Salomon Mountain Academy
I've seen the Salomon Mountain Academy floating around my facebook feed for a few months now. Only in the form of ads and never heard much more other than that. Assuming it was designed to peddle a little more equipment I dismissed it until this caving this week. I was greeted by a "start free trail" page and I assume as you progress to the more advance material a paid subscription is required. The academy is structured in 8 courses with the first focusing on the “slackcountry”.
After skiing a few afternoon runs in the tracked out groomers the sirens call of fresh tracks is one most can't keep at bay forever. Many people can be seen ducking the boundary line and lapping the adjacent slopes slashing pow , dulling out high fives and the sounds of hoots and hollars fill the air. The majority of the theese slackcountry heroes are armed with an alpine set up , cell phone, lift ticket and maybe a snack or two. Just like you. So you head out there with your best bud , shoulder your skis and start the well punched in bootpack and duck the boundary fence. Briefly read over the big sign with bold letters saying WARNING “ you are exiting the resort boundary be prepared for backcountry travel. Avalanches, be papered for self rescu…” anyways it makes for a great selfie. #backcountry #pow. All jokes aside we have all seen literally hundreds of backpackless ,PBR drinking brobrahs ducking lines and you can only shake your head because they really just don't have a clue. Honestly, ingorance is bliss!
Course 1 is structured so that once read you should have pretty good idea of what risks are associated with ducking a resort boundary line. They do a fantastic job of addressing some of the common points your uneducated rope ducker might rationalise with himself before heading out. Quotes we have all heard ourselves are addressed in lesson 1. For example. “ I only ski close to the boundary line “ “ I only do tree runs “ “ Nothing has ever happened “ “ i've never seen an avalanche here “ and my personal favorite “ There's loads of tracks already “. All quotes that leave use shaking our heads but to a person who has absolutely zero knowledge on the subject, those quote could make total sense.
So if you came to Backcountryskiingcanada.com today because you're thinking of ducking the line but want to know what that big orange and yellow WARNING sign at the fence is talking about, start right here. http://mountainacademy.salomon.com/en
If you're not new to the game then maybe you can reference your friends who might ask you on Facebook messenger about the slackcountry to the Mountain academy. We have all had those messages , “ how safe is it over there? You know, avalanche wise? “