Prepare yourself by taking an Avalanche Skills Training Course (AST) with your friends. For more information, including a contact list of instructors-for-hire in your area who offer a two-day AST Level 1 course, click here.

Want to learn about avalanche safety before your AST course starts up? Check out the CAC Avalanche First Response Training Program. This free online course won’t replace AST program field avalanche training, but it will teach you some basic avalanche first response skills in the meantime! Take the course and tell us what you think.

Want your kids to learn the basics of avalanche safety? Encourage your school to offer avalanche safety through the Snow Safety Education Program. Designed for school children in grades 4-6, the SSEP teaches the essentials of winter outdoor safety – in bounds and in the backcountry. 

Before you go…

Plan your trip and take into account current conditions. Who knows where you have gone? How will you get home safely if the weather changes? Get the avalanche bulletin and weather forecast. If there is no avalanche bulletin available for your area, check out the avalanche safety discussion board at avalanche.ca.



While you’re out there…

Carry and practice with an avalanche beacon, probe and shovel. Watch for signs of avalanche terrain en route to your destination. If you see small avalanches on small slopes, chances are the same conditions exist on larger slopes. You don’t have to head home; instead, simply head to a safer area. Sound judgment and knowing when to save it for another day are key survival skills.

Link to Backcountry Advisory