This past weekend Crested Butte was hit with a major winter storm, dropping slightly over 12″ in town, and well over 24″ in the backcountry !!! On Saturday, we ran our first Avalanche Refresher Course of the season, and could not have asked for better conditions….for both learning and skiing.

The Avalanche Refresher Course is a new course format we started offering at Crested Butte Mountain Guides last season, and has had a successful start with great reveiws from folks that have partcipated in them. The course is a one-day mostly all field based course, in which participants work together to plan and undertake a backcountry ski tour, while an Avalanche Instructor / Ski Guide shadows the process and decisions, offering feedback where necessary.

The course also allows for some time in which the instructor updates participants on new and cutting edge techniques and research in the avalanche education / snow science field, such as new bonding tests, rescue techniques, and learning models. Course ratios are kept small, with a max of 1:6 to allow for ample field time for all participants. This weekend’s past course was blessed with a great learning environment in that the 4 course participants were forced to plan and carry-out a tour in worsening avalanche conditions with difficult terrain choices and management to make. We were rewarded with a great day in the field and good decision-making tactics that resulted in multiple laps of waist deep powder skiing !!!

Thanks to everyone for a great course and for the best turns of the year…..so far.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Instructor)

CB Mountain Guides

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