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Accredited by the American Avalanche Association, this course meets national standards for avalanche awareness education.

Course Overview

Taking your first steps into the backcountry can feel intimidating, but an on-snow avalanche course is the best way to reduce your risk. The UAC’s Backcountry 101 is designed to teach you the fundamentals of avalanche safety through hands-on learning and real-world application.

This course covers avalanche rescue, snowpack assessment, safe travel protocols, and weather resources used by professionals. Whether it’s your first avalanche course or a skills refresher, our Backcountry 101 provides a solid foundation for safer mountain travel.

The course includes a 2-hour classroom session, an 8-hour field day on snow, pre-course work, and access to ongoing learning resources. After enrolling, you’ll gain access to our Student Portal with course materials, avalanche resources, and planning tools. In the classroom, we’ll review your pre-course work and introduce professional tour-planning strategies. In the field, you’ll practice rescue techniques, assess the snowpack through on-the-go observations and snowpit analysis, apply terrain management skills, and more.

Who Should Take this Course?

This course is designed for skiers and snowboarders taking their first on-snow avalanche class or looking to refresh previous training. Intermediate to advanced downhill ability is required. You should be comfortable riding black diamond terrain in variable snow conditions. Strong riding skills are essential for safety, as there is no ski patrol in the backcountry. To get the most out of the course, we recommend you be fit enough to skin upfill for a full day and ride down in unpredictable snow conditions.

We strongly recommend some prior experience with your touring equipment, including transitioning between uphill and downhill modes, switching your transceiver between send and receive, and assembling your probe and shovel. These skills can be practiced at home or in non-avalanche terrain.

What is Required for this Course?

This introductory-level avalanche course can be your first on-snow avalanche class, but you must bring your own skis or splitboard with touring bindings and climbing skins. Snowshoes are not permitted in this course. We encourage snowshoers to check out our Snowshoe-Specific Backcountry 101.

Please bring your own avalanche rescue gear (transceiver, shovel, and probe). If you need to borrow any of these items, let us know in advance so we can make arrangements.

Course Goals

• Find and interpret local mountain weather forecasts and avalanche advisory information.
• Recognize signs of instability while in a snowpit and while making on-the-go observations.
• Understand how to use avalanche rescue gear effectively.
• Differentiate avalanche terrain from non-avalanche terrain.
• Develop a fundamental process to manage risk for backcountry travel.

Cancellation policy

Our cancellation policy can be found here. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Winter Weather and Avalanche Hazard Policy

In the event of extreme winter weather and/or dangerous avalanche conditions, the UAC reserves the right to reschedule courses to maintain the safety of our students and instructors. If a course needs to be rescheduled, we will work with students to find the best rescheduled date and refund students who are unable to attend.