This past weekend Crested Butte Mountain Guides ran our first Avalanche Level 2 Course of the season, amidst another intense winter storm, and over 2 feet of fresh snow of which to investigate an analyze. The AIARE Lvl 2 curriculum is an intensive 4-day course, centered around the science of analyzing snow instability, and the professional recording standards amongst the snow geek industry.

Our course brought together 10 participants with a great depth of backcountry knowledge; from local hardcore backcountry enthusisats, to a few ski patrollers, to some cat skiing guides.  It is the general goal of the Level 2 Course to build upon the introductory avalanche descion-making tools taught in the Level 1 Course, in a way that participants begin to learn about and understand forecasting of snow stability and the subtleties of terrain and snowpack analysis.

Because of the intensity and skill level brought on by this course, we strive to spend as much time as possible in the field, studying the science behind the changing snowpack, and practicing the various tests and recording standards that are learned in this coure. Field sessions are longer and tours are bigger then in the Level 1 Course, and a greater variety of terrain is traveled through and experinced on our Avalanche Level 2 Course.

Over these past four days we had a lot of fun with a great and enthusiastic group in which many, many snow pits were dug, lots and lots of new snowflakes fell from the sky for studying, and some great skiing was had also. We are looking forward to our next Level 2 Course coming up in mid-February. There are still seats are available so don’t delay, sign up today.

—Thanks for a fun-filled course

Steve Banks & Jayson Simons-Jones (Instructors)

cbguides

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Avalanche, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.