AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Safety Course

The AIARE Lev­el 1 avalanche safe­ty class pro­vides the avalanche skills train­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion need­ed if you are a ski­er, snow­board­er, climber, or snow­shoer that trav­els in avalanche ter­rain. Avalanche Insti­tute of Research and Edu­ca­tion (AIARE) Recre­ation­al I is an intro­duc­to­ry class with lec­tures and two field days that cov­ers the phe­nom­e­non of avalanche, avalanche ter­rain, deci­sion mak­ing, trav­el tech­niques, human fac­tors, and com­pan­ion res­cue. These cours­es are designed for recre­ation­al­ists look­ing to get out and have the nec­es­sary tools to make informed deci­sions about risk fac­tors, and to be able to ask the right ques­tions before head­ing out. Round out your back­coun­try edu­ca­tion by join­ing us for a Back­coun­try Ski­ing Fun­da­men­tal Course. And for those look­ing to up their game, it meets the require­ment for our more advanced Back­coun­try Ski Tours.

Our high­ly expe­ri­enced instruc­tors have been trained by the Cana­di­an Avalanche Asso­ci­a­tion (CAA), the Amer­i­can Moun­tain Guides Asso­ci­a­tion (AMGA), and the Amer­i­can Insti­tute for Avalanche Research and Edu­ca­tion (AIARE). They are the best, most­ly high­ly trained instruc­tors! Who else would you want to learn from?

In addi­tion to this, we have the most course venues avail­able, which allow us to adapt to the ever-chang­ing con­di­tions win­ter throws our way:

• Mount Rainier
• Steven’s Pass
• Sno­qualmie Pass
• Leav­en­worth and Blewett Pass
• Mount Bak­er Ski area BC
• White Pass

The AIARE 1 is a 24-hour avalanche course that pro­vides an intro­duc­tion to using deci­sion mak­ing tools to help a group man­age risk while trav­el­ing in avalanche ter­rain. Avalanche edu­ca­tion and get­ting the ​“know-how” to trav­el wise­ly is a life­long pur­suit, and this is the best place to start. Here’s what you’ll learn about:

• Weath­er
• Snow­pack
• Avalanche phe­nom­e­non
• Ter­rain Selection
• Human fac­tors
• Deci­sion making
• Avalanche dan­ger ratings
• Self-res­cue/­Com­pan­ion rescue
• Trip plan­ning and preparation
• Trav­el techniques
• Bond­ing tests/​test profiles

At the end of this course you should be able to:

• plan and pre­pare for trav­el in avalanche terrain
  
• rec­og­nize avalanche terrain
  
• describe a frame­work for mak­ing deci­sions in avalanche terrain
• apply effec­tive com­pan­ion rescue.

For pro­fes­sion­als, such as entry lev­el guides and ski-patrollers look­ing for essen­tial skills to keep them­selves, and oth­ers safe in avalanche ter­rain, this is the place to start before jump­ing into pro­fes­sion­al lev­el cours­es such as the Lev­el 2 course.