the avalanche working group

Teamwork — Mentorship — Education — Touring — Feedback — Mileage — Partnership

The ultimate avalanche experience — a season of coached application, touring, and training

Three days … it’s simply not enough for an avalanche course. After 15 years of taking and teaching avalanche courses, I recognize how difficult it is to grasp so much information, put it into practice, and get valid feedback. Virtual classes and two hectic weekend days leave us overwhelmed and without the chance to get into the routine and flow of a competent practice. So how to remedy this?

The full-season, Long-Format, Deep-Dive Avalanche Course

I have the good luck to call one of North America’s most respected avy professionals — Colin Zacharias — a mentor. He was the lead author on the new American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) rec curriculum in 2018 (as well as a snow-safety director at two Olympics, a ski examiner for both the Canadian and American guiding associations, and a mountain guide with more than 40 winters of experience!). I edited his original work on the curriculum and during our collaboration we agreed to deliver the first AIARE 2 with the new format. We thought it would be a superior learning experience to deliver the course over a week, rather than three days, so that’s what we did — our own lodge, a private chef, heli access … and the long-format, deep-dive AIARE 2 was born.

It’s a great model, but it’s also exclusive — not everyone can afford the time or cash to spend a full week in the Canadian backcountry. Could we reproduce the experience here in the Pacific Northwest, in a more user-friendly format? I think so — with the Avalanche Working Group.

a Season-long course with feedback and the option to go deep into the practice

How about we take a full season to introduce, practice, and implement the concepts of an in-depth avalanche course? We’ll start the season with several online sessions to start tracking conditions and preparing for touring. To get our rescue skills going, we’ll do a day of “dryland training,” learning the intricacies of our transceivers and the special modes they offer. Once the snow flies, we’ll identify a bunch of potential touring days — come for all of them or just the ones you want — to start putting into practice the concepts we’ve learned through our pre-season training. After each session we’ll share feedback on strengths and weaknesses — it’s a collaboration between all the team members, me included.

If you’re interested in a formal AIARE 1 or 2, great, we can cover that material and get you there. If you’d rather just participate in some online learning and tour with us for a day or two, great, no problem. If you’re looking for the deep dive, then consider joining me for a week-long hut trip in Canada (April 2023 or we have January dates in 2024). The Avalanche Working Group delivers the perfect avalanche course, customized for you and your current skill level.

three Working groups — based on what you want out of the season