Jim Frankenfield

Avalanche Safety Courses and Services

1338 Foothill Dr. #170; Salt Lake City, UT 84108
1-877-604-0166; Contact Me Online

Basic (Level I) Avalanche Course

Prerequisites:

None. This course assumes no previous avalanche safety training. It is intended as a first step.

This is now taught online, with two distinct field days as part of the learning sequence. Offering the course online eliminates the time constraint issues which are pervasive in compressed weekend or three day formats. With the new approach every student can cover every topic satisfactorily. Full details including the objectives for each course module and a comprehensive FAQ collection are available on the AlpenPro website in the avalanche course section.

The travel skills required for the field sessions may vary with location, so check with me on that if you feel that you are an especially weak skier or boarder. Snowshoes are often ok, but not always. In the past I have sometimes done a climbers version of this class, assuming the use of snowshoes and focusing on issues of special concern for climbing. Now that the non-field material is taught online it is possible to cover issues for climbers as well as skiers in the same course.

Content:

This is a brief summary, for a full list of Lesson Plans with the objectives please check on the AlpenPro website.

Some topics covered :

• Safe Travel Protocols, Beacon basics
• Basic Terrain, Weather, and Snowpack factors
• Human Factors - Groups, Leadership, Decisions
• Basic Beacon skills
• Terrain Recognition, Routefinding and Travel skills
• General Observations for a General Stability Analysis
• Snowpack Stability Tests
• Small Party Self-Rescue

Objectives:

This is a brief and generalized summary, for a full list of Lesson Plans with the objectives for each module check on the AlpenPro website.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Utilize basic safe travel protocols to increase safety
• Use an avalanche beacon to find another buried one within 5 minutes
• Understand the other aspects of self-rescue, including leadership
• Describe and Recognize avalanche terrain and routefind accordingly
• Understand, at a basic observational level, weather and snowpack factors related to stability
• Know what key items to look for in a snowpit profile
• Properly execute at least two stability tests in the field
• Understand in general why stability tests have major limitations
• Have an improved awareness of how decisions are made and what they should and should not be based on

Note that these are broad objectives - do not expect to be able to do all of the above with perfection. Your skills in all of the above areas will improve with time spent in the field, perhaps followed later by an advanced course. The basic course will get you off to a good start and set you in the right direction.