In brief: Wild Game Feast coming up

Tickets are now on sale for the North Idaho College Alumni Association’s ninth annual Wild Game Feast Feb. 2. This year’s event features a five-course meal of extraordinary wild game delicacies created by Steve Taylor of NIC Food Services.

The event will begin with a social at 6 p.m. in which attendees will have a chance to enjoy the appetizers, alligator wontons, Tibetan yak meatballs and wapiti quesadillas, while listening to music and viewing silent auction items.

A four-course dinner will be served at 6:45 in the Ts’elusm Dining Room of NIC’s Edminster Student Union Building. The menu will feature Creole turtle soup, spinach salad with crispy boar bacon and quail eggs, kangaroo medallions and a huckleberry bread pudding.

Tickets are $75 per person or $70 for NIC Alumni Association members. Limited seating is available. All proceeds benefit the NIC Alumni Association and scholarships for NIC students.

For tickets, mail a check to the NIC Alumni Association, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 or call 769-5978.

Avalanche course planned at NIC

North Idaho College’s Outdoor Pursuits program is offering a clinic that will provide participants with the knowledge of avalanche risk factors and the basic experience for quick decision-making and action in case of an emergency.

Avalanche Level 1 is a certificate course that follows guidelines from the American Avalanche Association. The clinic will cover basic avalanche types, mechanics, terrain hazards, snow pack and weather, decision-support tools and rescues.

The clinic will be offered next Saturday through Jan. 21, and includes four hours of classroom training and 20 hours of field training. The classroom portion of the class will be on NIC’s main Coeur d’Alene campus, and the field work will be in the Lookout Pass region of the Silver Valley.

Participants should have a basic understanding of winter travel.

Cost is $75, which includes transportation, instruction, lodging for one night and avalanche equipment. Space is limited. For more information, call 769-7809.

Feature writing class offered

The University of Idaho’s School of Journalism and Mass Media will offer a course in feature article writing at its Coeur d’Alene campus this spring. The course will meet Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m., Jan. 23 through April 16. (The class will not meet on April 2 during North Idaho College’s spring break.) Taught by Virginia de Leon, a Spokane-based writer who has worked as a professional journalist for more than a decade, the course will cover personality profiles, issue and trend stories, human-interest features, travel articles, columns and reviews. No previous journalism experience is required to enroll in the course, although students should have access to a computer. Registration information is available through the University’s Coeur d’Alene campus, via phone at 667-2588 or by e-mail at cdactr@uidaho.edu.

Priest Lake

Rescue team being organized

Priest Lake Search and Rescue is organizing an advanced team for rescuing injured snowmobilers from backcountry riding areas and is looking for experienced snowmobile riders to assist with the equipment, transportation and patient extraction necessary in extreme conditions.

Transporting equipment into the accident site and evacuating the injured person can require as many as 10 to 15 strong backcountry riders, depending on snow conditions and location.

PLSAR is currently expanding its ropes rescue capability to include extraction of an injured rider under extremely adverse conditions. As determined by past experience, PLSAR knows it will need twice as many volunteers signed up, than the number actually needed for a mission. This is because everyone is not available on any given day or night to assist with a rescue mission.

There will be an organizational and planning meeting on Friday at 7 p.m. in Coolin at the Sheriff’s Substation. The Substation is next to the Inn at Priest Lake.

For any questions prior to the meeting, contact Mike Sudnikovich 443-2628 or Mike Nielsen 443-6603.

– From staff reports