Take Your Avalanche Safety Skills to the Next Level

You’ve already learned to recognize avalanche terrain and been introduced to safe travel technique in your AST-1. Now it's time to practice using those skills in real-life avalanche terrain.  Skills focussed on in the course include:

Selecting appropriate terrain based on the avalanche forecast

Group management and human factors in avalanche decision-making

Hazard evaluation and management

How to travel safely through, under, and around various micro-features in the terrain

Techniques to reduce exposure time

Estimating slope angles and evaluating aspects

"Now-casting" and evaluating changing conditions as your day progresses

Trip planning considerations

The course will cover all material required for Avalanche Canada's Managing Avalanche certification.

Day 1

Meet at Commonwealth Creek Parking (Kananaskis) at 9am.

Guides will go over your gear, discuss the day’s objectives, and review paperwork. You’ll also do a check of avalanche safety gear and a quick companion rescue rescue review. Your destination this day will depend on conditions.

At around 4pm you will return to your vehicles for a debrief of the day.

Optional online evening workshop: Now that you’ve had a chance to see and ski the area, your guide will lead you on a discussion around trip planning. You’ll discuss possible objectives in the area in a workshop-type format. What are the cruxes and hazards? What kind of a trip is it? What kind of terrain management experience and snowpack evaluation would you need to ski it safely in current conditions? Weather dependent this will happen at the vehicles upon return so that people that need to drive further to get home can do so.

Beginner - Intermediate

This camp is designed for those who recently took up backcountry skiing (or took a break), but it is not designed for complete beginners. You must have completed an AST1, have basic familiarity with your gear and completed 5+ days skiing with a group of your peers and/or taken an Introduction to Backcountry Skiing program through the ACC, or equivalent. An intermediate level of ski experience at a resort is also essential: you must be comfortable on ungroomed blue runs at a mountain resort.

You will spend almost all day outside (up to 8 hours), sometimes stopping for discussion or breaks. Come prepared for cold weather with warm layers and please ensure you have everything on the gear list. A good level of cardiovascular fitness is also key to allow for access and learning.

If you have any questions about your suitability for this course, please contact the office.

Food

Food is not provided as part of the course. So please bring along lunch and some snacks for both days as well as a dinner for the hut.

Accommodation

The course includes overnight accommodation at the Wheeler hut in the heart of Rogers Pass. This perfect location provides convenient access to many great ski lines in the area and translates to less driving time each day and more time spent exploring. With room for 24 people the communal and sleeping areas are spacious and the hut features a propane system which provides the cooking and lighting, with two wood stoves for heating.

Guiding

Our dedicated on-staff ski guide Doug Latimer oversees our avalanche and skills programs. Doug has almost 20 years of experience in teaching AST and other winter instructional courses, as well as in developing course materials and ski guiding. We are extremely excited to have him on board for a second season after rave reviews in 2018/19. 

We want to provide the best possible learning experience and give you maximum opportunity to ask questions. So participant-to-guide ratios will be kept below a maximum of 6:1 on this course.