Winter Course Dates are Live!

Hello Friends:

Were going to see snow falling on the peaks of the South Coast tonight. The time has come - our winter schedule is live!

We have a bunch of exciting programming for you. First here's a bit about the overall philisophy of our courses:

- After the typical beginner touring and AST courses, there are very few structured learning environments for more advanced recreational skiers without going down the professional guide track.
- A skier who considers themselves to be an advanced backcountry user might have 15+ years of experience. This could mean you're over 10 years out from your last avalanche course!
- Even professional level recreationalists need ongoing training.

We're here to step in and provide refresher courses that sharpen some of those skills that may have become dull (companion rescue for example) and add new skills to fill in the gaps for advanced mountain travel.

Our Ground School is a quick evening refresher in Squamish to brush up on knots and systems before you need to do them out in the snow. We'll review your personal kit and make sure everything is in order, then run through all the basic rope skills you need for the winter. This is a big leg up for anyone doing the 2.5 day ski mountaineering course later in the season as we'll be using all the skills in the field.

The Avalanche Rescue Refresher is an early season, single day intensive companion rescue practice. We'll reacquaint ourselves with our beacons and then do a bunch of drills. We do this exact day with our own ski crew every season to stay sharp. If it's been a while since you took your AST, this is critical. We do it early season so you don't miss out on a good ski day.

Our 2.5 day Ski Mountaineering Course doesn't have a sexy name but it's the centrepiece of our season. This isn't the typical tour into Cham Chutes, do one rappel, then ski back to Blackcomb ski mountaineering class. The goal is to help you seek out, assess, and enter new ski lines that don't have a beaten path going to them already. We'll spend one day learning skills in a controlled environment. The second day is in the field and we'll move through a series of challenging terrain decisions where you'll have to use all the hard skills and decision making skills that we learned the day before. And hopefully we'll ski some great pow as well!

The final piece of our schedule is the April Ski Camp. We are leaving this open ended. It will be within 1-day travel of the Sea-to-Sky and likely heli or sled accessed base-camp style trip. This will be advanced ski mountaineering with the goal of having a strong crew and skiing some rad lines that very rarely get touched. We will be looking at resumes for this one to ensure we have a good team. Block out the first week of April and put down a deposit and you won't be disappointed :)

We're looking forward to seeing you in a course or on a skin track soon! If you have any questions, reach out via email. Courses are already filling up so if you are thinking about it, get in there and grab a spot! Share this with a friend if you haven't already. We'll be getting out one more pre-season newsletter to help you get ready but this is it for our in-person courses.

Evan & Eric