You're out on a ski tour in the backcountry and the slope you've decided to descend looks questionable. You have avalanche training, but it's been a while since you've used it. Do you feel comfortable with your snowpack evaluation? How about your terrain assessment? What about your ability to find your partner with a transceiver if there's a slide?

A skier in the North Cascades. Lyle Haugsven.

Winter travelers commonly require a review of their avalanche awareness skills before heading out into the backcountry. Our one-day Avalanche Refresher clinics were designed specifically for those that have already completed an avalanche education course and would like to refresh their skills and knowledge. This field-based clinic provides an excellent review of the material and allows a venue for the discussion of new avalanche industry updates, techniques and skills.

Each Avalanche Refresher clinic provides a review of terrain-assessment, travel techniques, decision-making, mountain weather, snowpack evaluation and rescue techniques. These clinics are run by our avalanche instructors and ski guides who have years of experience predicting and avoiding avalanches.

All material presented in this course will be consistent with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) curriculum.

An avalanche class takes a day tour in the Mount Baker backcountry. Erik Johnson.

The goals of this course are to:

• Provide a basic understanding of avalanches
• Review decision-making and risk management in avalanche terrain
• Review tour planning and terrain assessment
• Review transceiver use and avalanche victim search patterns
• Discuss new updates in avalanche research and rescue