Online Level 1 Avalanche Course

Feedback from Past Students

The majority of our feedback has been at the module level but below are a few comments about the overall course. For module level feedback you can check the description of each module, which is available from the Course Description page.

While our feedback has been overwhelmingly positive there have been a small number of critical students. The main reason is that they felt it took too much time. If you are looking for a quick course which does not demand much on your part then this is probably not the best course for you. We expect students to be engaged and to develop an ability to apply the content on their own, especially on the field days.

As of the end of 2021 we get constant email about how to design a course in a few hours with no expertise. And then on Facebook, while our sponsored post blocker was broken, we were getting ads for courses worth thousands of dollars now for just $30. We do not play those games, this course took a huge amount of time to develop, it relied on content expertise as does our student support, and our full price reflects the value of the course. (Which we will never claim to be in the 4 digit range!)

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• The case study from Mt. Hood was the most helpful way of explaining energy balance.
• I think I got the material and a lot of it was very good.
• The inclusion of a couple of experiments was cool.
• Snowpack climate was one area that none of the documents or basic awareness courses I'd done online had covered, so this was mostly very new to me.
• The whole concept of visco-elasticity became so clear.
• The photos/drawings were definitely helpful!
• The real world examples used (rather than made up examples) were good.
• The pictures and descriptions from various mountain regions are interesting.
• The objectives were met and in this format they were better retained compared to the old way of the 2 day field course.
• You taught the variations between maritime and continental snowpacks well.
• Pictures and topo maps were very interesting in the route finding section.
• I enjoyed the content and format.
• The map exercises were great too. I finished this module and went and got a climbing/hiking map of the area I'm snowboarding in.
• Was a lot of important information and nothing seemed over done or under informed.
• I think this was a bit of the missing link I was looking for to help my confidence in decision making
• Great research into the materials presented, well done.
• I liked the tour or decision making tools. I plan to sample them to see which fit my environment and style best.