Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides and BCA Team Up For Avalanche Education

Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides set out to provide the best in backcountry education with support from Backcountry Access (BCA). With expert guides, all trained in avalanche education, and as an official instruction service under AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education), the classes aimed to help students learn not only how to recognize dangerous terrain, but also proper use of a beacon, probe, and shovel. With two nights at the Colorado Mountain Club in Boulder and two days in Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest, attendees were exposed to a wide variety of conditions as they studied how to read different kinds of terrain, understand the different types of avalanches and how they form, and how to make accurate forecasts by digging snow pits. Utilizing snowshoes, split-boards, and touring ski setups, students became familiarized with BCA’s equipment including beacons, probes, shovels, and airbag backpacks designed to provide floatation in large slides. Backcountry Access assisted in providing top quality equipment that helped give students the best chance of survival should they find themselves in a dangerous situation. Our goal with Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides is to use focused knowledge accumulated through years in the backcountry to teach good judgment and excellent decision making in a perilous environment. Our avalanche courses are meant to provide the best education in Colorado with top instructors and backed by some of the nation’s leading equipment organizations and alpine clubs.