Blackbird Private AIARE programs allow you to focus on the needs of you and your team. Bring any number of participants to the field with you and we'll provide a private program for just you and your partners. Private programs provide the same course content as our open-enrollment AIARE programs, but we can tailor the lessons to the desires and ability level of your group. Pricing is based on a full team of 6, so private groups are actually the same price when you bring a full team!

Blackbird's AIARE courses are innovative programs with content tailored to providing participants with the most memorable avalanche education in the industry.

1 is a unique program developed by Blackbird Mountain Guides. It is your key to assessing and managing avalanche hazard as well as finding high quality snow. As you move into tackling bigger tours, higher peaks and the greater ranges of the world, you'll have insight into what's happening on and under the surface of the snow so that you can understand what danger exists, how to avoid it, and where to find the best turns.

The Blackbird program provides you with a full AIARE 1 (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) certificate and introduces the fundamentals of weather, snow, route planning, human dynamics and avalanche terrain and small team rescue. It's unique benefits over other avalanche programs include:

Flexibility for your busy lifestyle. Say goodbye to taking off work or missing a great ski day to sit in a classroom. You get the coursework done at your own pace before the field work starts!
Excellent Online Content. Our online course includes content curated by our expert staff and a live webinar with a Blackbird Avalanche Course Leader.
Access to the Lessons after the course. Everyone comes out of traditional avalanche courses feeling full of knowledge, but two weeks later they begin scratching their heads, wondering what they had discussed and learned during their course. With the Blackbird A1, you always have access to the online program to review the lessons whenever you feel the need to brush up.
Top notch AIARE Avalanche Course Leaders. Our course leaders are some of Tahoe's most experienced snow experts and instructors. We have lived and breathed the Tahoe snowpack (thankfully not literally) and have years of experience guiding, performing avalanche control at Class A ski resorts and instructing courses.

Understanding the avalanche phenomenon is a lifelong pursuit and the Blackbird AIARE 1 lays the foundation for gathering information and using it to plan successful tours and build experience. This course is paramount to not only understanding risk in avalanche terrain, but how to find amazing snow.

This is not a “first backcountry skiing course.” If this is your first time backcountry skiing, please visit Introduction to Backcountry Skiing, a perfect course for beginners that will teach you to use your gear, expose you to “wild snow” as we find it outside the world of ski resorts, and provide you with lessons and coaching on techniques for skinning and backcountry skiing movement. We expect all participants on the Blackbird AIARE 1 to be proficient with their gear and basic ski touring movement. There is a lot of material to cover during this program and we want to maximize the experience for each participant.

The topics that will be covered are:

Mountain Snowpack
Mountain Weather
The Avalanche Problems
Trip Planning
Terrain Choice
Human Factors and Assembling your Team
Trailhead Departure Check
Route Finding
Track Setting
Descent Choices

Requisite Experience

Blackbird AIARE 1 is for backcountry riders looking to assess avalanche risk, improve their decision making during tours and become a backcountry partner. Riders who have skied for years in the backcountry often remark “I wish I had taken this course years ago!” It is an excellent way to solidify concepts that are often hazy, even after years of riding the backcountry.

This course is great for novices and experienced backcountry users alike, but we do require that you:

Are Proficient at Using Your Gear. If you are not, consider taking the Introduction to Backcountry Skiing, an excellent way to gain a basic understanding of ski touring.
Can ride Advanced Terrain at a ski resort. The course venue may be in fairly benign terrain, but it is important that riders have an advanced riding ability to manage the highly variable snow conditions we experience in the backcountry. These conditions are typically very different from those found at ski resorts, even in off-piste resort terrain.
Have Appropriate Gear. Ski touring bindings or splitboards are much more functional than snowshoes. Please do not plan on using snowshoes during this course as it can impede the progress of the team. Likewise, a safety concern for the team is having functional avalanche tools, including:

Digital Beacon (newer than 5 years old or recently checked by the manufacturer)
High Quality Aluminum Shovel (plastic blades often break in dense avalanche debris)
High Quality Probe (modern, quick-draw style)

AIARE 2 Avalanche Courses