Day 2 and 3

Day 3: today we left the tornak hut and made our way to the coyote yurt. Definitely started to get a little better at all this powder skiing - still did manage to crash and get semi buried in snow. We did a couple of long skins. Starting to get better at kick turns. Got convinced to take an extra run with some peer pressure and ski some burned glades. Was glad I did - was fun - made it back thanks to an espresso double shot and some margarita clif blocks. 

Had medical talks on on traumatic arrests in the field. Was surprised how much resuscitation some of my colleagues would do for a blunt traumatic arrest in the field. 

Also had some talks about carbon monoxide. Scott brought a detector. Interestingly the sauna and dining tent (while cooking) had pretty high levels. Leaned alcohol is the cleanest fuel for cooking and diesel is the worst. Plus the bigger the pot the more co is released. 

Every evening someone gets the Hawaiian lay - and tonight I got it as the lay of fame for my efforts on the next to last run. Hoping the ibuprofen kicks in so I can ski some more tomorrow. Despite being the youngest on the trip I think I might one of the sorest. Trying to dig yourself out of snow after crashing is not easy. Reminds me of how hard it was to get up as a kid when I'd crash. Probably crashed more here than I have in the past 10 year, well maybe 5 years of skiing. 

Day 2 we toured from tornak. Crazy how the weather shifts from snow and wind to sun over just a few minutes. We did some education on Avalanche deaths.in short if you don't die of trauma, asphyxia is the next thing that will kill you. We did a practice burial scenario on our way back to the hut. Thought we did pretty well. Easy to assess a patient in the field as a team of er docs. 

Sun Valley DiMM - Day 0

The WMS has decided to do continuing education for the diploma in mountain medicine I completed in fellowship. Luckily I was able to swing enough time off after the student elective last year to participate. 

Arrived in Sun Valley yesterday - long trip from Roa to atl to slc and finally sun valley. Temps were nice on arrival 40s - however appeared most of the snow was melting. I walked around town and explored a bit. 

This morning after catching up on sleep I met one of the other participants, Billy Martin, who'd I spent time with on Rainier. Despite the rain, we went up to sun valley resort - and after buying an absurdly expensive lift ticket $115- headed up the gondola. After our first few runs the clouds broke and it turned into a blue bird day. Snow is a bit wet and heavy after the rain and warmer temps but still great terrain. I'll have legs of steel after this week :)

Next spent some time organizing my stuff. Packing for a ski trip is a little different when you have to carry everything on your back for the week. (Except food). 

The avy conditions should provide some good learning given the warm snow and rain - with a cold front approaching and about 1ft of snow on the way. 

Hoping to improve my avy skills and backcountry skiing on this trip. It's a great opportunity to learn and get some cme at the same time! Will try to keep this updated throughout the week...