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This course is designed for avalanche workers early in their careers, or for experienced workers wanting to stay current with industry standards. The focus of this course is to prepare students to be contributing members of a risk management team by developing observational skills, as well as communication and rescue skills. During this course, we will focus on developing systems for planning and executing a route, as well as for evaluating snow stability. The goal of this course is to help students become skilled observers who will contribute to a professional team.

Students will practice and be evaluated on the following skills:

• Small party avalanche rescue response
• Weather station observations
• Use of morning and evening stability worksheets
• Communication of the avalanche risk to team members
• Assess and analyze avalanche terrain
• Group management in terrain appropriate for the avalanche problem
• Snow pit site selection
• Dig and analyze a snowpit, including weak layer identification and stability tests
• Observation and documentation of snowpack, weather and avalanches

This is a pass/fail course.

Prerequisites

• Recreational Level 1 avalanche course
• Rescue Fundamentals course
• Minimum of one season between the Recreational Level 1 & Professional Level 1 used to apply the tools and strategies learned on a level 1.