About our backcountry avalanche courses

Avalanches happen during winter and summer, storm or no storm. They happen to climbers, mountaineers, skiers and snow boarders of all experience levels. Alpinism & Ski run an avalanche course that focuses on the back country where most enthusiasts venture. It is very practically based with an appropriate sprinkling of theoretical input for understanding.

Where and for whom we run avalanche courses

We use the backcountry terrain around Wanaka and Queenstown for these courses. These areas are varied and accessible by our 4WD vehicles. Our avalanche courses are for recreational skiers, snow boarders, mountaineers, ice climbing enthusiasts and any alpinists going into uncontrolled snow covered terrain as well as professionals needing avalanche knowledge to stay safe while working in avalanche prone areas.

How we run our back country avalanche courses

This comprehensive avalanche course is comprised of field days in the terrain behind Treble Cone, Cardrona and the Remarkables. Theory sessions are at the Alpinism & Ski base in Wanaka and cover:

• mountain weather
• snow physics
• snow pack assessment
• snow pack stability assessment
• hazard evaluation and forecasting
• avalanche search and rescue techniques and equipment.

Field days will cover:

• equipment for the backcountry - in particular avalanche rescue equipment
• avalanche search and rescue techniques with transceivers and probing
• safe travel in the snow covered backcountry
• observing terrain and snow distribution
• snow pack structure
• snow and its mechanics - test profiles.. where, how, why?
• evaluating the field data and rating snow pack stability while still in the field
• managing snow pack, terrain and people
• remote avalanche forecasting for the backcountry from base observations and recordings

  Logistics
  From 1st Oct. 2010 price in NZ $ and per person:	1 person $ 2685, 2 or more $ 1475 each Price includes GST (New Zealand's goods and service tax of 15 %)
  Length of course:	3 days
  Season:	September / October
  Transport:	4WD access to ski field base
  Price Includes:	3 days guide/instructor fees, accommodation at the Alpinism & Ski base (2 nights) with dinner (2), lunch (3) and breakfast (2) local transport, one day back country lift access pass @ Treble Cone
  Price doesn't include:	Personal equipment, clothing, rental gear.

For enquiries and bookings please e-mail us, thanks

New prices from 1st Oct. 2010: GST increase to 15%

September 2010 "Special" Avalanche course $ 2505 for one person 1355 pp for two or more

Some Avalanche Course Images

Click on thumbnail to bring up larger image and slide show

Guiding Qualifications

Alpinism & Ski guides are NZMGA and/or IFMGA qualified alpine mountain guides.

To become an internationally fully qualified alpine mountain guide takes approximately 5-7 years of training and assessment. Kiwi guides are trained and assessed through the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association (NZMGA) which is overseen by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA).