AIARE Avalanche Courses: Durango & San Juans Colorado

Southwest Adventure Guides has been offering formal avalanche courses since 1992. We have taught hundreds of backcountry skiers and snowboarders as well as mountain guides and ski patrollers needing to meet industry requirements. In recent years, great achievments have been made with curriculum development. Combined with our many years of teaching experience this has helped us to bring you the most sophisticated and useful classroom presentations and field instruction to best help decision making while in avalanche terrain.

The snowpack of the San Juan Mountains between Durango and Ouray, CO provides the ideal location to conduct our field training session. The San Juan Mountains are known throughout the world for it's complicated snowpack and readily observable avalanche conditions and phenomenon. They truly define the meaning of a continental snowpack.

Course Instructors

Our AIARE Avalanche Courses are taught by highly experienced professional ski and mountain guides as well as avalanche consultants. All of our lead instructors are Certified Level 3 AIARE course graduates and have also completed AIARE instructor training courses. For years, they have been making difficult decisions in managing groups through challenging backcounty terrain in complex snowpack conditions.

As guides first and foremost, they have great experience in understanding the complex dynamics of the many important variables including the important human factor elements that affect good and bad decisions in hazardous avalanche terrain. As professional guides they are passionate about sharing with you the focus of avalanche awareness as part of the quality of experience the snow in the San Juans has to offer.

*If our scheduled courses do not fit your needs, we can also schedule private dates for groups of 4 or more.

2010/2011 Offerings

Level 1 Avalanche Course - Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain
Our 3 day AIARE Qualified Level 1 Avalanche Course provides a complete introduction to the avalanche phenomenon, avalanche terrain, decision making, and rescue protocol.

Level 2 Avalanche Course - Analyzing Snow Stability and Avalanche Hazard
Our AIARE Qualified Level 2 Avalanche Course is a 4 day program that provides backcountry travellers the opporunity to advance their avalanche knowledge and decision making skills. Course cost includes 3 nights lodging at the Addies S Cabin on Red Mountain Pass!

Level 1 Refresher Course- Update Your Avalanche Training
Specifically designed for participants who may have taken a Level 1 Avalanche Course previously and would like to update their familiarity with current standards and refresh their understanding of the avalanche phenomenon.