4 Day Back Country Avalanche – 4 Days September 5, 2019

Four day back country avalanche course

This is a 4 day  intermediate back country avalanche  course tailored to those who are looking to do day or multi day alpine trips in avalanche terrain. This course is popular for those who have completed an avalanche awareness course and wish to develop their skills and knowledge. We have two options for this course, a walking and climbing orientated course or a skiing & boarding orientated course.

Course options

Option 1 -A Course for climbers, walkers and outdoor professionals

Option 2 – A course for back country Skiers and boarders

The back county avalanche course for walkers (option 1) and skiers (option 2) are run over the same dates course. Evening and theory sessions are delivered as a combined course with the practical elements being run individually.

please add your course preference into the notes section when you complete your booking.

Where is this course delivered?

This course is based from Temple Basin Ski area in Arthurs Pass National Park (see map). However New Zealand mountain weather can be tricky so as a back up option sometimes we split the course between Temple basin and Broken River Ski area (see map).  Having flexibility in course location ensures we get the most of our time on the snow. The course location is confirmed a week before the scheduled course dates.

Travelling from out of town?

Lots of people travel to attend our courses and  we like to make it easy. Transport could be tricky to organise if your flying or coming from out of town. Talk to one of our friendly team about our pick-up/drop off service.

Back Country Avalanche Course Includes:

• Trip planning and route selection
• Applying the backcountry avalanche advisory to route planning
• Snow science
• Identifying class one and two signs in the field
• Mountain weather in New Zealand and its effect on the snowpack stability.
• Multiple burial search techniques
• Small party rescue
• Safe group travel techniques
• Snow pack analysis

Group size

In order to cover the costs of running this type of training we require a minimum group size of four. We cap the course at eight people and introduce a second instructor once bookings exceed six.

Note:

Rather than cancel courses if booking do not reach minimum numbers of four people in both option 1 and option 2 we will combine into one course. When a combined course is running it will run as a walking course.  Combining course option into a walking course is necessary because our instructors cannot be in two places. Walkers/Climbers and ski/boarding take very different lines of assent and decent in the mountains so it is necessary to everyone in one mode of transport.