Backcountry Skiing and Avalanche Education
Backcountry Skiing
Come experience the snow with us! Colorado powder is legendary and is able to offer some of the best backcountry skiing in the lower 48 states. From a half day tour to a multi-day hut trip, come experience the powder with us!
AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) Avalanche Courses
Along with some of the best skiing, we also have the most avalanche prone snowpack in the U.S. Take an avalanche course with Kling Mountain Guides. Our avalanche courses follow the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) curriculum and American Avalanche Association (AAA) guidelines. KMG owner Josh Kling is an AIARE Level 1 and Level 2 Course Leader and Level 3 AIARE Certified in addition to being a Professional Member of the American Avalanche Association.
KMG guides will be teaching numerous scheduled avalanche courses for both KMG and a variety of organizations and outfitters throughout the 2011/ 2011 winter season. Our guides and instructors don’t only work for KMG. They are privileged to instruct avalanche courses for; the Silverton Avalanche School which is the nation’s oldest continuously running avalanche education program, the Outdoor Leadership and Recreation degree track at San Juan College, and the nationally recognized Outdoor Pursuits Program at Fort Lewis College. Additionally, KMG is able to schedule private AIARE avalanche courses throughout the winter. Please email for us more information on private courses. Our click the logos to the right to learn more about the professional avalanche associations Josh and KMG guides works with.
Level 1 Refresher Course with the
Silverton Avalanche School.
Friday, December 18-19, 2009
$185 per person (dinner,breakfast and lunch too!)
The Silverton Avalanche School is the nation’s oldest continuously running avalanche education program. Since 1962 the Silverton Avalanche School has educated skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, ski patrollers, search and rescue personnel, and law enforcement officers about the hazards of avalanches. Over 4,000 students have learned how to recognize avalanche hazards, determine snow stability, organize and carry out rescue operations and handle avalanche emergencies.
Silverton, sits at 9,318 feet, 50 miles north of Durango, Colorado. Silverton is surrounded by numerous avalanche paths -- a natural avalanche laboratory -- providing students with an active and accessible classroom. The curriculum is taught by nationally recognized members of the American Avalanche Association (AAA) and a host of mountain rescue specialists. Furthermore, the Silverton Avalanche School adheres to the AAA’s Guidelines for Avalanche Course Curriculum.
This refresher course will include 1 night at St Pauls Lodge and 1 day in the field! This refresher will provide up to date information on the following:
+ Avalanche terrain and terrain traps
+ Basic route selection
+ Snow pack layering
+ Current snowpack conditions and weather effects (bulletin)
+ Avalanche rescue scenario: including probing, shoveling, beacon
AIARE Level 1 Course Overview
Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain
The Level One is a 3 day/ 24 hour introduction to avalanche hazard management.
The course is expected to:
- Provide a basic understanding of avalanches
- Describe a framework for decision making and risk management in avalache terrain
- Focus on idetifying the right questions, rather than on providing "answers."
- Give lessons and excercises that are practically oriented, useful, and applicible in the field.
Students can expect to develop a good grounding in how to prepare for and carry out a trip, to understand basic decision making while in the field, and to learn rescue techniques required to find and dig up a buried person (if an avalanche occurs and someone in the party is caught).
A final debrief includes a knowledge quiz to test student comprehension and to give feedback to instructors on instructional tools. Students are encouraged and counseled on how to apply the skills learned and told that no course can fully guarantee safety, either during or after course completion. A link is made to a future AIARE Level 2 course.
Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of the Level One course the student should be able to:
- Plan and prepare for travel in avalanche terrain.
- Recognize avalanche terrain.
- Describe a basic framework for making decisions in avalanche terrain.
- Learn and apply effective companion rescue.
Instructional Sessions
(24 hours including both classroom and field instruction)
1. Introduction to the Avalanche Phenomena
- Types and characteristics of avalanches
- Avalanche motion
- Size classification
- The mountain snowpack: an introduction to metamorphism and layering
2. Observations and Information Gathering
- Field observation techniques
- Bonding tests: rutschblock, compression test,
- Avalanche danger factors; “Red Flags”.
- Observation checklist
- Avalanche danger scale
- Trip Planning and Preparation
- Avalanche terrain recognition, assessment, and selection
- Route finding and travel techniques
- Decision making and Human Factors
- Companion Rescue and Equipment
Student Prerequisites: Students must be able to travel in avalanche terrain.
AIARE Level 2 Course Overview
Analyzing Snow Stability and Avalanche Terrain
The Level 2 course is a 40-hour / four day program that provides back country leaders the opportunity to advance their avalanche knowledge and decision making skills. This course also includes the introductory and prerequisite components for the professional progression: the AIARE Level 3 Certificate. The Level 2 builds from the introductory avalanche hazard management model introduced in the level one and adds to it the evaluation of factors criticall to stability evaluation.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Advance understanding of avalanche terrain, particularly from the perspective of stability analysis.
- Discuss how the snowpack develops and metamorphoses over time; and discuss the factors that contribute to spatial variability.
- Learn standard observation guidelines and recording formats for factors that influence or indicate snow stability. SWAG MODULE.
- Advance understanding of avalanche release and triggering mechanisms.
- Introduce a snow stability analysis and forecasting framework.
- Improve companion rescue skills including multiple and deep barials.
Instructional Sessions
(40 hours including classroom and field instruction)
- Level 1 Review
- Energy balance, the mountain snowpack and metamorphism
- Faceting; near surface and near crust faceting
- Formation of surface hoar and presistant weak layers
- Skier triggering: theory and observations
- International and national, snow weather and avalanche observation and recording guidelines (SWAG).
- Weather; interpreting forecasts, recording and observation techniques
- Snow profile techniques and bonding tests
- Avalanche obersvations and recoding techniques
7. Stability analysis checklist: reviewing critical factors
- Stability ratings
- Daily stability forecasts and analysis
8. Trip Planning and hazard forecasting for avalanche terrain
- Avalanche danger ratings
- Terrain selection using maps/photos
- Forecasting stability and variability
9. Terrain selection and route finding
- Group management and hazard management
- Decision making
- Human factors
10. Information gathering
- Site selection and relevancy
- Spacial variability
- Slope tests
11. Companion Rescue
- Level 1 techniques review
- Multiple burial
- Shovel techniques
Student Prerequisites: Students must have the ability to travel in avalanche terrain. An AIARE Level 1 Course (strongly recommended) or equivalent training/experience is required. A winter of practical experience after the Level 1 course is recommended before taking the Level 2 course.
AIARE Level 3 Course Overview:
Advanced Avalanche Training for Profesionals and Recreational Leaders
This course is only available twice a winter in two locations nationwide. This course is directly through AIARE. Please visit the AIARE website for more information.
Download AIARE Level 3 Application
The Level 3 course is an advanced certification course for experienced and professional avalanche practitioners, professional guides, patrollers and advanced recreational backcountry travelers. The course is 6 days long and completes the avalanche course stream of the Level 2 and 3. (10 days together). Individuals who receive a passing grade and successfully complete the course receive a certificate provided by the AIARE administration.
The Level 3 course provides course participants with an industry based framework to make decisions in avalanche terrain and to manage avalanche hazards common to avalanche control operations and winter guiding scenarios. Participants are required to form opinions, to take on leadership roles, and to utilized team members skills to assist in the process of forecasting avalanche hazard and snow stability and making appropriate terrain choices. Course goals also include evaluating each participant to the AIARE Level 3 standard.
This course builds on the concepts introduced in the prerequisite Level 2. These include standardizing snow and weather observations and techniques to the Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Guidelines of the American Avalanche Association (2004). The Level 3 takes the “trained observer and technician” and begins the process of making the information relevant to the complexities, variability, and influences of terrain.
Level 3 is a course and exam that requires students to travel safely and efficiently in avalanche terrain. Field days will include travel on rugged terrain up to and exceeding 30 degrees, trail breaking, and 8 hours of travel carrying a day pack with rescue equipment and clothing.
Student Prerequisites:
Students must submit an application to the course provider which details they have met the prerequisites:
- AIARE Level 2 course
- Experience applying the Level 2 skills and knowledge in a professional or personal program is required.
- Persoanl resume including:
- Twenty day-trips in avalanche terrain requiring decision making and travel procedures
- Twenty day trips with documented field weather and snowpack observaions (to AAA, SWAG, or ORGES Observation Guidlines standards)
- Ten recent snow profiles (documented in field book to same standards)
4. Rescue Trial
- Must be able to find (by probe) two transceivers buried in a 30m by 30 m area in six minutes.(One transceiver is buried 30cm below the surfice; the second is buried 40-60cm below the surfice 3 to 4m away). Lead a rescue team in a mock avalache rescue scenario OR have training and experience in a profesional search and rescue group.
5. Pre-Course Quiz
- Prior to the start of the Level 3 course, it is required that the student complete the Pre-Course Quiz which is handed in to the course leader at the start of the course.
*Kling Mountain Guides operates under special use permits in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park , Moab BLM, Indian Creek BLM, Manti-La Sal National Forest, and Cedar Mesa Grand Gulch BLM areas. Kling Mountain Guides operates under the Durango Mountain Resort operating plan in the San Juan National Forest. Kling Mountain Guides LLC provides services and employment regardless of ethnic or cultural heritage, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or physical handicap. Josh Kling operates as an employee of Mountain Trip, San Juan College, Fort Lewis College, and the Silverton Avalanche School.. Mountain Trip, San Juan College, Fort Lewis College, and the Silverton Avalanche School all operate under special use permits from the United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in their respective operating districts.**
AIARE
American Avalanche Association
