Backcountry skiers and snowboarders know avalanche awareness and training is important, but getting started costs time and money. Entry-level courses usually cost at least $500 and a three-day weekend of your time.
The backcountry-curious sometimes freeze in the starting gate, waiting until they take a course to start touring. But avalanche education providers now offer cheaper, less formal “intro” classes to lower the barrier. Still, there are more self-diagnosed autodidacts than ever that prefer to start learning online on their own before committing to professional instruction.
Thankfully, there are now lots of resources online from formal avalanche education providers, guide outfits, and backcountry brands.
Get Alpine Ready
A new three-part video series, Alpine Ready, from Swedish ski apparel brand Peak Performance, fills the gap between knowing nothing and being ready for your first formal field course. If you prefer self-directed resources and video formats, it’s an easy 10-minute watch per installment.
Alpine Ready won’t replace in-person instruction and stays pretty high-level. But it’s shot beautifully and provides an overview of common beginner questions such as: What gear do I need? How do I assess the avalanche risk? What are best practices for group travel?
The cast pairs Peak Performance athletes Elisabeth Gerritzen and Henrik Windstedt with UK guides The Avalanche Geeks and feels like watching over their shoulders on a field-based class. Episode 1 focuses on necessary equipment including rescue tools and layering tips.
The material is a cursory review if you’ve taken avalanche education before. But because the guides are European and touring in glacier country, the second episode of Alpine Ready provides some interesting best practices for glacier travel that will be novel for many North American skiers and snowboarders.
The third episode premieres on YouTube next week and pairs with a global events tour to bring the educational message of the videos to life in-person for events in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Peak Performance’s events list has details on local education talks from Europe to Vancouver. More dates will be announced soon.
More Backcountry Resources
The American Avalanche Institute’s free-with-registration course covers similar ground to the Alpine Ready series in more detail (and from one of the main education providers in the U.S.). The American Institute for Avalanche Research (AIARE) created an also-free intro course called Avalanche Aware, that’s another great starting point.
If you’re past the point of needing intro-level materials or just want to keep learning, there are plenty of more advanced resources. The best path is regularly signing up for in-person instruction, but online videos and courses are a great way to refresh on topics or prep for an in-person course.
AIARE maintains a robust YouTube channel that could keep you streaming avalanche education for hours. They’ve also announced a new in-person, field-based Avalanche Refresher course option for this winter. Around 90% of their students stop formal courses after their Level 1 AIARE class. This one-day field workshop lowers the barrier to continuing with continuing education.
They’re a few years old now, but backcountry safety brand BCA also has a whole suite of avalanche education videos. The series hits specific topics from airbag deployment to radio use in the backcountry.
In 2015, Salomon launched their for-a-fee “Mountain Academy” suite of videos and other resources produced alongside several avalanche forecasting centers. Unfortunately, it shut down for good recently after a decade-long run.
