Overview
Course Goals
Curriculum
Dates & Details
Related Courses

Avalanche Refresher - AIARE 1

Overview

You're out on a ski tour in the backcountry and the slope you've decided to descend looks questionable. You have avalanche training, but it's been a while since you've used it. Do you feel comfortable with your snowpack evaluation? How about your terrain assessment? What about your ability to find your partner with a transceiver if there's a slide?

Course Description

A skier in the North Cascades. Lyle Haugsven

Winter travelers commonly require a review of their avalanche awareness skills before heading out into the backcountry. Our one-day Avalanche Refresher clinics were designed specifically for those that have already completed an avalanche education course and would like to refresh their skills and knowledge. This field-based clinic provides an excellent review of the material and allows a venue for the discussion of new avalanche industry updates, techniques and skills.

Each Avalanche Refresher clinic provides a review of terrain-assessment, travel techniques, decision-making, mountain weather, snowpack evaluation and rescue techniques. These clinics are run by our avalanche instructors and ski guides who have years of experience predicting and avoiding avalanches.

All material presented in this course will be consistent with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) curriculum.

Avalanche Refresher - AIARE 1

Course Goals

The goals of this course are to:

Provide a basic understanding of avalanches
Review decision-making and risk management in avalanche terrain
Review tour planning and terrain assessment
Review transceiver use and avalanche victim search patterns
Discuss new updates in avalanche research and rescue

Avalanche Refresher - AIARE 1

Curriculum

The AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) was founded to provide instructors with the tools to educate students about the knowledge and decision making skills necessary to travel in avalanche terrain.

The American Alpine Institute's Avalanche Course instructors are AIARE trained and will teach the standardized AIARE curriculum on each course.

There is no nationally recognized curriculum for avalanche education in the USA. There are many avalanche courses and programs available but in large part, course providers operate according to their own personal beliefs and ideas. There are few means for the public to assess the quality of an avalanche course or instructor.

AIARE was formed to address this situation. They have developed and continue to develop standardized curriculum for a complete program of avalanche courses that meets the needs of students at all levels, from recreational to professional and from novice to advanced.

AIARE has created and will continue to create course materials for instructors and students to maximize the effectiveness of both teachers and learners. They require instructors to meet pre-requisites and attend a training session before they are allowed access to AIARE materials and curriculum. In addition, instructors are required to sign an agreement stating they will abide by the guidelines established by AIARE and they are required to attend regular refreshers to maintain and improve their avalanche knowledge, instructional skills, and their understanding of the evolving AIARE curriculum and materials.