Level 3 Avalanche Course
Recognized by the AMGA
Avalanche Forecasting and Advanced Training
This course is the highest level of formal avalanche training in the U.S. The focus of this course is efficiency and mastery of skills. Approximately half of the course is classroom based and the other half is field based. We will travel in the backcountry, in and around avalanche terrain.
This course focuses on the following knowledge and skill sets:
- Proficiency in single and multiple burial search techniques
- Effective organized rescue techniques and leadership
- Improved understanding of snowpack formation & metamorphism
- Advanced avalanche mechanics including:
-
- initiation vs. propagation
- the role of temperature on avalanche triggering
- Understanding, and accounting for, spatial variability
- Strengths and limitations of stability tests
- Professional standard of recording data and record keeping.
- Creating personal/professional forecasts and nowcasts based on available information
- Recognizing trends and patterns in stability
- Efficient & accurate route-finding and group management in complex terrain.
- Human factors that influence decision-making as professionals and recreationists
Course Requirements
- 40 hour Level 2 avalanche course
- Minimum of 1 season in between Level 2 & Level 3 course.
- 20 documented tours in avalanche terrain
- 10 recent snow profiles
- Able to find 2 buried transceivers within 7 minutes (30m x 30m area)
Time Commitment
This course is a 6-day or 60 hour course.
Cost
$1250
Download the Level 3 Application Here
Recommended Reading
Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, Bruce
Tremper, The Mountaineers
The Avalanche Handbook, McClung and
Schaerer, The Mountaineers
Snow, Weather and Avalanches: Observational
Guidelines for Avalanche Programs in the United
States (SWAG), American Avalanche
Association
Pre-course Level 3 CD (sent after you register)