Course Description
Format:
2 part classroom component + 2-day field component
Date | Location:
2.27.20 – 2.28.20 Classroom Component | University of Montana, Missoula Campus
2.29.19 – 3.1.20 Field Component | Lolo Pass Backcountry
Price: $275.00
Avalanche Level 1
The level 1 course is designed for current and aspiring backcountry travelers. This course focuses on developing a solid foundation in avalanche knowledge and backcountry travel skills. Following the American Avalanche Association (A3) curriculum instructors cover systematic approaches for sorting and prioritizing information in the complex environment of decision-making in the backcountry. Forty percent of the course is classroom-based and the other sixty percent is field-based. Participants will travel in the backcountry, in and around avalanche terrain.
This course focuses on the following:
- Basic avalanche terminology
- Recognizing avalanche terrain
- Travel procedures in avalanche terrain
- Formation of the mountain snowpack
- How weather changes the snowpack
- Human factors and how they can influence decision-making
- Interpreting the avalanche forecast and advisory
- Tour planning
- Avalanche transceiver use and rescue skills
- Field observations of terrain, snowpack, and weather
- Use and interpretation of stability tests
- Implementing systems for prioritizing information, working as a team, and minimizing possible human factor traps
- Classroom decision-making scenarios to practice use of the checklist
- Next steps
RECOMMENDED READING
- Snow Sense, Jill Fredston & Doug Fesler
- Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, Bruce Tremper
- Avalanche Essentials, Bruce Tremper
