Due to excessive insurance costs and lack of funding, we are not currently able to offer public courses on our own, but offer a full schedule of courses through other organizations. We are happy to set up courses for goverment and industrial crews, and for any organizations or communities that have or can arrange their own insurance and permits.

This information is provided as general background on our courses and as an indication of what we could do again with adequate funding.

Our courses are more thorough than required by the current American Avalanche Association guidelines. Alaskan avalanche courses have always been substantially more comprehensive than most offerings in the other states.

The Level 1 course requires a suitable location with good classroom and field situations close together. At present, we have taught them in Juneau, Petersburg, and Haines. If you live in another community, the best bet for you is to travel to Juneau or another community where one is scheduled, rather than trying to set one up in a location that may not work as well.

We have snowmachine Level 1 field groups whenever possible. The demand has not been there to do a snowmachine Level 1 course in Juneau yet, but we have an older but reasonably capable mountain sled and would be happy to do the course if a group of people commit to it early in the season. The “backcountry course” areas we use in Juneau are not open to our machines, but the popular mountain riding areas would be suitable. In Haines, we automatically include a snowmachine field group with every course, so long as enough riders are signed up for it at least two weeks in advance.

We teach one Level 1 through the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau every fall with weekday classroom and weekend field sessions, and are trying a community Level 1 with evening classroom and weekend field sessions in spring semester of 2008 with hopes that it will become an annual event that will better accomodate those with day jobs.

4.) Level 2

This is our advanced recreational or entry-level professional course. The intensive version is 44 hours, with four evenings in class and four long on-snow field days. Other formats are longer, depending as usual on site logistics.

Topics include overview of advanced avalanche study, rescue for leaders, metamorphism for avalanche forecasting, keeping avalanche field notes and weather records, forecasting exercises, mountain weather, advanced terrain including steeps and sluff management, advanced risk management, group snowpit and fracture profiles, avalanche fracture mechanics and dynamics, current avalanche research, glaciers and ice avalanches, and advanced practical field exercises, belayed tests, steep techniques, and snow science experiments.

The Level 2 course is intended for people who have taken at least one season in the field to practice what they learned in the Level 1. The basic structure of the material covered is similar to that in the Level 1, and does include a bit of review, but it starts where the Level 1 leaves off and goes into much greater depth.

The key difference is that the Level 1 must by its nature present an overload of material, while in the Level 2 we have the time to do far more hands-on practical work to cement your understanding of the material initially covered in the Level 1 course.

We do a daily forecasting exercise in the Level 2 course to further your practical understanding of snowpack evaluation, and we work in both field and classroom on your risk management and decisionmaking skills.

The Level 2 course assumes that you will be in a position of leadership, whether in a formal position like guide or group leader, or in an informal position like a more-experienced person in a group of friends. It aims at clearing up gray areas in your understanding, with particular focus on snow stability evaluation.

We emphasize being able to record and clearly communicate what you have found to others. We spend some time with field experiments that help you to understand snow processes. We include advanced techniques like belayed testing and ways to release cornices, and work in more-challenging terrain.

We move faster and cover more ground. We try to make the decisionmaking exercises more like real-life situations.

Prerequisites for the Level 2 course include successful completion of a Level 1 course at least as rigorous as ours, and submission of at least 10 days of snow observations notes. The goal of the field observations requirement is to ensure that you have spent enough time looking at snow in the field to be ready for the Level 2 course. Your notes need not be perfect. Field notes are fine if they are legible and complete. The notes will help us identify weak areas to target in our teaching.

We make exceptions to this requirement for participants in our fall semester UAS Level 1 course, because it is an unusually thorough 40 hour plus course, and for ski patrollers because their duties keep them inbounds at the ski area yet they still need good quality advanced training. We ask people in those two groups to come up with as many snow observations as they can. The more time you can spend studying snow before the course, the more you will get out of it.

This is a 45-hour course Juneau course rates as of our 05-06 season were $450 for early signups (before December 15), $530 standard rate (up to 2 weeks in advance), and $610 for late signups (less than 2 weeks in advance). Preregistration and full payment is required to reserve your space.

Our courses are more thorough than required by the current American Avalanche Association guidelines. Alaskan avalanche courses have always been substantially more comprehensive than most offerings in the other states.

Like the Level 1, Level 2 courses require a suitable location with good classroom and field situations close together. At present, we only have taught them in Juneau and Haines. If you live in another community, we recommend that you travel to Juneau or Haines for this course.

We schedule Level 2 courses through the the University of Alaska Southeast in the spring semester of odd-numbered years, and in Haines whenever the organizers at Alaska Heliskiing want one, but we are happy to add courses for others. We will add snowmachine Level 2 courses whenever the demand materializes.

5.) Heliguides' Courses, Levels 1 to 3

These are specialized courses we offer in conjunction with the Guide School for Alaska Heliskiing in Haines. Contact them for details and registration. They have us do a Level 1 for Heliguides annually, and other courses as demand permits. Their heliguide courses are open to community members who may or may not take the rest of the Guide School.

Prerequisites for the Level 2 and higher courses include successful completion of a next level lower course at least as rigorous as ours, and submission of at least 10 days of snow observations notes for a Level 2. Field notes will do, the point is that you need to have spent some time looking at snow in order to be ready for the course. The profiles will also cue us in to the appropriate teaching focus for your group.