Winter will be here in the blink of an eye, and that means it’s time to trade in your mountain bike for skis or snowshoes and hit the hills. However, winter brings with it the risk of avalanches. In the backcountry, they take lives every single year. During the 2024/25 season alone, 22 people died in the U.S. due to avalanches.
That’s why avalanche awareness and education are so important for all backcountry users. Unfortunately, courses can be expensive, and many winter sports enthusiasts skip them and dive straight into the sport. Luckily, not all avi education resources cost money.
This season, the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) launched a new free online interactive class on backcountry safety called Avalanche Aware. It is not a replacement for an AIARE Avalanche 1 training course or a similar program. However, this supplemental training can help refresh your memory and/or introduce you to basic avalanche safety concepts.
The free online resource is helpful for all types of winter backcountry travelers, from snowshoers to snowmobilers and everyone in between. GearJunkie took the time to review the course, which was released in late October, and spoke with AIARE education director Emma Walker to provide an inside look at what users can expect to gain from this new, free course.
Avalanche Aware: The Course Overview
The Avalanche Aware course draws on experts from AIARE, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), and the Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC). It offers real-world examples and expert insights from experienced avalanche educators.
The process of taking it is quite easy. On the Avalanche Aware website, you click the “Start Class” button. You need to provide an email address to create an account, and you will receive a welcome email to the class. Click the link, and you’re in.
The online course cuts right to the point. It starts with a first-person perspective video of a skier getting buried in an avalanche. Following the video, which is sure to grab your attention, is an introduction by Walker, who succinctly outlines the course. After filling out a short demographic survey, you start the first module.
The course is divided into five modules: intro to avalanches, identifying avalanche terrains, recognizing unstable snow, managing triggers, and continuing your avalanche education. Each section takes around 15 minutes to complete. The entire course can be completed in about an hour if you’re diligent. You can also take it at your own pace, break it up, and come back to it as needed.
Each section contains a mix of images, videos, slides, and interactive quizzes. It’s easy to navigate and straightforward in the messaging. I’ve taken the AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course, which includes all of this information as well as in-field training. I found the Avalanche Aware course to be a nice refresher.
‘Dipping Your Toe’ in Avalanche Education
One of the primary ways I travel through the backcountry during the winter is by simply avoiding avalanche areas. You can’t get buried if you are not in or below avalanche zones. And that’s the number one takeaway of the Avalanche Aware course. It clearly outlines how to identify avalanche terrain and the factors that cause avalanches. The course provides practical tools to plan trips this winter, including the CAIC reports.
onX Backcountry also offers useful avalanche data and mapping information. It is not a training resource, but rather a tool that is extremely helpful for safely planning backcountry routes. A recent update to the app added “Level 0” to its risk assessment scale, indicating to users areas that onX claims are “avalanche-free.”
In talking with Walker, she said they often hear that people who get caught in avalanches were not aware that they were in avalanche terrain. The Avalanche Aware course clearly explains when and where avalanches occur, which is the first step in avoiding them.
“People need a little encouragement to dip their toe into the world of avalanche education. Every season, we see multiple people end up in an avalanche accident who didn’t realize they were in avalanche terrain,” Walker said. “That ability to recognize when you are in avi terrain is key. We hope people go on to take an AIARE 1 course and get to learn a lot more about the fundamentals, and get to practice [avalanche skills].
“Practice is what makes it really stick,” she continued. “There is no substitute for time spent in the snow with a professional.”
AIARE: Further Training & Resources
Walker said Avalanche Aware was developed to save lives. But she emphasized that this is not intended to replace an AIARE training course.
The AIARE 1 course is a multiday educational class that combines classroom instruction with on-snow training, allowing you to practice the skills you learn. A certified guide will help equip people for avalanche safety and rescues. There is also an AIARE 2 course for those seeking even deeper avalanche education.
Other courses are also available, such as the Big Mountain Snow Safety Program. Additionally, numerous resources are available on the internet to help supplement your AIARE training. You can even find articles here on GearJunkie.
As a nonprofit, the goal of AIARE is to save lives through avalanche education. Since 1998, AIARE has provided an avalanche education curriculum. Today, the organization has 115 providers of AIARE avalanche education across the country, and more than 1,500 AIARE courses are offered nationwide each year.
Starting Point to Saving Lives
Walker hopes that the Avalanche Aware course will encourage more people to take the next step and check out a full class. She’s most excited about the collaboration with some of the foremost avalanche experts in the country on this course.
The collaboration between AIARE, CAIC, and NWAC is part of the collective effort to improve backcountry safety this winter. The CAIC offers daily avalanche forecasts during the season, covering 28,000 square miles of Colorado’s backcountry terrain, and the NWAC increases avalanche awareness and provides weather and avalanche forecasts, education, and data for the Pacific Northwest.
“We’re excited to expand our collaboration with AIARE and NWAC to bring avalanche safety basics to more people,” said Brian Lazar, deputy director of the CAIC. “Avalanche Aware opens the door for thousands more to build the same foundation before they step into avalanche terrain.”
Since launching on Oct. 28, around 1,000 people have already completed the Avalanche Aware course online.
“The number one thing I hope people take away from this is, ‘Wow, there is so much I need to learn to recreate in the backcountry,’” Walker said. “I think the quality of information and the way it is communicated is really accessible.”
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