Looking to get into the mountains in winter time? This course will get you started with the basics of gear choice, trip planning, winter camping, movement through mountain terrain in winter, avalanche awareness, map and terrain skills and much else. This 2 day course will help you make that 1st step into the winter back country.
TRIP INFO
This 5 day course caters to the Island Ski Tourer who is looking to gain the skills and knowledge to travel efficiently and safely through our island terrain in the winter. Vancouver Island Mountains are unique in snowpack and topography which require the back country traveler to be well versed in route finding, navigation, rope management and avalanche hazard evaluation. This course will cover skills such as Avalanche hazard management, rope management including protecting, belaying and lowering. crevasse rescue skills and white out navigation. Our location is chosen closer to the date of the trip to adjust for avalanche conditions, weather and travel conditions. Possible venues include: Augerpoint Traverse, Cliffe Glacier, Mt. Myra/Thelwood, Bedwell/Septimus and Alexandra/Adrian areas. This is an advanced level course and the participant should be familiar with common climbing knots, hold a minimum AST 1 certificate and be comfortable traveling for extended days in a backcountry winter environment.
TRIP INFO
Take your ski touring to the next level by learning all about skiing in glaciated terrain. Glacier formation, route finding, roping for glacier travel and crevasse rescue are all covered in this 3 day course which takes place in the spectacular Spearhead Range. This trip is off Island to take advantage of the heavily crevassed terrain in the Coast Mountains.
TRIP INFO
A lot of people are thinking about getting into the backcountry these days. The numbers on our avalanche courses are a good indication of that! But for many people, the thing that they know they need to work on is their skiing or snowboarding, especially in natural snow conditions. That's why we've developed this program. Three two and a half hour, low ratio sessions with a high end ski or snowboard coach followed by a day of off-piste backcountry with our certified guides will set you up perfectly to succeed in the backcountry.
TRIP INFO