Henrys Avalanche Talks UK tour itinerary

A snowHead

Henry Schniewind is back in the UK again this Autumn with his popular and enlightening lecture on avalanche awareness.

There are two versions of the talk -
The Essentials – a must see talk, full of ‘essential’ information for all off-piste skiers, no matter how experienced you are.
In depth – for those who have already seen the Essentials Talk at least once.

The schedule is...

Cardiff 19th October
Capel Curig 21st October
Manchester 27th October
Covent Garden 2nd November
Cambridge 12th November
Bristol 18th November
St Pauls 19th November

More details here

A snowHead

Thanks for the heads-up; I'll be at the 19th Nov talk in case any other snowheads want to say hi.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Indeed, thanks for that.

I can't make the Manchester Essentials talk, as I'll be on my way back up from London that evening, but I can do the indepth one the next day - do you reckon I'll be ok to do this, as I've already been to a few avalanche talks in Chamonix, plus Intro and Progression full day sessions with Avalanche Academy? I know its always good to go back over the basics, but dates just don't work this time...

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@snowdave, yes, I think I will go to that one too.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Described as "UK tour" but not one venue north of the border !

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@deerman,
To be fair he has done Scotland as well in the past. I went to one a few years back at Braehead and I was literally the only person there so it was great having a one to one chat but I can understand if the exercise is not repeated.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Yes, I guess those guys in Belfast have been screwed again.

After all it is free

booked for manchester on tues night , any other folks attending ??

@Dabber, I'm going on Weds night - can't make the one tonight. Website says about 20 other people going tomorrow, so I would expect a few more tonight.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Yep me and daughter are heading along tonight

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@francium., cool see u there

snow reports

@fixx, yes, the intro one is quite basic so if you have already done some training the more in depth one will be more appropriate (I've done both + a couple of courses at Glenmore lodge).

Why never the west Mids

You know it makes sense.

Bugger, missed it Sad

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

went along , and was honestly disappointed , talk was disjointed and not very well presented , after all the rave reviews ive heard i expected it to better , really got more understanding from the reading the small booklet handed out before the talk Sad

A snowHead

A snowHead

I went along to the second talk last night in Manchester, and I'm in 2 minds about it.

There were a couple of things in there I’d not seen or heard before, so that was good, and I like the fairly detailed coverage on theories of why avalanches occur, and why they sometimes don’t. Plus it’s always good to have a refresher. And we got a couple of drinks thrown in, so that was good.

BUT the vast majority of it I’d seen before in shorter, free talks across Geneva and Chamonix. I also found his presenting style a little irritating, and surprising for someone who’d been doing it for so long – a more polished presenter I think would have made a bigger impact and been more engaging with exactly the same material. A better presenter would also have been a lot quicker! An infuriating amount of the time was spent saying “We’re going to talk about…/this is what we’re covering later…/we cover this in the Essentials session…”. It honestly felt like half the time was spent telling what he was going to tell us, or what he’d told people before, rather than doing the actual telling! (He was much better when answering questions and talking directly about his own experiences). With that, plus the late start (rather annoying in a short duration, paid and ticketed event) and unnecessary break, it felt like the whole thing was twice as long as necessary, and heavily padded to make it seem like more value for money when advertised.

So, I'm glad I went (just) for a couple of bits in there, general reminder of some stuff, plus the beer, but I really wouldn't go again, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone either - but that’s more down to presentation and general organisational ability rather than content.

The thing is though, there’s no competition for what he’s doing in the UK, so what choice do most people have?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Interesting views above, and almost relieved !

I made this comment in the The Human Factor Video post http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=120927

"Have to admit to geeting a wee bit skeptical with regard to HAT it's getting too business led / driven me thinks......."

And I was a tad nervous that my post would have been seen as heresy given the following he has!

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Weathercam, I’d seen that thread but not had time to watch the video, so didn't quite catch the point about HAT. I do agree though.

To be fair, if there’s someone who hasn't seen an avalanche talk before, they’re better than nothing, and there is good content in there – I've been fortunate in that having lived in Geneva/Chamonix for a few years I had access to a number of other talks and training, but I’m in a very small population in that sense. (And of course being a snowHead, I do benefit from the postings, advice and experience of other people here, which is great too!)

What concerned me a little more was the beacon training that was being advertised - £55 for searching in a park! I've no objections to burying transceivers in a pile of leaves for a refresher/bit of practice out of season, but for me the biggest takeaway from search training have been in actually using a probe in compacted snow and feeling the difference when you hit a backpack/’person’ vs a rock, or ground, or different snow layers; and then the effort it takes to move a metre or more of snow off a victim, and how you dig (coming in from the side etc). How can you effectively demonstrate that in a park? Each time I do it, I'm always amazed and scared again at how hard it is to really dig through that amount of snow – and if someone is searching for me I’d want them to have experienced how hard it is and how quickly they really do have to dig, how to find me under snow using a probe etc – not just have played with transceiver signals in a park :/

Now they may have good ways of running it which help cover those points – I don’t know. I'm very sceptical though.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@fixx, I have heard your concerns about the "searching in the park" event almost word-for-word from someone else. I won't be bothering with it.

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Well I went to the 'essentials' talk on Weds night and have just got back from the beacon training session.

First off, I thought the mid week talk was pretty good for people who are just starting out off piste - a good introduction to the subject and summary of key points to consider and implement when heading. I agree that if you're an experienced off piste skier it might not be worthwhile, but then I don't think its aimed and that demographic. For £12.50 I thought it was reasonable value for money.

I've done quite a bit of off-piste skiing, normally with a guide, and in that scenario you are given a beacon but not generally shown how to use it. You're essentially putting your faith in the guide choosing a suitably safe area to ski I suppose.

I decided to go on the beacon training course because I want to start doing some touring and have invested in a beacon, shovel and probe and need to know how to use them. I actually thought the course was excellent. It was taken by a very knowledgeable lass with a vast amount of real life experience having been involved in several avalanche rescues in her time. She went through the theory of how the beacons works, the most efficient way of searching for victims, both single and multiple burials, and gave a short talk on the best techniques to employ when probing and digging a victim out. Whilst obviously not as good as doing a course out on the snow, I thought it was a great way of getting to know how to use the equipment whilst giving you the chance to talk openly with someone who clearly knew her subject very well indeed.

Excellent work and good to see this kind of course available to people in the UK who might otherwise not have the money / time /opportunity to attend a course in resort.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Considering how long he's been doing this talk it's pretty rubbish. I can live with the basic-ness of it but it seemed all over the place to me, an out of date power point, slightly annoying and scatty presenting style and a reworking of avalanche basics into his own hard to remember system.

"Better than nothing" is probably the only positive comment I could think of. I should add that everyone else I know who went to see him shared my opinion.

After all it is free

There's a good, free, all day, weekly avalanche awareness course in Les Deux Alpes throughout the winter. I've been 3 times now. Format is morning theory session with pisteur/guide in picnic building at Toura followed by tranceiver practise in the ava Park. In the afternoon there's a chance to go out with the guide for a bit more theory and demonstrations, test pits, etc, and skiing a few off piste lines. The first time I did it the theory section was run by an English and an Aussie pisteur but it's now in French with some of their own English translation and also from a more fluent English speaker from the Tourist Office. Well worthwhile Happy

I wonder if there is something like this ^ ^ ^ in Serre Chevalier. That would be an excellent thing for me to do in March. As it is, I am for the second year running about to shell out rather a lot of money to look for transceivers in piles of leaves on Wimbledon Common, courtesy of the HAT machine. I wasn't that impressed with the tuition last year, but it's better than nothing.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@Hurtle, Combine the L2A one with a balcony visit wink

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

It looks like I'll have a spare ticket for this at St Pauls next Thursday night. Free to a good home.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I can't now go this evening (Ellis Brigham, St Paul's, EC2V 6AF) so if anyone wants a free ticket let me know. Ed

A snowHead

I went to the EB St Pauls one and really enjoyed it. It really drove home the human factors that cause us to push our luck.

You may not want to go every year, but it does no harm to be reminded of the things we should ask ourselves, when off piste.

A snowHead

Fascinating reading comments/thoughts on Henry and his lecture delivery. I suspect that he is at home on the mountain and able to teach/lecture in his preferred environment.
I have listened to him on several occasions and felt that his delivery is laboured at best.
Refreshing to hear others share my view. Henry does however provide an opportunity for a huge number of people to start at introductory level on the "big journey". None of us should dismiss any amount of learning no matter how small.
As an aside does anyone know what qualification Henry has?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Apart from his instructing qualifications Henry has a masters degree in snow and avalanche science (or similar). Henry is a gentleman in both senses, which is perhaps what gives rise to the comments about his delivery style.

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I haven't been to the talks, but I downloaded the HAT online 'Essentials' training last year (£20) and thought it was excellent. It added a fair bit to what I've learnt from going out with guides, and it was good to be able to watch (and re-watch) in bite-sized chunks.

Help!!

Henrys Avalanche Talks UK tour itinerary

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