Avalanche Courses with International Mountain Guides

We offer the highest quality avalanche programs available in the Northwest for the serious backcountry skier and climber. Our courses meet or exceed the education guidelines of the American Avalanche Association. The IMG avalanche instructors are well known in the professional avalanche community. They are among the most experienced professionals in avalanche education, forecasting, control, guiding, and research in the industry. Most of our instructors have between 20-25 years of daily operational avalanche forecasting experience. In fact, most of the local avalanche instructors have attended our courses.

For more information on the courses listed below or to inquire about signing up, please contact Paul Baugher at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need javascript enabled to view it

Level 1 Avalanche Hazard Evaluation

Crystal Mountain, WA   •   Jan 9-11, 2010   •   $385
(meets requirements for certificate)
Crystal Mountain, WA   •   Jan 9-10, 2010   •   $345
(update for certificates in past 3 years)

This intensive course focuses on the principles of stability evaluation, route selection, safe travel and rescue. The first 2 days includes a combination of classroom and fieldwork. The final day includes application of skills on backcountry tour.

At the end of the program, students should be able to:

• Understand how victims get caught and why
• Identify avalanche terrain
• Understand basic avalanche mechanics
• Recognize weather and snowpack conditions contributing to instability
• Understand principals of route selection based on stability evaluation
• Apply safe travel techniques
• Understand basic self and partner rescue including efficient transceiver use

Please refer to the IMG Avalanche Training PDF for more complete description of the course content.

Level 2 Avalanche Forecasting Workshop

Crystal Mountain, WA   •   Jan 22-25, 2010   •   $435
(meets requirements for certificate)
Crystal Mountain, WA   •   Jan 22-23, 2010   •   $345
(update for certificates in past 3 years)

This is the premier advanced course in the Northwest. The course features instructors that are professional avalanche forecasters, with over 90 years of combined experience.

The format of field and classroom allows the participants to focus on forecasting problems specific to the Northwest. With more than 50% of the instruction in the field, an emphasis is placed on skill development and practice. Classroom workshops will contain some problem solving. This course provides the greatest benefit to participants that have completed Level I training and are familiar with avalanche fundamentals.

At the end of the program, students should be able to:

• Identify grain types and processes leading to them
• Identify the weather patterns that develop weak layers
• Understand the importance and dynamics of spatial variability
• Identify complex avalanche terrain and select appropriate routes
• Perform and interpret common stability tests
• Understand the basic elements of field weather forecasting
• Understand the role of human factors in accidents
• Apply objective decision making methods in avalanche terrain
• Perform efficient group rescue

Please refer to the IMG Avalanche Training PDF for more complete description of the course content.

Level 3 Applied Avalanche Training

Crystal Mountain, WA   •   Feb 3-4, 2010   •  $495

This course offers guides and strong skiers with some avalanche training, an opportunity to develop and apply their skills in an operational forecasting environment.

The focus is on learning and practicing field forecasting skills in an operational setting. These forecasting skills will be applied to local avalanche conditions.

Operational people like avalanche control personnel and mountain guides need to make decisions in a timely manner. The guides ability to communicate about snowpack stratigraphy and other relevant field information is vital to the operation. Each guide goes into the field armed with the strength of others observations. Although the need to make timely decisions is important, it must be understood that there are no shortcuts to acquiring these "quick analysis skills". A comprehensive understanding of the physical properties of weather, snow, terrain, and their interaction, is a necessary foundation for informed avalanche forecasting. The knowledge of the natural processes involved enhances your field experience dramatically. Relating field input to the physical processes involved is a central theme in all of our courses.

Please refer to the IMG Avalanche Training PDF for more complete description of the course content as well as Course Prerequisites.