Note: This was originally published as a blog at Backcountry.com on 10/23/13.

Skiing and riding in the backcountry is a bit like driving on the freeway – when you know the rules and have some skills and experience, it has some risk but tends to work out ok. When you lack those ingredients, it’s confusing, embarrassing, and dangerous at best and nobody wants to ride with you. When you understand how to match your decisions to the current conditions, you can get out and safely have a great time on any day, regardless of the conditions. So how do you learn to make good decisions in the backcountry?

In Utah, along with the Greatest Snow On Earth, we have some of the greatest avalanche education opportunities on earth. Opportunities exist to learn about travel in avalanche terrain for all time and money budgets, ambition levels, and learning styles. Here is a summary of where to go in Utah to get avi-savvy:

Want to get a better idea of how avalanches work and why you should care? Want to introduce new riders to the world of safe travel and recreation in avalanche terrain? Attend a free 1 hour Know Before You Go Avalanche Awareness talk. The Utah Avalanche Center presents this program several times per week around Utah, with many sessions open to the public. Like an avalanche, this program is loud, scary, and in your face and will grab your attention.http://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche-classes Want to read a book?

Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, BruceTremper

Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard, JillFredston

These are the 2 best and most current books available. You can find them locally and online.

Want to watch a video?

Check out the video tutorials at:

http://utahavalanchecenter.org/tutorials

http://www.nwac.us/education/tutorials/

http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/training/online-course

Want to spend a day on snow with experts to teach you the basics of ski/snowboard touring?

Utah Mountain Adventures will teach you what you need to know to get started in the sport; addressing equipment, dressing properly, efficient travel techniques, uphill/downhill transitions, and avalanche considerations.

http://www.utahmountainadventures.com/skiing_boarding_introduction_backcountry.shtml

Want to spend a day on the snow learning avalanche basics from pros?

Check out a Backcountry 101 class from the Utah Avalanche Centerat http://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche-classes​. You will get an evening classroom session and a field day to introduce and practice the basics of avalanche characteristics, clues to instability, terrain selection, using the avalanche advisory, rescue, and human factors. We offer motorized and non-motorized versions of this class, classes for women only, and classes in the Wasatch, Uinta, and Logan mountains.

Want to spend a day on the snow with a forecaster to refresh your skills and learn the most recent advanced concepts? The Utah Avalanche Center offers an Advanced Avalanche Skills class, with a classroom evening and a field day with an avalanche pro and other like-minded students. We will dig into whatever stability issues present at the time of the class and challenge our stability testing, route finding, and decision-making skills and assumptions. This is your opportunity to pick the brains of Forecasters, Guides, and other avalanche professionals.http://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche-classes Want to learn to be your own forecaster, with an in-depth understanding of snow, weather, rescue, and how we decide what risks to take? Take a Level 1, 2, or 3 three to seven day course starting with the basics and providing professional-level theory and practice. Available all over the western US, this is where most avalanche pros begin their study. http://avtraining.org/Avalanche-Training-Courses/ and http://www.americanavalancheinstitute.com/aai3/ Want a guided day of avalanche instruction, learning from professional guides at your own pace and on your own schedule? Contact UtahMountainAdventures.com or http://splitboardeducationcompany.com/about a custom guided avalanche class from one of their experts. Your ski or split-snowboard instructor can show and teach you how to make informed stability route-finding decisions, from the basic to expert level, in the process of leading you on a backcountry ski tour.

Riding when you don’t understand the hazard is not much fun. Nobody wants to be that partner that can’t be counted on to make good decisions or make an effective rescue. The pros understand that the safest and highest quality riding day after day comes from making terrain choices to match current conditions. It is easy to learn about avalanches - for a complete listing of avalanche learning opportunities, plus others like beacon clinics and training parks and workshops in Utah from the Utah Avalanche Center and other local providers, go to www.UtahAvalancheCenter.org/Education. For a list of guide services in Utah go tohttp://utahavalanchecenter.org/guide-services. For more information contact us at [email protected].

Paul Diegel is the Executive Director of the Utah Avalanche Center