Homecoming

These are some of my personal favorites. It's the view from the top!

More pictures

The Amount of Space the Helicopter Has to Land The Heli Pad The Snow Levels Outside His "Pirates Shack" The "Pirates Shack"

Pictures

The Local Dog - He Smells, so You Only Touch Him With Your Feet The View Out His Front Door Michelle, Matt, and Sven

Pictures

This is Brett on top of a peak.

Communication Problems

Well, being that Brett really is in the middle of nowhere, it makes sense that the availability for communication is scarse. Cell phone reception is not available; they do have land lines, but he only has certain locations and needs a phone card; internet has a low signal and is also only available in certain locations. With the internet being low, he hasn't been able to send pictures and add descriptions of his adventures. Hence the lack of update for the blog. I talked with him today and he's hoping that while he is in a new location for his classes this week he will be able to have a stronger signal to get me some information and pictures. As far as what he has told me over a few phone calls, I will do my best to fill you in but I may not do it justice. This last week he has been learning about emergency rescue. He said they have done fracture settings, taking a body off the mountain on a straight board, and learing about medical conditions that you have to be aware of before you take them out into the backcountry/cold. One of those conditions being a problem I deal with, hypothyroidism or lack of thyroid. (He's also learned a bunch of other medical conditions, but vocalize that particular one because of how close to home it hit). He has met alot of fun and crazy people. He also said that there are a few pro skiers up there right now and three in his group; J.P. Auclair being one of them (if you know pro skiers, you know he's pretty good). Before he went up to Alaska, he was a little worried about how prepared or unprepared he was going to be. It was fun to hear that when they got there they did a run through in the "beacon field" where they hide a multiple amount of avalanche beacons in the snow and time you in finding them. When it came to him, he ended up with the fastest time; that's ironic for me because I thought he was just messing around on those days he ended up not teaching, but it played in his favor! He also felt that compared to the other class members, he was one of the strongest when it came to backcountry knowledge while the others were more "park rats". Again, something that I thought he was just doing because he didn't end up working, but he was actually preparing for this adventure! Please, keep him in your prayers.