Who offers Avalanche courses?

[Dave Frank]

Wanting to take a level 1 course this year. I heard there might be one offered as a hut trip. Any leads?

[El Flaco]

Dave-

Check out the course put on by Steamboat powdercats- I did it 2 years ago and it was excellent (it's the second Avy course I've done- the 1st one being a National Ski Patrol course in 1992). It's a two-day weekend, and the cat takes you back into safe but realistic areas on Buffalo Pass to learn how to dig pits, read snowpack and read terrain. They can also simulate a deposition zone with crazy realism, because they can bury a pack with a transceiver in and and run over an entire area with the cat tracks. The pack is gone, and the snow is compacted over a wide area and difficult to dig into, just like a real slide.

All the instructors have been through the Silverton instructor's course, and they deal with high avy terrain nearly every day. I highly recommend it - it also happens to be very reasonable at $275 for 2 1/2 days.
Steamboat Powdercats AIARE Level 1 avalanche awareness school, snow safety course.

I wouldn't wait too long to register, because it will fill up.

[TINY]

Dave

Get on the CAIC website. They have listings of course offerings over the whole winter. avalanche.org then click on Colorado. Also, the Friends of Berthoud Pass have Halsted Morris doing some stuff for them. I don't know if it is just awareness courses or level I-II. He was the head instructor for the CAIC for years.

[TINY]

Dave - look at the post farther down in the forum ....Friends of Berthoud Pass by "Pinner"