Earn a "Level 1 Certificate" in just one day

Looking for a Level 1 class near Portland?

Here we go again. First it was an annual one-day class in the Adirondacks and now it’s the Mazamas in Portland, Oregon. Both offer a "Level 1 Certificate" through a one-day class. I’m sure there are others as well. Never mind that the established guidelines published by the American Avalanche Association are clearly based on a 24-hour class. While such a "certificate" should be recognized as a standard of sorts (after all, it’s a guideline and not a curriculum with any assessment) its become a bit of a joke now that anyone can spend a few bucks and one day and obtain one.


This is the latest announcement from the Mazamas:

Oregon's Mazamas Offer Skill Builder Classes For Mountain Travelers
April 6, 2006

Portland, Oregon - … The Mazamas, the Northwest's oldest mountaineering organization and Oregon's largest, is now offering their Skill Builder classes, designed to teach some of the outdoor skills needed to take your climbing and mountain travel to the next level. These classes, which involve just a single evening lecture and a weekend day of field practice, are intended to complement the longer and more comprehensive courses which the Mazamas continue to offer in their beginning, intermediate, and advanced climbing programs.

Among the individual Skill Builder classes being offered this year are courses in Avalanche Awareness, Rock Anchors, Crevasse Rescue, and Expedition Skills. The Avalanche course covers the essentials of terrain appraisal, weather, snowpack analysis, and route-finding in avalanche country. This class will also help students in learning to use avalanche beacons in search and rescue and how to reach a "go/no go" decision.

This is a valuable course for anyone interested in backcountry skiing, snowboarding, or snow climbing. Students who complete this course will receive a Level 1 Certificate, the recognized national standard for avalanche training.

I remember sitting in on a meeting of the AAA (American Avalanche Association) during one of the ISSW meetings (International Snow Science Workshops.) The head of the Education Committee got up and said that they were going to be much more explicit in the guidelines about the fact that they are based on a 24-hour course. He said they were surprised that people hadn’t complained because two-day 16-hour courses were so common. His statement had a tentative air as if he was waiting for objections from the membership, but none were forthcoming.

The guidelines cover many topics and a lot of ground and there is absolutely no way any one day class can qualify as a Level 1. As more programs try to make this claim and hand out certificates they become less and less of a “recognized national standard”.

Each winter in the Adirondacks I teach an AlpenPro class or two using my intensive Friday evening through Sunday format, which is the most realistic format I’ve found for covering all that should be covered. And each year I see flyers for a one-day “Level 1 Certificate” avalanche class held each day during a long weekend. And they fill up, so the course is packing them in and cranking them out. I don’t know much about this class, but I believe it is taught by a person who is well qualified and who has written a couple of interesting papers on the reasons for some ski-area avalanches in the region. So at least the quality of instruction is probably good on whatever subset of topics they manage to cover out of the 24-hour guideline.

The Mazamas, unfortunately, are another story. I don’t have any reason to dislike the group, and I know a number of Mazamas who I have a lot of respect for. But when it comes to avalanches their track record isn’t very good. In May of 1998 a climbing class on their graduation climb was caught in a major avalanche which killed one person and severely injured at least one more. (Using the Red/Yellow/Green system from Snow Sense the weather, terrain, snowpack and human factors were very clearly all Red.) In the spring of 2005 a group of four climb leaders were involved in an incident on the Thayer Glacier Headwall of North Sister which left two members of the group seriously injured. Again the weather, terrain and snowpack factors were all clearly Red. A climbing conditions bulletin by the Oregon Mountaineering Association even specifically listed this route along with several others as examples of slopes which were suspect. Mazama leaders are all required to have completed avalanche training but there is only one commercial source in the Oregon Cascades. And it is of dubious quality (as demonstrated by the North Sister incident as well as situations where others who have completed the class were obviously confused).

If you’re serious about your backcountry safety and going to invest in an avalanche safety course look for one that’s at least two days, and preferably three. (Or the equivalent when counting evening sessions, etc.) And regardless of where you take a class be sure to ask who is actually teaching it and what their background is. The majority of experienced and reputable instructors will not teach a one-day class and call it a Level 1.

So you too can get your one-day “Level 1 Certificate”. Which is a “national standard”. Just don’t come into my Level 2 with that as your background, or probably most other Level 2 classes. (Thus far the one-day approach seems to be limited to Level 1, but someday we’ll probably see one day Level 2 classes as well.) If you’re inclined to go this route at least look at the backgrounds of the instructors and institution behind it.

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