IML winter assessment - Top Tips

Having just completed the final stage of my International Mountain Leader Assessment - the WInter assessment - I thought it might be worthwhile sharing my experience and in particular the nature of the assessment for those gearing up for next year or just contemplating IML.

I have listed the daily schedule at the end, no specific locations mentioned so hopefully Carlo Forte (PyB) won't be too perturbed:-)

Many of the comments I made in my blog last year about Winter ML  (click here to read) apply equally here, but there are some obvious (and less obvious) differences. Here is a summary of the key points with the weeks schedule listed at the end.

• The whole assessment is done on snowshoes, there is no use of crampons.

• Snowshoeing often uses ski locations and lift systems to gain height so management and safety of your group in these environments is important.

• The emphasis on group management is just as strong but it goes further, to group engagement.  So you need to ensure your group are not only safe, but kept interested in things like fauna, flora, local area, history, legends ( my personal fave) etc. whilst navigating and ensuring the terrain is safe.

So whose tracks are these?

..and these?

• Navigation: The reality of snowshoeing with clients is probably on easily navigable routes, but this is taken further for assessment, so there is some micro nav to contour features off the paths/tracks. Despite having managed pretty well on WML last year I actually found this quite hard; nav'ing in forest on slopes with lots of small contour features proved challenging - especially relocation - and this was much more strongly emphasised than on summer assessment.  You do, of course, have to be comfortable with the French IGN 1:25k maps.

• Avalanche awareness and snowpack understanding is at a higher level than WML and use of transceivers to search for buried people is a significant part of the assessment.  We had to locate one person in 2 mins and two people in 8 mins.  Daily Transceiver checks and basic teaching also feature.  I had some issues with the transceivers I bought via the BAIML trade deal which undermined my confidence in this area somewhat, so do your research beforehand, take advice from fellow IMLers and don't always assume cheap trade deals=best option!  Make sure you are well practiced and happy with your chosen product before assessment.

• There is no overnight expedition as such, each day returns to base and a nice meal and comfy bed.  The days out are also not desperately long, but this does not mean it is easy! Every evening except the final one includes additional tasks such as route planning, weather/avalanche assessment, a test and so on.  It all feels pretty intense with little downtime.

• If you've done WInter ML or at least scottish winter skills, the ropework should hold no fears for you and you may be able to use trees at times, but they will want to see some snow anchors.  These can be more wide ranging than WML (probably due to the nature of the snowpack?) so its not unusual to back a bucket up with snowshoes,rucksack, ski poles etc.  If you haven't done WML then this will need quite a bit of practice to make it work and look good.

• The assessors are not trying to fail you and will give you a chance over the week to improve on areas that weren't as good as they could have been.  The week also includes a significant element of new learning, which is good in my book.

• Unlike scottish winter, there is quite often sunshine and you can see things!

Our schedule:

Day 1: 
Trannsceiver checks 
Navigation in mountainous wooded area
Environmental knowledge 
Snow pit analysis 
Long distance peak identification 
Looking after group on snowshoes in wooded steep terrain 
Evening journey planning - group exercise 
Evening avalanche/snow test
Day 2: 
More navigation on forested slopes, increased emphasis on micro 
navigation 
More enviro & local area knowledge 
Group management 
More snow pit analysis 
Single transceiver search 
Delivery of a prepared talk 
Evening journey planning - group exercise
Day 3: 
Change of assessor. 
Longer day round lakes with more navigation and group 
management 
Transceiver checks 
Single transceiver search 
Ropework and security on steep ground 
Emergency snow shelter 
Frozen lakes issues and safety 
Evening journey planning - individual exercise
Day 4: 
Further navigation & group management 
Snow anchor based ropework 
Single & multiple transceiver search 
Snowpack analysis & shear tests 
Delivery of a second prepared talk
Day 5: (half day) 
Minimal navigation 
More in-depth snowpack analysis / learning 
Multiple transceiver search 
Large burial (6) / large group transceiver search 
Delivery of result and final debriefs

Hopefully, it goes well, you pass and then you are allowed to wear and use one of these beauties:-)

Hopefully this sheds some light on the winter assessment and maybe on the IML as a whole.

Finally, a quick thanks and shout out to my fellow assessees and the assessors Carlo, Karl and Steve, for their help and support.  Looking back it was a great week, though I wasn't sure whilst in the middle of it!

Thanks for reading.
Andy Dawson.