Tyler's Backcountry Awareness

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Tyler's Backcountry Awareness

Empowering and challenging backcountry riders to expand their skills so that their adventures can reach new heights.

Backcountry rider Tyler Lundstedt’s undeniable and contagious passion for snowmobiling in the great Rocky Mountains led him and fellow riders to ever greater heights and challenges. Born in 1987, Tyler came to work in construction and running heavy equipment, but that was just to pay the snowmobiling bills. Ever smiling and always with a helping hand, Tyler would be found engaged in something productive. Those riding with Tyler would experience the mountains in ways most never will. The more obscure and hard to reach places offer the challenges and skill-building excitement an enthusiastic rider can appreciate. On January 21, 2012 Tyler died in an avalanche near Buffalo Pass in Colorado. The passion he shared with the world is a tremendous legacy. Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness was created to challenge riders to build their skills in safety and preparedness.

02/27/2026

Course Description: The AIARE 1 is a three-day / 24-hour introduction to avalanche hazard management.

Students can expect to develop a good grounding in how to prepare for and carry out a backcountry trip, to understand basic decision making while in the field, and to learn rescue techniques required to find and dig up a buried person (if an avalanche occurs and someone in the party is caught).

Who Should Take this Course: The AIARE 1 is for ANYONE, regardless of method of travel, who wants to recreate in or near avalanche terrain. Participants may have attended some awareness classes or workshops or completed the Avalanche Rescue course, but none are a prerequisite for this course.

Aspiring professionals will need to take the AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue as a prerequisite for the Pro 1 course.

Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of the AIARE 1 course, the student should be able to:
-Develop a plan for travel in avalanche terrain.
-Demonstrate the ability to identify avalanche terrain.
-Effectively use The AIARE Risk Management Framework to make terrain choices in a group setting.
-Demonstrate effective companion rescue.

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02/24/2026

Assessing the relative hardness of layers within the snowpack is valuable for detecting the presence and strength of slabs and weak layers. Hardness, or the resistance of snow to pressure, is a proxy for the strength of a snow layer. We categorize hardness using the hand hardness scale using the same relative amount of force to push various objects into the snow. How much force? Push your closed fist into your nose until it feels uncomfortable; that is roughly the amount of force you should use.

Hardness ranges from very low, where you can push your fist easily into the snow, to ice hard, which is too hard to push a knife into. Hard snow on top of soft snow is considered poor structure; the more dramatic and sudden the change in hardness, the more concerning it is. For example, a pencil hard slab over a fist hard layer of depth hoar is a scary structure!

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02/12/2026

Course Description: The AIARE 2 is a three-day/24-hour course that provides backcountry travelers an opportunity to advance their decision making skills in more complicated situations such as being a leader within a small travel group, traveling in more complicated terrain, and/or developing a travel plan where resources are scarce.

The AIARE 2 builds on the introductory avalanche hazard management model introduced in the AIARE 1 and adds to it the evaluation of critical hazard assessment factors. Students will describe and discuss weather, snowpack and avalanche processes, and identify how these processes relate to observations and travel within avalanche terrain.

Who Should Take this Course: The AIARE 2 is a three-day course for those who have taken an AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue and have had at least a year of backcountry travel experience. The AIARE 2 provides backcountry leaders the opportunity to advance their avalanche knowledge and decision making skills.

Student Learning Outcomes
-Differentiate where specific avalanche hazards exist within the landscape and identify avalanche terrain where consequences may be more severe.
-Use and interpret weather, snow, and avalanche observations to locate appropriate terrain prior to entering and while in the field.
-Demonstrate leadership skills within a small team that include facilitating small group discussion, promoting appropriate terrain selection, and utilizing simple risk management strategies.
-Implement a basic forecasting framework that can be used in conjunction with and in the absences of local supporting avalanche information.

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02/09/2026

Avalanche Paths are the path an avalanche follows in the terrain. An avalanche path has three recognizable features:

• The start zone, where avalanches typically initiate. These are often associated with specific trigger points in the terrain.
• The track, where the avalanche typically gains mass and speed as it picks up snow and other debris on its descent.
• The run-out zone, where the avalanche begins to slow down and lose mass as snow and debris are deposited.

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02/06/2026

When Checking in With the Group, use the prompts:
• Who saw what?
• What do your observations mean?
• Are the conditions what you expected?
• Did you see anything unexpected or unusual?

Keep in mind fatigued and stressed individuals can have difficulty making decisions, as well as maintaining situational awareness. Environmental conditions can also short circuit a person’s mental faculties or general level of enthusiasm. Keep an eye on your teammates and they’ll do the same for you. Ensure everyone is well fed, warm, and hydrated at each step of the trip. Make sure everyone’s gear is working and recognize when someone isn’t enjoying the experience but doesn’t want to be the first one to complain. Identify anything within the group that impacts its ability to travel and make decisions together.

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02/04/2026

Is the Slope Steep Enough to Avalanche?

When considering slope angle, assess not just the slope that you are or intend to get in, but also the slopes above you. Most slopes enjoyable to ride are steep enough to avalanche. Destructive, slab avalanches generally occur on slopes from 30-45 degrees. Exercise greater caution when estimating (versus measuring) slope angle.

Lower-angle terrain that’s attached to steeper terrain can be overrun by an avalanche. You can also trigger an avalanche that starts above you (sometimes hundreds or thousands of feet above) from lower-angle terrain. If measuring from a safe distance, you’re also only averaging the slope angle—don’t miss a small feature mid-slope that could surprise you.

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01/31/2026

Once you’ve excavated a buried victim and ensured your patient has a clear airway, is breathing, and has a pulse, your team still has a serious medical and logistical issue to deal with. Patient care is first and foremost. Ensure the patient is treated for or protected against hypothermia and other environmental threats and then perform a complete head to toe physical assessment for injuries. If you don’t have adequate first aid training, take a wilderness first aid course from a reputable provider in your area. Consider the first aid training and skills of you and your partners when Assembling Your Group. Just as you practice your rescue skills regularly, keep your skills sharp and up to date through regular training.

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01/28/2026

Course Description
If you are interested in completing the AIARE 1 and the AIARE Rescue course this season then this is your course. With the growing interest in more education from the public, TBA has decided to combine these classes.

These courses were originally designed to be stand alone courses with that there is some overlap. Being able to combine these will allow students to have more field time and complete more rescue serinos in the field, in turn allows students to spend more time on their level 1 content as well more travel time evaluating avalanche terrain and diving deeper to snow science.

Combination of the AIARE 1 and Rescue will allow participants to have less repeated content and more time developing skills

Who Should Take this Course
The AIARE 1 is for ANYONE, regardless of method of travel, who wants to recreate in or near avalanche terrain. Participants may have attended some awareness classes or workshops or completed the Avalanche Rescue course, but none are a prerequisite for this course. The Rescue modules cover multiple-burial situations, a deep-dive into specific rescue techniques & gear, and feedback from professionals.

Aspiring professionals will need to take the AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue as a prerequisite for the Pro 1 course.
Student Learning Outcomes

At the end of the AIARE 1+Rescue course, the student should be able to:
-Develop a plan for travel in avalanche terrain.
-Demonstrate the ability to identify avalanche terrain.
-Effectively use The AIARE Risk Management Framework to make terrain choices in a group setting.
-Employ probing on a line with a partner to reduce search times and need for bracketing.
-Apply foundational skills to multiple victim scenarios without close proximity burials.
-Recognize challenges associated with deep burials.
-Employ repeatable method (Micro-strip or 3-circle) for locating close-proximity multiple burials

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Address

1401 E Lincoln Avenue
Fort Collins, CO
80524

Website

http://Backcountryawareness.org/

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