Every winter the Washington Alpine Club offers a three week long introductory class that focuses on the many aspects of safe backcountry travel including basic avalanche avoidance and snowpack assessment, beacon use, backcountry navigation, and snowcamping. The class is open to AT skiers, tele skiers, splitboarders, and snowshoers.
The first third of the course focuses entirely on avy skills and beacon use and involves no time on skis. These skills are then further applied on two backcountry tours (one day trip and one overnight). While out touring, students will learn about snow stability analysis, route selection, avalanche rescue techniques, winter navigation and camping, how to ski varied snow conditions, look good and have fun!
More information about the class can be found here:
www.wacweb.org/Classes/backcountryclass/default.view
Registration has not opened yet, but will open in mid-December and be open through the end of January.
The class schedule is:
Tuesday Feb 20 first classroom session- avy lecture-- (classroom sessions are all 7pm-9pm)
Fri/Sat/Sun Feb 23-25 WAC cabin avy trip (Friday evening through Sunday afternoon)
Tue Feb 27 Map and Compass Lecture
Sat Mar 3 Day trip (location TBD)
Tue Mar 6 Snow camping lecture
Sat/Sun March 10/11 Overnight trip (location TBD)
If you have any questions about the class, feel free to send me a PM or send an email to WACbcClass@cascadenordic.org
(Thank you Charles for allowing me to post this message.)
