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 online will be open in a few days and will be open through the end of January.
The class schedule is:
Tuesday Feb 19 first classroom session- avy lecture-- (classroom sessions are all 7pm-9pm)
Fri/Sat/Sun Feb 22-24 WAC cabin, Snoqualmie Pass avy field trip (Friday evening through Sunday afternoon)
Tue Feb 26 Map and Compass Lecture
Sat Mar 1 Day trip (location TBD, usually Tatoosh range)
Tue Mar 4 Snow camping lecture
Sat/Sun March 8/9 Overnight trip (location TBD, usually Stevens vicinity)
(Thank you Charles for allowing me to post this message.)
