Why Take AIARE Courses with Us

• Smaller class sizes

• Highest-caliber instructors with supplemental certifications and experience managing avalanche terrain, i.e. Ski Patrol

• Curriculum that prioritizes experiential learning by skiing laps on tour days and scouting out powder. No snowshoeing.

• Excellent access to terrain and trailheads just 15 minutes from the classroom

• Added resource of the local avalanche center

Hut-Based AIARE Avalanche Courses

Take your avalanche education into the backcountry. Our hut-based courses cover the curriculum of a standard American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) Level 1 or Level 2 course, with one important difference: the hut and true backcountry is your classroom.

Small class sizes create a more personal learning experience, while the hut setting allows you to put new skills into practice immediately. If avalanche conditions make travel to the hut unsafe, we’ll adapt the course and use local terrain near town for hands-on learning. In town accommodations will be provided.

AIARE Level 1

Maroon & Crystal Huts | Gothic, Colorado

Located just outside Crested Butte, the Maroon and Crystal Huts provide an ideal setting for developing foundational backcountry avalanche skills. The approach is approximately four miles from the trailhead, and the Maroon Hut offers an unusually comfortable backcountry experience with heat, electricity, running water, and outhouse facilities.

Throughout the course, you’ll learn how to plan and prepare for backcountry travel, assess avalanche conditions, and make informed decisions in the field.

Level 1 Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will have learned how to:

• Prepare and plan for a backcountry tour

• Find, understand, and apply an avalanche forecast

• Identify avalanche terrain and different avalanche types

• Recognize hazardous conditions and changing conditions in the field

• Develop a basic understanding of the snowpack

• Select appropriate routes and recognize important terrain features

• Perform basic snowpack tests and interpret the results

• Make informed, educated decisions in avalanche terrain

• Perform basic avalanche rescue techniques

• Manage a group in the backcountry

AIARE Level 2

Tagert, Green-Wilson & Friends Huts | Crested Butte & Aspen, Colorado

AIARE Level 2 takes your avalanche education deeper into the backcountry. The course begins at our office in Crested Butte, where you’ll meet your instructors before being shuttled to Aspen. From there, you’ll begin the approximately 5.5-mile journey to either the Tagert Hut or Green-Wilson Hut. From there you will journey to the Friends Hut for the final evening of your course.

These are true backcountry huts: you’ll melt snow for water, use an outhouse, and spend several days immersed in the terrain and conditions you’re learning to evaluate.On the last day, you’ll make the approximately 10-mile journey back toward Crested Butte, with the majority of the route downhill.

Level 2 Course Objectives

Students will develop the skills to:

• Differentiate where specific avalanche hazards exist within the landscape

• Identify avalanche terrain where consequences may be more severe

• Use and interpret weather, snow, and avalanche observations to identify appropriate terrain before entering and while traveling in the field

• Demonstrate leadership skills within a small team

• Facilitate group discussion and promote appropriate terrain selection

• Apply simple risk-management strategies to backcountry decision-making

• Implement a basic forecasting framework that can be used with—or without—local avalanche information

Learn in the Terrain

Hut-based education offers something a traditional classroom can’t, the opportunity to learn, travel, observe, and make decisions in the backcountry over the course of the program. You won’t just talk about avalanche terrain—you’ll experience it firsthand.