AST Course

Hey all,

I'm going to do some AST courses this year. Are Whistler Guides good? Will I be losing out on some learnin' if I do it in late November, or should I wait until we have some real pow?

or should I wait until we have some real pow?

AST courses aren't about shralping terrain. So long as there are a few layers of snow you'll be digging, not skiing.

AST courses aren't about shralping terrain. So long as there are a few layers of snow you'll be digging, not skiing.

Yep, I'm aware of that. What I don't know is if it's worth it if there is very little to dig.

I don't know anything about the company you asked about since we did our AST through Canada West Mtn School. http://www.themountainschool.com/
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Based on what the course I took, for digging the pit and doing the tests, you would want a reasonable amount of snow so they can show what to look for.

It's always a crap shoot, even in mid-winter the snow pack may not be terribly interesting. While looking at the snow pack is part of the course, I think they put more emphasis on smart route finding, terrain management, etc.

Whistler Guides and Canada West are both highly recommended. I think some of the instructors may work for both anyways.

It'll be fine, ast 1 isn't big on snow science stuff, more beacon practice, safety checklists, decision making etc.

The 'online' course covers a lot of it, good to read ahead if you haven't, then you can pick your instructors brain about things you want to know more about http://54.191.26.235/cac/training/online-course and get to know your gear ahead of time

One of the more important things I took from the course is route decisions. Probably more important than snow pits. There should be enough snow to learn the basic snow pit methodology. Pits are all about experience. The course teaches you just basic knowledge and technique but only practice practice practice will teach you much.

Having decent snow is important, but the AST1 doesn't really focus on digging pits, and it isn't even a mandatory part of the course anymore.

The focus now is trip-prep, reading the bulletin, recognizing risk, and managing terrain.

If there's 1+m of snow, I'd say go for it.

Thanks folks!

I'm guessing I should tour a season with experienced folks and my AST 1 before doing my AST 2?

I haven't checked the outline but going from memory when I took it, the course seemed to be 5 sections.

1. Classroom theory
2. Beacon [HTML_REMOVED] probe practice
3. Snow pit and testing (this was interesting as what we found for local conditions was much more unstable than what the report had said the local conditions were expected to be)
4. Route finding through terrain
5. Practice finding and recovering buried beacon

When we took our course there was an interesting snow pack to look at because of all the freeze thaw cycles (multiple dry warm/day cold/night periods), combined with a bunch of heavy wet fresh on top of that.

The course was up on Seymour.

Mitch Sulkers made an interesting post on ClubTread last winter about how and why the avy course curriculum has changed over the years:

Also, for clarification, RAC and IRAC courses are not AST courses. We completely re-wrote the curriculum in 2007 because some research suggested that people who completed RAC or RAC-type courses were MORE likely to be involved in avalanches than "untrained" winter recreationists.

AST1 and AST2 are completely built upon terrain recognition, selection, and understanding "informed and systematic" decision-making by a group. Planning is a significant portion of the curriculum.

Sean Fraser A local guide does courses in town for skiers or sledders, has also mapped the aviy zones in a lot of local play spots like the Hankin ski area alpine zone or the microwave ridge for sledders

If you got time [HTML_REMOVED] $$$ Christopf has done AST courses at Burnie hut, a week long course in big terrain

When we took our course there was an interesting snow pack to look at because of all the freeze thaw cycles (multiple dry warm/day cold/night periods), combined with a bunch of heavy wet fresh on top of that.

The course was up on Seymour.

I'd forgotten that InaCycle had written up a blog post about the AST course when we took it: http://inabits.blogspot.ca/2013/01/avalanche.html