Jim Frankenfield

Avalanche Safety Courses and Services

1338 Foothill Dr. #170; Salt Lake City, UT 84108
1-877-604-0166; jim@mountain-guiding.com

Level II Avalanche Course

Prerequisites:

This course assumes previous avalanche safety training and time spent in the field since that training. The travel skills required may vary with location, so check with me on that if you feel that you are an especially weak skier or boarder. You do not need to be an expert, just able to travel reliably in mountain terrain with or without grace or good style.

Enrollment is dependent on the approval of the instructor. Approval is unlikely (but not out of the question) without having taken a basic class which follows the AAA "Level I" guidelines and including at least 24 hours of instructional time. (It does not have to be my course, or an AlpenPro course.) I have had poor experience with people bypassing a basic class thinking that they have equivalent experience. This has included people trying to mark off a "Level II" on a checklist of requirements as quickly as they can to enter some other program such as guide training.

Because of these prerequisite expectations I teach only a small number of Level II classes.

Students enrolling in this class should be able to:

• Utilize basic safe travel protocols to increase safety, largely as a matter of habit
• Use an avalanche beacon to find another buried one within 5 minutes, repeatedly
• Understand the other aspects of self-rescue, including leadership
• Describe and Recognize avalanche terrain and its implications for routefinding
• Understand at a very basic and observational level the weather and snowpack factors related to snow stability
• Know what bottom-line features to look for in a snowpit profile
• Be familiar with at least two different stability tests
• Understand in general what the major limitations of stability tests are
• Have a solid awareness of how decisions are made and what they should and should not be based on

Some topics, particular those relating to safety during the course, will be reviewed. On other topics the review will be minimal. It is up to the student to be honest about their own background. A poorly prepared student may not benefit fully from an advanced class.

Content and Objectives:

Please check the AlpenPro website for the most current details, including outlines of each Lesson Plan covered.

In a broad sense this course encourages students to rely less on protocols and more on judgments in their decision making.