What is Avalanche Mentorship?
How does it differ from an Avalanche Level 1 or 2 course?
What will I learn or gain from the experience?
What is the value of mentorship?
If you’ve found yourself wondering about any of these questions, keep reading…
How the Avalanche Mentorship Program came about.
In the past several winters, I have worked full-time as an AIARE Instructor and now Course Leader. In the midst of teaching avalanche courses, I decided to pursue a masters degree in Snow Science at Montana State University. In my first semester, I read countless papers on the topic of “decision making in avalanche terrain”, and decided to dive deeper into a question around whether or not avalanche education was working to save lives. This question remains unanswered. I realized I was not cut out for computer life and left graduate school. My main reason for doing so? I wanted to do everything I could to make a difference in the field. I am an educator, a guide, a skier, a lover of land and wild places. I had to follow that.
I believe that an “awareness of decision making pitfalls and strategies” & having a solid “understanding of how avalanche problems interact in the terrain” are fundamental components to adequately address risk as winter backcountry travelers. Everyone’s individual risk tolerance is their own decision, and I feel it is the responsibility of avalanche educators to enable people to make informed decisions, with an awareness of how to do so.
The primary questions I hear from students after taking a Level 1 or Level 2 avalanche course are, “So now what?” or “How do I use all this information?” or “What does this look like when you’re actually wanting to ski something bigger?”
In response, I have decided to offer Avalanche Mentorship Programs in an attempt to answer these questions.
What is Avalanche Mentorship?
Mentorship involves empowering you to lead, share your voice, and take the next step in applying your avalanche knowledge in the field.
These Avalanche Mentorship Programs offer an opportunity to build relationship with both peers and avalanche professionals, to deepen your understanding & broaden your experience base, with regards to backcountry travel techniques & decision making in avalanche terrain.
This program in particular is designed to empower folks to be more confident in their voice and observational contributions to a group, while traveling in a winter backcountry setting.
How does it differ from an Avalanche Level 1 or 2 course?
Different from an Avalanche 1 or 2 course, these Avalanche Mentorship programs are season-long and provide a container that encourages application of information rather than accomplishing a set curriculum. This is the primary reason the course has a prerequisite Level 1 for all applicants.
One field session per month allows for a greater deepening of community, an opportunity to encounter a wider variety of avalanche problems than in a single weekend course, and an opportunity to grow with other experienced skiers who are dedicated to becoming more mindful backcountry travelers.
Over the course of a winter season, each cohort will have the opportunity to apply their foundational avalanche knowledge. We will encounter a season’s worth of different avalanche problem types, a variety of terrain, nuances of group dynamics, and real-time decision making with regards to riding avalanche terrain. The goal of the program is not to “shred the gnar”, but to offer a way to make informed and mindful decisions with wide safety margins, that still allow for steep skiing under the right conditions.
What will I learn or gain from the experience?
These courses are crafted to expand your ability to communicate observations in a concise and professional way; offer tools and resources for strengthening your understanding of complex snow environments; and shed more light on group decision making strategies, while incorporating an experiential process of overlaying avalanche problems in the terrain.
By the end of the course, graduates of each mentorship cohort should possess the skills neccessary to be a leader to their friends in simple and challenging terrain, and contribute meaningfully to a day of backcountry travel in complex terrain (With reference to the ATES scale). This course also may serve as a stepping stone prior to pursuing a higher level of avalanche education or for someone interested in becoming a professional in the industry; whether through guiding, avalanche education, or higher ed.
What is the value of mentorship?
The value of true mentorship is priceless.
I have been so fortunate to have found mentors in most chapters of my life, when I was eager to learn and progress, but unsure how to do so. These mentors came about when I wanted to learn how to trad climb as a college freshman in North Carolina; when I started ski patrolling and doing avalanche control work and wanted to learn all I could about snow safety; and when I wanted to start Grounding Truth and had no idea about being a business owner. These people continue to be some of the most special people to me, and my engagement in following their guidance has been the thing that allows our relationship to be mutually gratifying.
As I began entering the guiding world, I found mentors along the way, but none that could really speak to me; as a woman and younger guide. I had to turn to peers and older men-guides to process all the challenges I faced along the way to becoming a more senior guide in the mountains of the PNW. These experiences undoubtedly made me more aware of the need to offer this kind of mentorship to the women seeking exactly this. In a way, I sorta promised myself I would turn around and offer mentorship to other women, however I could, when I felt ready to step into that role.
Now IS that time. I’ve dedicated so much of the last 10 years to growing as a professional in the outdoor industry, and the majority of that time has been with a large focus on snow and avalanches. I do not claim to know everything, but I know what I know, and am willing to keep learning and stay open.
But really, only you can determine what the value of mentorship is to you.
**If you’re still wondering about the value of these programs, perhaps the testimonials of past students and mentees can offer a glimpse into what these experiences have meant to them.
