Mid-December brought us our first AIARE Level 2 Avalanche Course of the season, as 12 folks from here locally in Crested Butte, Gunnison, and as far as the Colorado Front Range and Vail, gathered for a sold out course over 4 days.

Course timing seemed perfect for learning how to analyze snow stability at a professional level, as the 10 days previous to the course, had brought us 2 seperate storms totalling almost 6 feet of snow in the Crested Butte backcountry. We were lucky enough to be blessed with some unseasonably mild and sunny weather for our course, perfect for spending time standing around in snowpits and analyzing snow grain formation and snowpack bonding characteristics.

The main format of the Level 2 Avalanche Course is learning about practicing expert recording and observation standards (weather, snowpack, and avalanche)as they relate to avalanches and assessing snow stability. It is also the course where professional level decision-making buidls upone the Level 1 basic Decision-making framework, and students are introduced to assessing snow stability and how and what data to gather for helping in this process.

The Level 2 Avalanche Course is the beginning step into the professional track of avalanche education and courses are ususally made up of guides, ski patrollers, and well-travelled and experienced recreational backcountry users looking to increase their knowledge base and improve upon their snow stability evaluation skills. It differs from the Level 1 ‘Foundation Course’ in that it is focused more on assessing stability and terrain choices based on field and remote data and how it all plays out in desicion-making, prior to entering avalanche terrain. Where as, the Level 1 Course tends to focus on desicion-making while in avalanche terrain.

This year we had a great group of enthusiatic and experienced folks, and great sunny weather, and enjoyed some good ski tours, some good turns, and some great learning experiences and environements, as the ease of access and travel in the Crested Butte backcountry is an ideal place for avalanche education.

Thanks all for your attention, enthusiasm, and desire to learn and imporve your avalanche decision making skills. Looking forward to seeing you all out in the mountains again, making some turns and staying safe

 — Your Instructors,

Jayson Simons-Jones & Steve Banks

Winter has made an abrupt arrival in Crested Butte, with back-to-back winter storms hitting us over the past 2 weeks, leaving us with 5 feet of fresh snow to start off December. With the sudden arrival of all this snow, we have also been brought our first cycle of avalanche danger, and perfectly in time for the beginning of our avalanche course season, bringing us a very real-life learning and educational situation of which to teach from and experience in the Crested Butte back-country.

The first weekend in December saw Crested Butte Mountain Guides running two separate AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Classes to full capacity; one an open enrollment course and the other a college specific course targeted at the local Western State College back-country community in Gunnison. And just in time, as the first storm of the season arrived on the third day, the field-touring day of the course, in which we were able to see the beginnings of our first avalanche cycle of the 09/10 season first hand.

Then as another major winter storm slammed into Crested Butte again this past weekend we held two more AIARE Avalanche Courses, our super popular 1-day Avalanche Refresher Course & another sold-out Level 1 Hut Course in nearby Gothic, CO. Bluebird skies were overhead on Day 1 as we made our way to the hut on Friday, only to find ourselves breaking trail in nearly 2 feet of fresh snow and a raging blizzard on Sunday.

The local Maroon Cabin in Gothic, CO makes for an ideal retreat of which to learn the basics of avalanche education. Situated amidst some of the largest avalanche paths in Colorado, it is a state of the art, new age ‘hut’ with in-floor heat, electricity, running water (usually), and even wireless Internet of which to study weather and avalanche reports. All with the Elk Mountains just out the door, allowing for immediate immersion in the winter mountain environment from which to study snow stability, practice companion rescue, and plan and prep for the courses back-country tours.

This week CBMG will be running our first AIARE Level 2 Avalanche Course of the season, and another completely sold out course. With some clear weather on the way we should have some excellent snowpack dynamics to study in the wake of the past two storms, and enjoyable weather of which to go touring and stand around in snow pits looking at snow grains and performing snow stability evaluations.

Also, NEW this year is our classroom space located in the conference room at the Grand Lodge hotel at the base of the ski resort in Mount Crested Butte, CO. Having run one course out of here already it is turning out to be a fairly ideal classroom with easy access to local trailheads, gear shops at the base of the resort, and lots of good coffee and restaurants in walking distance. As well as offering available lodging discounts just down the hall from your classroom, it is as easy as it gets for visiting folks to learn about avalanches in the place that AIARE (American Institute For Avalanche Research & Education) got it’s founding from.

Unfortunately, the beginnings of the winter and avalanche season, have also brought it’s first casualty of the season, when world-renowned Canadian ice climber, Guy Lacelle, was killed in a small avalanche this past weekend outside of Bozeman, MT in Hyalite Canyon, while taking part in their seasonal Ice Festival.  Our thoughts go out to his wife, friends, and family. Read more….

Here’s looking forward to a great season of classes, guided ski and climbing day, and safe back-country travels all around…..

—JSJ

Join Crested Butte Mountain Guides and Alison Gannett’s Rippin Chix Ski Clinic Series for a women’s only 1-day AIARE Avalanche Refresher Course. This course is almost entirely field based and is perfect for those that have taken a Level1 Course previously, and/or looking to prepare for a Level 2 Course.

Course will be taught by AMGA Trained & Certified Guides, and will take place in the Crested Butte backcountry on January 6th, 2010. Spots are limited so call CBMG to register today.

The month of March kicked off at Crested Butte Mountain Guides with our third sold-out, and final AIARE Avalanche Level 1 Hut Course of the season.

This 3-day backcountry immersion course is small (1:6 max ratio) and allows for maximum time in the winter envrionment with great ski touring and a world-reknown avalanche classroom right outside of the hut doors in the beautiful townsite of Gothic, CO. 

 This course brought particpants from all over the country. With “High Crimes” best-selling author Michael Kodas coming all the way from the high mountain state of Connecticut, to a strong contingent of folks from the Colorado Front Range, Telluride, CO and someone from right here at home in the Gunnison Valley.

The course started off with stormy weather and began at the tail end of our last major natural avalanche cycle, so the environment and conditions were prime for a great introduction into the avalanche education world, and for which students would have a good venue for learning decision-making skills in regards to travelling in avalanche terrain.

Overall, it was an incredibly succesful course, with an enthusiastic and highly motivated group of people.  We were able to get in some good long field days travelling through the mountains and everyone got a strong experiential learning opportunity. There was opportunity for lots of hands-on moments and by the end of the course everyone had gained a solid understanding of tour planning, route selection, snowpack tests, companion rescue, terrain analysis, mountain weather, and of course….we had some great Crested Butte backcountry skiing !

Thanks everyone for a great course…ski hard, stay safe, and have fun

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Instructor / Guide)

Once again over this past week Crested Butte was blessed with another heavy snowfall of 3+ feet, which was also again followed by beautiful cloudless Colorado blue skies and mild temperatures. This meant more fresh Crested Butte backcountry skiing with sunglasses and smiles.

Oklahoma native, and Crested Butte transplant in the making, Jason Leonard once again showed his impeccable timing for good skiing, and got in on the meat of the storm (see previous ‘White Room’ post ) and the first bluebird sunny day at the end as well. As the storm cleared and I had wrapped up my required mid-week AIARE Level 2 Instructor Training Course, we got after it on the steep gladed powder skiing on the North side of Snodgrass Mountain.

As is usually the case with Jason, once at the bottom we opted for a second lap, and took off breaking trail under the shadow of mighty Gothic Mountain. An hour later, we were farther out the ridge and away from the typical lines, in our own secret stash. Another 1500′ run to the road grade out, and another day of great skiing together.

Then on Saturday, Andy Herb, from Denver joined us for our NEW and popular Avalanche Refresher Course. Other course participants ended up with logistical complications and we opted to go out as a 1:1 ratio as a course/ski tour and were able to cover the course curriculum and get in about 2500′ of backcountry skiing as well.

Andy is a great skier, and thus we had fun ‘refreshing’ his previous Berthoud Pass Ski Patrol avalanche course training, and got in some excellent blue-sky powder skiing in the Crested Butte backcountry as well. The small nature of these courses allow us to integrate the field curriculum and skills into a real backcountry tour (nothing contrived here) and then supplement this with trailhead and classroom teaching time as well, to make this course as realistic and useful as possible to the participant.

Thanks guys for a great couple of days in the Crested Butte backcountry. Looking forward to many more turns in the future.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Guide / Instructor)