AIARE 1

• Comfortable skiing or riding challenging blue square to less challenging black diamond terrain, including treed runs, at a ski area.

• At Least one day of touring experience utilizing skis or splitboard and skins for ascent.

• Capable of comfortably ascending and descending 2,500 feet over 3 miles per day with a backpack, while on skis or a splitboard.
  

AIARE Avalanche Rescue

• Comfortable moving on foot, snowshoes, touring skis, or a splitboard on less than 30 degree terrain.

AIARE 2

• Completion of AIARE 1 & Avalanche Rescue.

• Comfortable skiing or riding less challenging black diamond terrain, including treed runs, at a ski area.

• At least 3 months of touring experience utilizing skis or splitboard and skins for ascent.

• Capable of comfortably ascending and descending 3,000 feet over 6 miles per day with a backpack, while on skis or a splitboard.
  

  
  *Our minimum age requirement for avalanche courses and backcountry skiing & riding is 12 years old.

  Guests under the age of 18 are required to be accompanied by an adult who is on the booking.

AIARE 1 and 2
Both courses begin with you completing 4-6 hours of eLearning at your own pace prior to a 3.5 hour group virtual classroom session. The virtual classroom session is held on the Wednesday prior to your field days at 6:00pm ET.

Field days will begin with an 7:30am virtual tour-planning session lasting approximately 30 minutes. We will then meet in the field at ~9:00am. You will need to have lodging in North Conway, Jackson, Intervale or Bartlett in order to be within 30-60 minutes drive of the meeting location. You should plan to depart for the field meeting location as soon as the tour-planning virtual session has ended.

Avalanche Rescue
The course begins with you completing 2-3 hours of eLearning at your own pace.

The field day begins at 7:30am with a virtual session and then meets in the field at 9:00am. You will need to have lodging in North Conway, Jackson, Intervale or Bartlett in order to be within 30-60 minutes drive of the meeting location. You should plan to depart for the field meeting location as soon as the virtual session has ended.

Devices and Internet
You will need access to a laptop or tablet equipped with a camera, microphone and speakers/headphones, along with reliable high speed internet capable of video meetings for virtual classroom and tour planning sessions.

You will need to have your camera and audio turned on during the virtual sessions, so plan on joining from a suitable, quiet, location. Due to the interactive nature of the virtual sessions, a cell phone is not a suitable device.

AIARE 1 Courses
$585.00 per person

AIARE 2 Course
$675.00 per person

AIARE Avalanche Rescue Course
$210.00 per person

Rates include:
AIARE Course Leader/Instructor(s) for your group (instructors are at minimum AMGA Apprentice Ski Guides).

Rates do not include:
Transportation (4x4 or AWD is highly recommended and may be essential during winter weather)

Avalanche rescue gear (can be rented at time of booking or bring your own) - see What Should You Bring? | Equipment List section below

Backcountry ski or snowboard equipment (can be rented from local companies or bring your own) - see What Should You Bring? | Equipment List section below

Winter clothing and backpack - see What Should You Bring? | Equipment List section below

Food and water

Guide gratuity

Avalanche Rescue Gear Rental Rates (if you need to rent gear, please add it to your cart at the time of booking to ensure availability)

Transceiver: $12 per day

Probe: $12 per day

Shovel: $12 per day

Unfortunately we only rent gear for our programs. We cannot rent out equipment for personal trips.

Required Equipment (not provided unless rented during the booking process):

• Transceiver: Three antennae digital transceivers that are less than 10 years old. Transceivers between 5-10 years old should be sent to the manufacturer and function-checked prior to the course.

• Probe: 260 cm or longer with high visibility 1 cm markings.

• Shovel: metal and collapsible.

Required Equipment (not provided):

• Skis or Splitboard. Snowshoes are only permitted on courses specific to foot travel.

• Skins (already trimmed)

• Ski/snowboard specific helmet for descents

• Ski/Splitboard Crampons (recommended for Level 1 and required on Level 2 courses).

• Boots

• Poles
  
  *Skis, Splitboards, and skins are available for rent at Ski The Whites or REI*

  **If utilizing snowshoes on a foot travel specific course or Rescue Course, you will need winter boots equivalent to at least single layer mountaineering boots. Mountaineering boots are available for rent at Blue Ridge Mountain Guides (must be reserved prior to course).**

Clothing

• Gloves and mittens (multiple pairs are ideal: thinner gloves for ascent, thick gloves or mittens for descending. Two to three pairs of handwear is not unreasonable)

• Winter socks - ski socks

• Base layer - top and bottom

• Fleece/synthetic/down mid layers

• Soft or hard shell pants and jacket (depending on the weather forecast you may want hard shell and soft shell outerwear)

• Down/synthetic over-everything jacked (to be worn while stationary or on descent)

• Hat (consider fit under a helmet)

• Balaclava/buff

• General Equipment

• Ski/snowboard specific helmet for descents

• Goggles, sunglasses, sunscreen & lip balm

• 25-35 liter backpack (a dedicated avalanche tool pocket is ideal). Avalanche airbag optional.

• Water bottle and/or insulated beverage container

• Food & water

• $10 cash per person for parking fees at some field locations

Level 2 Course Specific Equipment (optional for Level 1 and Rescue Courses)

• Inclinometer (may be integrated with compass or phone)

• Navigation kit (compass, altimeter & GPS or smartphone)

• Maps will be provided, please bring maps, terrain photos, and guidebooks for the local course area if you have them.

• Digital camera or phone

• Headlamp & spare batteries

• Snow saw or folding pruning saw (minimum 35-40cm blade)

Optional Equipment

• Personal first aid kit (blister management, meds, wound care, gloves,, splinting material, sugar etc.)

• Repair kit, specific to your mode of travel (consider multi-tool, bit driver, hose clamps, straps, spare screws, tape, zip ties, spare basket, pole repair, etc)

• Satellite communicator (Garmin InReach or similar)

• FRS/GMRS radios (BCA BC Link, Rocky Talkie, or similar. Remote mics are beneficial)
  
  

  See your confirmation email for further details of what to bring.

AIARE Programs

At the time of booking, a 50% deposit is due. Deposits are refundable 90 days or more prior to your program start. Your deposit is transferable once within the calendar year if rescheduled 30 days prior to the scheduled program start. Once a deposit is transferred to a new booking, the full program cost is due and is non-refundable and non-transferable. Within 30 days of all scheduled programs, the full program cost is due and is non-refundable. In the event of severe weather your guide/BRMG may deem that rescheduling is necessary.

Insurance
We strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance from an insurer such as IMG, Travel Guard, or Red Point if you would like financial protection beyond our cancellation/reschedule policy. Take care to ensure that your specific trip is covered.

Blue Ridge Mountain Guides, LLC does not cover rescue or evacuation expenses. For remote rock climbing, backcountry programs such as avalanche education, alpine climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing/riding, we strongly recommend you purchase rescue/evacuation insurance from an insurer such as Global Rescue or Red Point. Both companies offer combined rescue and travel insurance.

Meeting Times
AIARE 1 & 2 virtual classroom session: Our standard meeting time for AIARE level 1 and 2 course virtual classroom sessions (held via Zoom video meeting) is 6:00pm ET on the Wednesday prior to field days.

Field day start time, all courses: The standard start time for course field days, including Avalanche Rescue courses, is 7:30am via Zoom video meeting.

Meeting Locations 
Courses meet in the parking lot of either the trailhead, a visitors’ center or park office, or a nearby coffee shop. You will receive Google directions during your virtual classroom and/or tour planning sessions. Your guide(s) will have a BRMG logo on their driver side door. 

Mode of Travel
Our AIARE 1 and 2 courses require touring skis or a split board unless designated as a foot travel specific program.

All AIARE Avalanche Rescue courses can be participated in with snowshoes or skis or a splitboard.

Weather  
In the event of severe winter weather that leads to the the backcountry being inaccessible (e.g. downed trees on on roads following an ice storm) your guide/BRMG may deem that rescheduling is necessary. Otherwise, trips run whether snow/rain or shine is forecasted - for that reason, a 4x4 or AWD vehicle is highly recommended and may be essential during winter weather.