This past weekend Crested Butte Mountain Guides AIARE Avalanche Course Instructors Steve Banks & Jayson Simons-Jones ran our first AIARE Avalanche Level 1 Course of the season.

Despite a fairly thin snowpack close to town, we had a completely full course with 15 participants, and some that came from as far away as Norman, OK !! The course turned out to be a great success with a super energetic and invested group of mostly CB locals in the course, and some other CBMG guides and out-of-town guides around to help out and shadow this first course of the season.

Classroom sessions were filled with good thought provoking discussions on backcountry skiing and travel in avalanche terrain. The companion rescue / beacon search field day was beautifully warm and sunny, and the touring aspect of the course on Day 3, was warm and spring-like with some excellent layered snowpack properties from which to teach about, and some pretty darn good turns at the end of the day as well.

Overall, the course turned out to be (as usual) incredibly fun with a great group of students and instructors alike. Here’s looking forward to a winter of many more courses.

Anyone still interested in registering for an AIARE Avalanche Course should call (970.349.5430) or email (info@crestedbutteguides.com) our office today as Level 1 & Level 2 Courses are filling up fast !

—Crested Butte Mountain Guides Staff

Earlier this week the staff and crew at Crested Butte Mountain Guides got together for 2-days of our seasonal winter guides training. As well as being an informative skills and training session, it was also a great time to catch up with the whole crew together again, and share stories, laughs, and excitement about the upcoming winter season of backcountry skiing, ice climbing, avalanche courses, hut trips and other guided winter activities.

Day One started out as a morning gathering of 10+ guides in our cozy little shack, that had everyone scrambling for space and seats. Definitely the least exciting part of the entire training; the staff sat around talking and discussing guiding and office protocols, new gear and product offerings, and general expectations and collective visions for the upcoming winter guiding season.

After all the required office stuff, we spent the remainder of the day refreshing our beacon skills, as well as making sure everyone is up to speed on the latest and greatest on the newest beacons, search techniques, and getting familiar with our new Barryvox Pulse beacon that we are offering Crested Butte Mounatin Guides guests this winter.

Day Two was spent, obviously, enjoying some classic Colorado backcountry skiing, and was a great day of sharing tips and techniques for top quality guided skiing experiences from the numerous AMGA Trained and Certified Ski Mountaineering Guides on our staff. Then we got to sample some of the early season thin snowpack and touchy avalanche copnditions, utilizing our collective skills to stay safe, train with one another, share some knowledge, laughs, and enjoy some surprisingly good early season skiing.

Check out the mini-video below, put together by CBMG Guide & techno-computer whiz Mike Bromberg

CBMG Winter Training DAy from mikebromberg on Vimeo.

Thanks everyone for all your effort, input, enthusiasm, and energy towards the upcoming winter season. 

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)