Winter Trip Planning - Basic Backcountry Preparedness (In-person)

LEARN / PRACTICE PLANNING YOUR WINTER BACKCOUNTRY ACTIVITIES USING AVALANCHE FORECAST, HELPING YOU TO CHOOSE SAFER ROUTE TO YOUR DESTINATION USING DIGITAL MAPPING TOOLS LIKE CALTOPO.

HAVING ACCESS TO A LAPTOP, INTERNET, AND BASIC USE OF THE SAME IS A MUST TO TAKE THIS COURSE.

CAUTIONARY NOTES:

(1) WHEN TRAVELING IN AND OUT OF AVALANCHE TERRAIN, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAKING THE FORMAL AIARE'S AVALANCHE LEVEL 1 COURSE AND/OR AVALANCHE RESCUE COURSE. CLICK THE BLUE TEXT TO SEE THE COURSE LISTINGS OFFERED BY THE MOUNTAINEERS.

(2) CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT RECOMMENDED PROGRESSION FOR OUR BELOVED WINTER RECREATIONISTS TO DEVELOP THEIR PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING SKILLS AND SEE IF THIS COURSE FITS FOR YOU. 

PLEASE REACH OUT TO THE COURSE LEADER AT KRISHNA.DASE@GMAIL.COM IF YOU ENCOUNTER ANY ISSUES OR NEED HELP TO PROGRESS WITH THE ONLINE MATERIAL.

• COURSE OUTLINE:

  • Lecture 1 covers reading maps and exploring various online resources that can be used to plan your route such as GAIA, Caltopo, OnX.
  • Lecture 2 helps the students to understand the basics of avalanches, interpret avalanche forecasts and gather more accurate weather information, and estimate route conditions beforehand.

  • Lecture 3 will teach trip planning for winter traveling in the backcountry. Before this lecture, the students will submit their trip plan with given information and what they learned from lectures 1 & 2. The differences will be explored anonymously, and tips will be shared to improve the work or compliment it. This lecture will allow the students to form small groups and plan their own trip after learning trip planning skills and compare their results before and after the lecture.