AIARE LEVEL II
Season Long
Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain
Extended Avalanche Education Course
Our season-long AIARE Level II course aims to give the student the most hands-on experience possible, reshaping the model of avalanche education from a fire hose to extended mentorship through a model of tracking the entire season’s snowpack, communicating with teammates, and making real-time backcountry decisions. We believe avalanche education should not exist in a bubble but rather be presented as the student would practice daily. Through three Zoom sessions, five online classroom assignments, and four field days, we will track weather systems, identify layers of concern, explore multiple backcountry ski zones in the White Mountains, and refine our decision-making skills.
• Who’s it for? Advanced backcountry skiers and split boarders wishing to take their decision-making skills to the next level.
• How we go? Participants may take this course on backcountry Skis or Split board.
• Where do we go? We will utilize terrain on or near Mt. Washington and the northern Presidential Range.
• Why go with AMG? Acadia Mountain Guides is New England’s
original and most experienced AIARE provider. AMGA Apprentice Ski Guide and AIARE Course Leader Rob Benton lead this course. Our curriculum meets and exceeds the AIARE Level II curriculum standard. The season-long course is the first of its kind to be offered on the East Coast and offers ample continued learning and mentorship.
• Pre-requisites: Intermediate to advanced mountain travel skills on skis or split board. Ability to safely ski ungroomed black diamond terrain. At least one to two seasons of backcountry skiing could also be defined as having completed at least 6 to 10 ski tours in avalanche terrain since completing your level I course.
- AIARE Level II Student Manual
- AIARE field notebook
- AIARE Online Pre-Course Preparation
- Access to multiple guest speakers
- Membership to AMG AIARE Student/Instructor forum
- Acadia Mountain Guides avalanche decision-making field card.
- Ratio Maximum of 6 clients : 1 instructor
- All group emergency gear is provided.
- Personal gear (Including; beacon, probe, and shovel)
- Transportation to and from classroom/trailhead
- Trailhead parking fees if any
- Evening beverages / pub visits
- Lodging / meals
- Instructor / Guide gratuities
3 online zoom classes (~three hours each), 5 Google classroom assignments (~an hour each), and 4 field days (~six hours each).
Intermediate to advanced ski skills. Ability to safely ski ungroomed intermediate terrain and at least one – two seasons of backcountry skiing, this could also be defined as having completed at least 6-10 ski tours since completion of your AIARE level I.
The course will help you to gain confidence in:
Group leadership, tour planning, weather tracking, and communication
Beginning with an interactive online Zoom class session, we will review what you learned from your level I course and the decisions/learning moments throughout your backcountry skiing experience. We are introducing you to Google Classroom and will begin to prompt you with coursework. From there, we will form the foundation of habit and continue monitoring weather, snowpack changes, and observations. We will meet for field days to actively make observations, learn the details of the instability test, and make decisions about what that means for our tour plan. This level II course aims to put you in the driver’s seat of your season and hone your craft throughout a continued conversation about the snowpack in the presidential range. We will not limit our learnings to just the presidential range as we understand your goals and motives may take you to places near and far for skiing and riding. Expect hands-on learning, feedback, and lots of time driving your decision-making while leading the group.
Acadia Mountain Guides Level II Course in an extended format, including three Zoom classroom sessions, four field days, and one Zoom check-in. We aim to provide you with many touch points with your instructor’s interactive Google classroom activities, with a focus that all of our field time is dedicated to moving in the mountains and making decisions as a team.
Sample Itinerary
- Zoom Class (6:00 – 9:00 PM)
- Zoom Check-in (6:00 – 7:00 PM)
- Field Days (8:00 AM – 5:00 PM)
Zoom Classroom | Field Days |
Wednesday January 1st ZOOM CLASS | Friday January 3rd |
Wednesday February 5th ZOOM CLASS | Friday February 7th |
Thursday February 27th ZOOM CHECK-IN | Saturday March 1st |
Thursday March 27th ZOOM CLASS | Saturday March 29th |
Specific Info
General Info
AIARE Level I is for anyone who travels in potential avalanche terrain – skiers, snowshoers, climbers, or snowmobilers.
Fitness, clothing, and equipment to ski or hike up to 8 miles round trip with a 10-pound pack. If skiing or riding, you should be advanced enough to ski ungroomed intermediate terrain at major northeast ski resorts safely.
Our New Hampshire courses are based at the Quality Inn, Gorham, NH for the classroom portion. For the field portion of the course, we will utilize terrain in/around on Mount Washington as well as local Granite Backcountry Alliance glades.
Acadia Mountain Guides is the longest standing avalanche education provider on the East Coast. Led by IMFGA guide Jon Tierney who has been teaching avalanche courses since 1986. Many well known New England avalanche educators first started with an AMG course. See instructor bios.
Participants receive a 20% discount on any avalanche related purchases made between registration and seven days after the course (15% thereafter for lifetime). Avalanche gear will be available for purchase at the course as well. (online at AlpenglowGear.com)
Ski Clothing; (your normal backcountry skiing kit w/ added insulation for standing around and learning)
- Softshell jacket
- Softshell pants
- 1 mid-weight layer (regulator fleece)
- 1 light top or similar base layer
- Base layers
- 2 prs of ski socks
- Heavy gloves
- light gloves (soft shell, wind stopper or wool)
- Ski hat/helmet
- Down coat/puffy/insulation layer
- Goggles
- Sunglasses
- Balaclava
Lunch Food, Snacks, and Drinks (as desired);
- Cliff bars/energy bars/energy gels
- Jerky
- Mixed nuts
- Chocolate
- Hot chocolate/tea/coffee/etc.
In the field
- Touring skis, poles, boots, split board, or snowshoes.
- Probe, transceiver, shovel*
- Ski or splitboard Skins*
- Ski pack (30 L or bigger)
- Thermos
- Compass with baseplate
- Sunscreen/lip balm
Acadia Mountain Guides has partnered with Quality Inn, Gorham, New Hampshire, to offer lodging. Quality Inn offers single/double occupancy rooms for $99/night; an additional $5/night will be charged for above double occupancy, and the room charge also includes continental breakfast.
Gorham offers several breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, all within walking distance of the classroom.
We encourage you to take advantage of this great deal!
Acadia Mountain Guides has partnered with Quality Inn, Gorham New Hampshire to offer lodging right at the same venue as the classroom location. Quality Inn offers single/double occupancy rooms for $99/night, an additional $5/night will be charged for above double occupancy, room charge also includes continental breakfast.
Gorham has several options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All are within walking distance of the classroom.
You will often find our instructors down the road at locally/skier owned SAaLT Pub enjoying locally sourced food and drink for dinner after a long day in the mountains!
We encourage you to join us there, we are delighted to continue conversing about snow, mountains and more even after the class has ended!
No one starts the day expecting to get hurt in the backcountry. However, despite all we know and all we do, accidents can still happen. At AMG, we take your medical care seriously. Like many guide services, our leaders are trained as Wilderness First Responders; many are WEMTs. Additionally, all our regular employees participate in periodic medical skills review with our owner Jon, a flight paramedic and lead instructor in wilderness medicine. Additionally, on courses traveling to remote areas such as Katahdin, Chic-Chocs, or Mount Washington, you can expect our guides to have pain and sedation medications available if needed.
AIARE courses are recognized across the country and are consistent with the international standards and recording methods. AIARE instructors participate in annual training and network continuously with each other to learn about the latest information in avalanche science. Courses flow sequentially regardless of where you take your class. AIARE courses teach you a way of thinking about snow travel rather than a protocol-based approach to learning. Save lives through education.
Google Classroom
Please join the Google Classroom for your course. Level II Google Classroom Class code: wptsbbl
Case Studies:
- Please read the Tunnel Creek Avalanche case study.
Be prepared to chat about the given case studies:
- What went wrong? Could you see yourself making similar decisions? What may have changed the outcome?
Tour Planning:
- Tour planning is how you prepare to go into the backcountry.
- A tour plan is generated by using the avalanche bulletin, combined with maps (both hard copy and electronic versions) and a weather forecast to understand how the weather will influence your plan.
- It is easy to create reliable computer/phone-based tour plans to bring to the backcountry. You should always have a hard copy of the map and compass.
- Your tour plan should give you an idea of the vertical gain, the distance, compass bearings, run options, and areas to be careful of. Attached is a sample tour plan template.
- Electronic tour planning is excellent, but you must also understand some basics. We will review tour planning basics in class, but remember it is not a navigation class. Please bring a compass, ideally with a base plate. • We will be doing some sample tour planning during the course. It would be helpful if you could bring a laptop computer. We suggest downloading the following programs and apps that are helpful for digital mapping:
To your laptop: Caltopo
To your smartphone: the mapping apps onX Backcountry, Avensa, Caltopo, Gaia and the Windy app for weather. Tour planning resources:
▪https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.8,-98.4&z=5&b=mbt
▪ https://www.google.com/earth/
▪ https://www.gaiagps.com/
▪ https://www.stockalpine.com/posts/google-earth-gaia-gps.html
▪ http://www.mountainschoolnews.com/2010/04/route-planning-how-to.html
We seek to find the best snow and learning conditions possible for each course and to provide different venues for each field day. If we travel to the west side of Mount Washington a nominal parking fee may be charged at the Cog Railway base station parking area. Occasionally we utilize lift access at Wildcat to access terrain and this may require purchasing a single ride lift pass.
Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, 3rd Edition. Bruce Tremper
- This edition features a wholly new chapter in which Bruce pulls all the pieces together to create an organized, step-by-step system for making decisions off, and on, the mountain.
Avalanche Essentials: A Step-by-Step System for Safety & Survival, Bruce Tremper
- This is the companion to Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain the bestselling avalanche text in the U.S – with easy-to-understand safety tips and checklists to help anyone stay safer in avalanche terrain. It is a small, take-along resource to reference in the field and assist decision-making. Winter athletes don’t necessarily want to be snow scientists but playing in avalanche country does require basic knowledge of the risks in order to stay safe.
- The most comprenhensive guidebook to skiing in the Presidential range, owned and used by all of our guides. Incredibly useful for beginning to understand the terrain you will be learning/travelling in.
Enjoying the outdoors necessitates a certain degree of risk-taking. You are participating in this trip and entering the winter backcountry environment at your own risk. You are choosing to engage in an activity in which participants have been injured and killed. While such accidents are rare, they may occur at any time and be out of our control. Our guides draw upon solid guide education coupled with extensive experience to manage significant hazards inherent to mountain travel. Some of the hazards that can lead to injury or death associated with this trip include but are not limited to extreme weather, demanding physical travel, avalanche, vehicle transportation, and falls or collisions while skiing or snowboarding. Please be sure that you are fully aware of such risks. Our goal is to interpret the environmental, situational, and group variables and make educated decisions to minimize dangers to you while providing an enjoyable and memorable experience.
Self-reliance in the face of adversity is expected on the part of the wilderness traveler entering the wilderness. Rescue is not automatic. Our party is alone for all practical purposes and must depend upon our own resources for self-rescue and be equipped for an extended emergency. Cellular phones and radios should not be relied upon in an emergency.
Finally, this is a group trip, and good expedition behavior is critical. Participants are asked to stay with the group until everyone has safely exited the backcountry.
A 100% deposit is required for registration.
Payment and reservations can be made at Alpenglow Adventure Sports.
When you book a course with Acadia Mountain Guides, you agree to our cancellation policy. Please realize that if your travel does not go according to plan in any way and for any reason, we are unable to provide credits or refunds outside of what is described below. We strongly recommend that you purchase trip insurance to protect your activity purchase against unforeseeable circumstances, which include but are not limited to:
- The anticipation of Inclement Weather
- Flight and Travel Delays and Conditions
- Personal or work schedule changes
- Injury or illness of self or family member
If you are symptomatic or found positive for COVID, have been exposed to COVID + person(s) in the past 14 days, you may request to be either rescheduled or receive a full refund.
The goals and objectives of this program are to learn avalanche skills. It is unlikely that we will pursue any summits during the course. Commonly we ascend into areas around Tuckerman Ravine, Gulf of Slide, and ravines adjacent to the cog railway. We will make every reasonable effort to reach these areas. However, extreme weather, avalanche conditions, inadequate personal fitness, difficult terrain, or park weather/travel closures may make it impossible to achieve our desired terrain objectives.
People often ask if it’s appropriate to tip the instructor. Tipping is never expected but always greatly appreciated.
This is your course. The more you let your instructor know what your needs are, the more he or she can help you. If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you have special interests, let your instructor know. If your instructor has provided you with a great experience and shared his or her knowledge and joy of the mountain world with you, a thank-you note or gratuity is always well received. If they have not, we would like to know about it.
A minimum of four (4) participants are needed to run this program, and there is a maximum of twelve (12). The decision to run the program will be made three weeks before the start date. In the case of low registration, you will have the option of joining another trip, receiving a refund, or possibly paying an additional amount to allow the trip to run with low numbers.
Are you part of a college organization, ski club, etc.? We are happy to schedule a customized course for organizations, small groups, and individuals through New England and Eastern Canada. Of course, if you would like to schedule a course or trip to Iceland, Colorado, or Japan, etc., we would be very pleased to work with you.
Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School is certified through the American Mountain Guide Association and the Professional Climbing Instructor Association. Acadia Mountain Guides actively supports furthering their guide’s development throughout their career. That means our guides constantly take steps to progress their skills and provide you with an exceptional experience. AMG is also a proponent of helping clients reach their goals; whether it’s having an epic day in the mountains or gaining skills to get into other terrains, Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School can get you there!
Our instructor team is the strongest in New England and our courses reflect that. We were at the table early on when the concept of furthering public avalanche education in the U.S. was being discussed and the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education was being created. For several years we were the only climbing school sponsoring AIARE avalanche courses in the eastern U.S. We often ran them at a financial loss, brought avalanche guru Karl Klassen (Canadian IFMGA guide, chief forecaster for the Canadian Avalanche Association, and initial technical director for AIARE) in from western Canada to teach them, and corralled all of our friends to attend just to have enough people to run the course. In fact, many of the snow rangers and current avalanche course providers who are working or have worked on Mount Washington were participants in those early courses. Today, times have changed and the demand for courses has created an abundance of courses and providers. While all the courses are good, we believe ours to often be superior because of the strength of our team.
A History of
Leading the way…
Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School is the preeminent frontrunner in climbing instruction and guiding in Acadia and across Maine.
Since 1994 we have specialized in designing customized experiences or training for you, your family, group, or company.
AMGA ACCREDITED
• Since 1994 •
AMGCS is one of 32 AMGA accredited programs in the US and was one of the earliest to pursue and achieve accreditation. AMGCS is the only climbing school in Maine to remain continuously AMGA accredited. We have had one or more full time AMGA rock guides on staff each year since 1994.
PCIA Accredited
• Since 2007 •
AMGCS has the distinction of also being accredited to the highest standards of the Professional Climbing Instructors Association. The PCIA requires all staff to be individually trained and certified.
Save 15% on
All Gear and Clothing
Become a client of Acadia Mountain Guides and receive a permanent 15% off MSRP on purchases in our stores or at AlpenglowGear.com.
AMGCS also rents outdoor equipment for your convenience. All clients receive 25% off rental equipment for use on our courses.
See what we have.