The lecture portion of the Basic Mountaineering Course came to completion today with 26 students having attended. This year marks a significant addition to the course. Scott Cordner, Keith Church and Jeff Pierce, all from the National Ski Patrol delivered presentations on Avalanche Fundamentals and Rescue. Scott Cordner, Bear Valley SAR and Frank Hester, Wrightwood SAR have been advocating this change in BMC for a few years. The next step in this process involves adjusting the field experience for BMC. The time allotted  to hands-on field work relating to avalanche has been expanded. A much more thorough discussion of avalanche awareness, snow pits and victim search and retrieval will be held. This should prove to be beneficial to our SAR members during training and missions in our mountains in the winter. All SAR members are encouraged to take the BMC next year in order to take advantage of the new curriculum. Please keep in mind that Personal Vertical Skills (PVS) is now required for BMC.