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You don’t know enough about avalanches. If you think you do, then you surely do not. Whether you’ve barely searched “how to use an avalanche beacon” or you’re teaching snow safety clinics, now is the time to be a student once again.
The Utah Avalanche Center has kicked off the last six winters with its annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW). Speakers and attendees from around the mountain west and Canada converged in Salt Lake City for an all-day series of discussions and presentations, covering everything from rescue insurance to resuscitation protocol updates. Avalanche airbag options and procedures, last season’s most impactful avalanches, backcountry rescue procedures, and decision making in the mountains were some of this year’s biggest conversation topics.
Discussing backcountry rescue protocols. In hindsight, avi courses are way cheaper than helicopter rescue flights. 
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Getting intimate with snowpits, which provide first-time students with an eye-opening experience, with a mix of touch and feel, of what the snowpack actually looks like. 
Having taken the time to educate himself about the snowpack, Brody chokes on the sweet taste of (safe) powder in the Wasatch. 
Sawtooth Mountain Guides's Sarah Lundy explaining avalanche beacon flux lines during an avalanche education course. Don't know what a flux line is? Take a course... SMG photo.
The Sawtooth Mountain Guides are offering a pretty attractive three-day Backcountry Skills Course that takes place entirely at the Williams Peak Hut in the Sawtooths from December 13-15. They are also offering several hour-long avalanche awareness seminars at the REI store and McU Sports in Boise throughout December and January, as well as AIARE Level 1 courses, along with Level 1 Refreshers and Level 2 and 3 courses, in January and February.
Sun Valley Trekking will be offering a Level 1 AAA course in Ketchum and the surrounding Wood River Valley that will take place over the course of three separate Saturdays - December 14th, December 21st, and January 4th, going for $395/person. There is also a Level 1 Refresher course in February and a Level 2 in March.
Payette Powder Guides in McCall be also be offering AIARE Level 1 courses on December 6-8 and 13-15 for $350/person as well as January 31-February 2 on a three-day yurt trip to Lick Creek Summit for $595/person, which includes yurt accomodations, transportation, and "hearty meals." PPG is also offering three shorter classes - Introduction to the Backcountry, AAA Companion Rescue, and AAA Level 1 Refresher - in January and which take anywhere from 4-8 hours and cost $40-160.
Central Sierras/Lake Tahoe
The Sierra Avalanche Center has a great comprehensive roundup of all the backcountry and touring-related classes available in the Lake Tahoe area, which count separate providers offering avalanche awareness classes from Donner Summit to Mt. Rose to Kirkwood and South Lake Tahoe. One of those providers, Alpine Skills International, is hosting an absurd amount of classes, even ones tailored specifically to splitboarders, but also AIARE Level 1 courses nearly every weekend from December to March as well as single-day AIARE Introduction To Avalanche Safety courses in January, February, and March.
On December 8-9, Squaw Valley avalanche forecaster and ski patroller Lel Tone will be leading an avalanche awareness education clinic specific for women along with a host of all-star Lake Tahoe pros, including Michelle Parker, Elyse Saugsted, Ingrid Backstrom, and Jackie Paaso, along with yoga taught by Sherry McConkey. The clinics, known as SAFE-AS, will learn about snow safety in-bounds and in the backcountry, along with lunch, yoga, and aprés, and cost $110 per person plus fees.
Eastern Sierras/Mammoth
The Sierra Mountain Center is offering three-day Level 1 courses with classroom sections at the White Mountain Research Station just outside of Bishop with on-snow sessions in the general Mammoth/Bishop area depending on where the snow is "most interesting." Those classes go for $385/person and run on December 28-30, January 3-5 and 18-20, along with dates in February and march. Single-day AIARE Level 1 Refresher courses are available on December 14th & 28th as well as January 4th & 11th for $145.
Mt. Shasta
The Mt. Shasta Avalanche Center is hosting a lineup of short presentations discussing "key factors leading to avalanche formation and avalanche accidents," with one each month starting December 7th, along with monthly beacon training sessions at The Fifth Season shop in Mt. Shasta City starting December 8th. Shasta Mountain Guides will be offering an AIARE Level 1 course on January 18-20 and another in February for $375, with SWS Mountain Guides offering similar dates.
Oregon
Oregon Ski Guides is offering an AIARE Level 1 course from December 13-15 in the Bend area around Mt. Bachelor for $325, with another course in late January. They are also offering Level 1 classes in Portland and on snow at Mt. Hood January 7-9 and January 11-12, with dates in February as well.
The Oregon Avalanche Institute is offering a single-day refresher course for former Level 1 students for $125 in the Bend area on December 14th; the rest of their early-season Level 1 classes are full at the moment.
Seattle & The Cascades
The Patagonia store in Seattle is hosting a free avalanche awareness class presented by the Friends of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on November 20th at 6:30 pm.
A bunch of guiding services and education providers are hosting avalanche classes this early season in Washington. The American Alpine Institute is hosting AIARE Level 1 courses at Mt. Baker every weekend starting November 29th for $325 and going all the way through early March, along with January and February classes in Leavenworth with on-snow sessions at Blewett Pass.
BC Adventure Guides is offering Level 1 AIARE classes with classroom sessions at Pro Ski Service in Seattle and on-snow sessions at Snoqualmie Pass on December 3-5 and 17-19 as well as January 2-3, 14-16, and 28-30, along with sessions in February. Classes are $315 or $495 if you add on the Intro to Touring class BCAG offers.
The Northwest Mountain School offers AIARE Level 1 classes with classroom time in Leavenworth and on-snow time in the backcountry around Steven's Pass Ski Area for $325 on December 6-8, 13-15, and 27-29 along with dates through March.
As well, the final two SAFE-AS clinics - avalanche education clinics led by and tailored to women - will take place on December 14th at Crystal Mountain and on December 15th at Steven's Pass. The clinics, taught by Squaw Valley ski patroller, avalanche forecaster and heli guide Lel Tone along with pro skiers like Ingrid Backstrom and Elyse Saugsted, will include yoga, lunch, and aprés, and will cost $110 plus fees per person.
Alaska
The Alaska Avalance Schoool has a range of early season courses and educational offerings. Check out the school's Level One and Level Two courses at Hatcher Pass and Girdwood and Turnagain. Based in Anchorage, the school also offers youth programs, lectures, snow science workshops, evening programs, and refreshers.
Vancouver & British Columbia
The Canadian Avalanche Centre is hosting free presentations on avalanche safety and awareness in Vancouver on November 24th at the University of British Columbia from 7-9 pm and in Whistler at the Whistler Secondary School on November 26th from 7-9 pm, along with additional presentations elsewhere throughout British Columbia.
The CAC is the equivalent of AIARE in Canada, and hosts and certifies people in avalanche awareness and safety in much the same way. The organization's site has a great directory of Avalanche Skills Training 1 & 2 courses throughout Vancouver and British Columbia, most of which cost around $250, require about seven hours of classtime and one day in the field, and begin in early December.
Northeast/New England
A little taste of some of the backcountry New England, and in particular Mt. Washington, has to offer with the proper avalanche awareness background
Yes, there are avalanches in the Northeast, too! Particularly if you're itching to ski some of the incredible high-alpine terrain New Hampshire's Mt. Washington holds in areas like Tuckerman Ravine and the Gulf of Slides, a proper avalanche awareness background is a must, and there has been a notable growth in course offerings in the North Conway/Mt. Washington area as of late. Chauvin Mountain Guides teach a three-day AIARE Leve 1 on the slopes of Mt. Washington for $325 per person on December 28-30 and January 25-27, with additional dates in February and March.
Eastern Mountain Sports is offering its own AIARE courses nearly every week of the winter starting December 28th and hosted both at its North Conway Climbing School and in the surrounding White Mountains, and the International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, as well as Synott Mountain Guides, are offering their own courses as well.
International Mountain Equipment in North Conway is offering a continuing education series called the Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop on four separate Saturdays throughout the winter - December 14, January 11, February 8, and a TBA date in March - that will be held at IME's headquarters in North Conway at 7 pm on the given dates and will be free to the public, but geared for experienced backcountry users who've taken at least a Level 1 class before. The first will be about the Northeast's early-season snowpack.
The Appalachian Mountain Club is offering their own avalanche course in Tuckerman Ravine in March, and Mooney Mountain Guides offers guided tours specific to those getting into touring for the first time. New England skiers will be pretty surprised how much backcountry & avalanche education is available right in their backyard.
Don't see a class in your area? Chances are one is listed on the AIARE website, which has an absurdly comprehensive list of classes offered using their teaching criteria. If you're one of our friends from the Far North, the Canadian Avalanche Centre may has information about additional workshops and courses not listed here.
