Much of the High Country will soon experience significant snow fall and mostski resorts are already making snow at the base of the mountains. But for the backcountry enthusiasts, winter sports also mean avalanche risk. KUNC’s Nikole Robinson Carroll spoke with Outdoor Recreation Reporter Tracy Ross with The Colorado Sun about a new study that examined effective avalanche courses.
The American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education, or AIARE, conducted the studyafter their education director realized that, even though avalanche education has been alive and well in Colorado and the U. S. for decades, no one has investigated how effective the teaching materials are translating to students. So, Kelly McNeil, the director and a researcher from Eastern Oregon University, decided to tackle the question.
“So, for a three-year period, they surveyed 1,700 students who had taken courses at AIRI. And they asked some very specific questions about how they were using practices that they had learned in courses before, during, and after they went into the backcountry, said Ross. “So, you know, just a couple of those examples were,were they practicing avalanche rescue with their gear and partners? Were they making sure their rescue and communications gear functioned before they went out?”
Ross explains, students went about this by checking their transceivers to make sure they could talk to each other. They were also double-checking weather and avalanche forecasts. Finally, students compared what their plans were for the day to what they did to see how they matched up.
The findings from the survey showed that a good number of the people who took the survey said that they were doing things they learned, meaning most participants were putting to practice what they had learned.
"And for the most part, that meant that they had retained the information and knew how to apply it in a backcountry, "said Ross. "Which means instructors using AIRI curriculum were mostly doing a good job at teaching it."
The study did find some areas of improvement were needed, including doing a better job of educating avalanche instructors.
“So that kind of comes from the top down. The curriculum could be better taught to the instructors who then teach it to people who go into the back country. And so, they're going to be reviewing that stuff and try to figure out how they can be more effective in that way," said Ross. “And then they want to share the study after it is peer reviewed with the wider avalanche education community and scientists in other fields looking at just things like climate resilience and some really cool applications for what they did to different fields.”
AIARE has a list of course providers available on its website, https://avtraining.org/
