(Taos!)
2 
Days ago we left for Taos. On the first sunny afternoon, we skied on one of the steepest ski mountains in
th
e Rocky Mountain range. Not a frequent skier, I stuck to the blues, which is more than equivalent to east coast black diamonds. The day was so hot, I was down to a thin shirt and jacket and still hot! Better yet, no falls!We slept in a hostel in
downtown Taos for the first night. The next morning, we had a lecture on Acute Mountain Sickness. Then we went to the Taos ski resort and had a terrific lecture by the ski mountain doctor of 17 years on High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HACE) and Cerebral Edema (HAPE).
By midmorning we were on our way up a mountain that knew only uphill. In what was the most difficult 1 1/2 climb through the snow and heat, I frequently had to stop just to catch my breath. Downtown Taos is at about 9,000 ft, but we climbed to nearly 12,000 feet - high enough to make any marathon runner feel like a CHF-er. By the time we reached the yurt, my pulse-ox was down to 92% and my pulse was at rest over 100.
Some of us decide
d to build snow caves to sleep in. My construction, suggested by one of the rescue leaders eventually had some problems when we lit the fire, the wind changed direction, and the bed platform filled with smoke and sparks. Unfortunately, I ended up in the yurt. In the morning, clouds came in and a freak snowstorm began. We had a few lectures on foot injuries, avalanche prediction and safety, andhow to locate victims by beacon and without. The snow up there was about 6 feet deep and without snow shoes, you would sink right through. We hiked out in
the snow with our snowshoes and poles, spent a good hour recovering in a natural hot spring, and had a good three hour drive back to ABQ.
(Dr. Macias, despite the impending blizzard tells us about pitch wood and its use in starting fires or signaling due to the turpentine content.)
(Micha teaches us how to how to predict avalanche risk from a snow pit.)
2 comments:
tell us about the people. Are they all "granola" people. Or die-hard republicans? What are the professors like?
The people are a mix of outdoorsy fleece and goretex wearing folks and military camouflage going fishing/hunting folks. Most are scuba divers. Many have been around the world. Several rock climb. Most ski. There are runners and triathletes. No vegetarians - if that means anything to you. It's a pretty hard core group.
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