First AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course of the season…
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
cbguides
December 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am
How much of your class revolves around digging? My friend had a real eye opening experience last year when she actually started practicing with her avey gear and realized she couldn’t shovel worth a crap. Since then she practices every week to get stronger. I think people, guys and ladies, who have never done yard work and been empolyeed in the construction industry don’t realize how hard shoveling can be.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
We have all the students practice proper shoveling techniques during the companion rescue field skills, when they learn and practice beacons and avalanche rescue skills. Then again during snowpit lessons. A big part of our companion rescue curriculum includes the new research about strategic shoveling and how important this is in terms of time and efficiency in a burial situation. Thanks for reading the blog……
December 9th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I can’t say enough good things about this class and the instructors. I was one of the flatlanders from Oklahoma and took the class to get some baseline information about avy risk. These guys are extremely professional and dedicated to educating backcountry travelers. One of the most remarkable aspects of the course was that Jayson and Steve don’t just lecture about conclusions – they provided valuable case study and supplied the tools and information needed to make informed decisions about avy risk in the backcountry, and gave the opportunity for us to put the information to work in the field. I would recommend this class to anybody considering the backcountry.
Hats off to these guys – class was definitely an R5 D5….
December 10th, 2008 at 10:18 am
cool beans! Good to hear!