• Self-Paced Online Learning Module via the American Avalanche Institute
• Live Virtual Seminar with Expert WMG Instructors (the evening before your first field day)
• Two In-Depth Field Days in the Backcountry
• Avalanche Level 1 certification upon full completion
• Avalanche beacon, shovel, probe, and backpack (if needed)
• A minimum of 2 students in order for the course to occur
• If you are seeking a private course for more than 4 individuals, please contact us directly

Once you have paid and registered, you’ll receive access to an expansive online course containing:

• Instructional videos
• Extensive workbook with note outlines
• In-depth online study guide
• Comprehensive quizzes

This digital course was developed by the American Avalanche Institute and is framed around the Backcountry Avalanche Checklist. This Checklist is a systemic and proven approach to comprehensive decision-making in the complex backcountry environment.

The course material can be completed at your leisure but must be completed before your field days. The WMG team will be available to respond to questions via email at all times. Participants can go back and review course material even after the completion of the course, for the duration of the winter season.

As mentioned, the course includes two field days in the backcountry. The evening before your first field day, we’ll meet with with everyone for two hours via video conference to review core curriculum, answer any questions you have and make sure you’re packed and ready.

What a Field Day Actually Looks Like

Two consecutive 8-hour days in the field, following your online module and the live virtual session the evening before. Here’s the shape of them.

Day One — Observation and Terrain

7:30 a.m. · Trailhead. Beacon function check on every person, every time. Gear shakedown — we fix pack organization and skin problems now, not at 11,000 feet.

8:00 a.m. · Tour plan. We open the Utah Avalanche Center forecast together and walk through what it actually means for the terrain in front of us: today’s problem type, which aspects and elevations it lives on, and what that rules in and out. You’ll do this every touring day for the rest of your life. Today you learn the framework.

8:30 a.m. · On the skin track. Uphill travel with a purpose. We stop repeatedly to identify avalanche terrain by eye — slope angle, terrain traps, connectivity, safe zones — and to name what we’re seeing before we check it against a map or inclinometer.

10:30 a.m. · Field observations. Hand shears, quick pits, and the habit of gathering data continuously instead of only at the destination. You’ll learn what’s worth stopping for and what isn’t.

12:00 p.m. · Lunch and terrain discussion. Usually somewhere with a view of the slope we’ve been talking about all morning.

12:45 p.m. · Snowpack assessment. A full profile: layer identification, stability tests, and — more importantly — interpreting them honestly. Test results are one input among several, and a Level 1 that teaches you to over-trust them has done you a disservice.

2:00 p.m. · The descent. Safe travel protocols in practice: one at a time, islands of safety, spotting, communication, regrouping. This is the part most self-taught tourers get wrong.

3:30 p.m. · Debrief. What we saw, what we decided, what we’d do differently.

Day Two — Rescue and Leadership

7:30 a.m. · Student-led tour plan. You write it. We ask questions.

8:30 a.m. · Companion rescue. Single-burial beacon searches to a standard, then multiple burials. Fine search, pinpointing, and the transition to probing — the step where most people lose the minutes that matter.

10:30 a.m. · Probing and strategic shoveling. Shoveling is where real rescues are won and lost, and it’s the skill most courses shortchange. You’ll dig. Repeatedly.

12:30 p.m. · Full scenario. A realistic multi-victim scenario run by the group, with team structure and roles assigned. Then we debrief it honestly.

2:00 p.m. · You lead. Students run the tour and the terrain decisions on the way out, with instructors observing and intervening only when needed.

3:30 p.m. · Debrief and what’s next. Where you stand, what to practice this winter, and whether Avalanche Rescue or a season of mentored touring is the right next step.

You’ll finish with an Avalanche Level 1 certification — and, more usefully, a repeatable process for planning and running a tour, and an honest sense of what you don’t yet know.

Avalanche training is only as good as the terrain you do it in. Our Level 1 field days run in the same Wasatch zones our guides work in all winter — real avalanche terrain with a real snowpack, not a demonstration slope.

Big Cottonwood Canyon. Most Salt Lake–based courses run out of Days Fork, Cardiff Fork, Mill B, and Butler Fork. These zones give us the full range in a short approach: low-angle skinning terrain to build travel skills, adjacent slopes steep enough to be genuinely consequential, and enough aspect variety to show you how one snowpack behaves five different ways on the same morning.

Little Cottonwood Canyon. When conditions or the forecast point west, we use Grizzly Gulch, Flagstaff, and the White Pine drainage. Little Cottonwood’s persistent weak layers are the reason Utah has the reputation it does, and there is no better classroom for understanding why the Wasatch snowpack demands more caution than its reputation for light powder suggests.

Southern Wasatch and Provo-area mountains. Some course sessions run out of American Fork Canyon, Provo Canyon, and the Timpanogos zones. If you live in Utah County, this matters: you’ll be learning to read the terrain you’ll actually be touring in, not terrain an hour north of you. We also run a dedicated Avalanche Level 1 Course – Provo Area for students who want every field day close to home.

Your instructor picks the specific zone the morning of, based on the Utah Avalanche Center forecast, overnight loading, and what the group needs to see. That’s not a scheduling inconvenience — it’s the first lesson. Watching a professional change the plan at 7:30 a.m. because of what the forecast said at 6:00 is worth more than any classroom slide on decision-making.

WMG is an American Avalanche Association Recognized Course Provider, and we run the American Avalanche Institute curriculum. But the accreditation is the floor, not the differentiator. What matters is who’s standing next to you in the snowpit.

Every WMG Level 1 instructor holds:

• AMGA Apprentice Ski Guide certification or higher — our roster runs from certified AMGA Ski Guides to full IFMGA/AMGA Mountain Guides
• Avalanche Pro Level 2 — the professional-track certification, not the recreational one
• Wilderness First Responder — current, not lapsed

Erik Fullmer — AMGA Ski Guide, Avalanche Pro 2.

Winslow Passey — AMGA Ski Guide, Avalanche Pro 2.

Todd Passey — IFMGA Mountain Guide, Avalanche Pro 2.

Willie Benegas — IFMGA Mountain Guide, Avalanche Pro 2.

We cap the course at 2–4 students per instructor. Most Level 1 providers in Utah run 6 students per instructor, and some run classes of 12. At our ratio you dig your own pit, run your own beacon search under direct observation, and get individual feedback on your tour plan — instead of watching someone else do it. It’s the single biggest reason our students leave able to perform the skills rather than describe them.

Meet the full guide team →

The Hybrid Avalanche Level 1 Course includes self-paced online avalanche education, a live virtual classroom session, and two full days of in-person field training focused on avalanche awareness, terrain selection, snowpack evaluation, and companion rescue skills.

This course is designed for beginner to intermediate backcountry skiers, splitboarders, snowshoers, and winter travelers who want to safely travel in avalanche terrain. No previous avalanche training is required.

Students should have prior experience using their own backcountry travel gear before taking this course. You don’t need formal avalanche education, but it’s strongly recommended that you’ve spent a few days touring and have practiced basic skills like skinning, transitions, and traveling efficiently in winter terrain so you can focus on avalanche decision-making and field skills during the course. Check out our Introduction to Backcountry 1-day course.

Participants must travel with avalanche safety equipment including a beacon, shovel, and probe, along with appropriate backcountry travel gear. Avalanche rescue equipment and packs can be provided if needed.

Students complete the online avalanche curriculum before the field days at their own pace. A required live virtual session takes place the evening before the first field day to review key concepts and prepare for hands-on field instruction.