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SCOPE
This preventative management and awareness course for all staff involved in land and shore excursions where snow/ice glide cracks, tide cracks, bergschrunds and crevasses are known hazards at specific sites. It is a general education, hazard awareness, disclosure and crowd control skills awareness course and intended only for known site-specific hazards and for people working under a suitably experienced or qualified guide/staff member. It is an awareness program only and NOT an assessment.
PREREQUISITES
Nil
CROSS CREDIT
Any internationally recognized qualifications that include these components to the level of the Scope or higher. See Cross Credit Matrices.
SPECIAL NOTES
i. It is currently beyond the scope of the PTGA to train and qualify people for the skills required to access these features, make judgements regarding their suitability for guided use, or perform a complex rescue in crevassed terrain. There are many international qualifications that train and examine people to this level. Companies should hire personnel with suitable external qualifications.
ii. It is implicit that different stages of the polar seasons will offer different levels of risk and therefore will require different levels of experience of guides. This should be understood by all PTGA guides.
iii. Organisations that train, examine, and qualify people to travel/rescue in crevassed terrain include but are not limited to: US, Canada, NZ, Swiss, French Mountain Guides Associations, IFMGA Member Associations, NZOIA Level II Mountain, UK International Mountain Leader, NOLS Mountain Leader.
iv. The PTGA differentiates between mountain/glacial terrain where the location and extent of crevasses is unknown and unknowable, and site-specific tide-cracks, glide cracks, bergschrunds and crevasses which are known to exist in the same place from year to year and whose parameters (depth, width and structure) are understood by qualified or experienced guides and deemed to be manageable.
v. The PTGA expects that anyone whose role includes site assessment, judgement and decision making for excursions that are known to have tide-cracks, glide cracks, bergschrunds or crevasses should have higher levels of experience or qualifications and should carry appropriate equipment and know-how to use it.
vi. Element 2 extraction does not imply someone has’ fallen’ in a crack. It is extraction awareness for someone who may have put their leg through a crack and are unable to extract themselves.
vii. The PTGA Crevasse database is a project in development and any guide should be familiar with this and contribute to its data when conditions are suitable.
