do with a one-metre prod while they inch along on their belly. The same spiral technique is used when looking for hazards while searching a house, building or an area of land.

When it came to digging the snow profile they happily exclaimed, “Now this we are good at—digging!” They also commented on how much easier digging in the snow is than digging trenches. As we traveled higher on Cornice Ridge on the south side of Kootenay Pass, we stopped to discuss how they would handle travelling through the avalanche paths, cliffs, trees and gullies. One soldier described the use of “tactile exposure”—staying out of view of the enemy. He pointed out that he would travel just inside the trim line of the path to stay out of the line of fire. Once they began to appreciate the destructive force of an avalanche, they all agreed they would increase their safety margin and travel further into the mature timber.

On day two as we sat down for lunch I asked the question that had been on my mind while working with this group. Did they know any of the soldiers who had been killed in Afghanistan? A few of them did. As we talked of the trauma they had seen, it made me think of my own experience in avalanche rescues and of friends I had lost in the outdoors. The causes were very different but the impact of the trauma was the same. This was just one more crossover between our professions.

The ability of these soldiers to adapt to a new environment and incorporate information was inspiring. The hardest thing for this group to deal with was the 30-or 40-year-old aluminum beavertail snowshoes, without teeth. The snowshoes would work fine in the prairies but they were certainly not designed for mountain travel. This fact we quickly discovered as we started to descend on a sun-crusted southerly aspect. The group appreciated traversing around to the north aspect and descending through the much softer crystalline surface hoar. The other option they had for travel were equally outdated cross-country skis they would strap in with their mukluks. It would be a lot easier for these soldiers to travel through the mountains with real ski equipment.

These combat engineers showed a high level of professionalism that made the course a pleasure to teach. When I spoke with their officer in charge, Lt. Mary Benjamin, after the course, she described the soldiers as being excited about their experience and bragging to their comrades that they knew what facets were. This group is hoping to get more training in preparation for the Olympics. Maybe we can get them through the newly developed SAR Level 1 program before February 2010.