If you’re really looking to take your backcountry adventures to the next level, The AIARE Level 2 course may be your answer. This course picks up where the AIARE 1 leaves off. But it’s not the only advanced offering, and the details can get a little confusing. This post will fill you in on exactly what to expect from the AIARE 2 and help you figure out if it’s the right move for you.
If you’re looking for a full overview of the AIARE series and avalanche safety courses in general, take a look at my other posts.
What Exactly is the AIARE Level 2?
The AIARE is the American Institute for Avalanche Research. They’re avalanche safety curriculum is the most popular and well-regarded training standard in the industry.
But if you’ve made it through the AIARE 1, you probably already know that. The AIARE Level 2 is a follow-on to the main introductory course in the AIARE series. It continues where that one left off, seeking to refine your backcountry knowledge and increase your self-reliance while planning backcountry excursions.
Are there Prerequisites for the AIARE Level 2?
There aren’t exactly hard requirements to signing up, but there are strongly suggested guidelines and you’re going to look a little silly if you don’t follow them. To take the AIARE 2, you should have completed the AIARE 1 and logged at least a full season of backcountry voyages, planning out and executing routes in group through avalanche terrain.
What topics does the AIARE Level 2 Cover?
That’s the meat of the story, isn’t it. What do you really get out of this course that you can’t get from the introductory course or the Rescue Training?
The AIARE 2 is set to go one step deeper into understanding backcountry conditions. Now, in all practicality, your backcountry experiences to this point should be mostly reliant on public forecasting, planning routes according to local reports.
The Level 2 curriculum seeks to give you the confidence to consider more independent routes. In practice, this is a much riskier affair. But if there’s a particular route you’ve had your eye on, it may not even cover terrain that is regularly evaluated. You may be forced to piece together your own evaluation.
This level of knowledge gets pretty complex. You’ll need to master a number of techniques in order to determine if a particular route is passable. You’ll need to understand how to evaluate and anticipate local weather cycles, examine snowpack and conduct testing, and have the ability to lead through potentially stressful scenarios. the AIARE 2 should help get you there.
Where is the AIARE Level 2 Offered?
As with the AIARE 1, AIARE 2 courses can be found in any region where avalanches regularly occur. But the times and locations for the level 2 do tend to be a little more limited than the AIARE Level 1.
Officialy recognized course scheduling can be found on the AIARE website.
You can also find an extensive list of providers on the American Avalanche Association website.
Are There Alternatives to the AIARE Level 2?
The main alternative is to simply continue researching and practicing on your own. And before considering the AIARE 2, you’ll likely want to take a fairly deep dive on your own.
Read the best books on avalanche safety and forecasting. Organize and execute a variety of routes. When you’ve hit your limit and you’re ready for another leg up, that’s when you should pursue the AIARE 2.
But at this point, you’re also getting pretty involved in this sport, and you may seriously consider looking into the pro courses. The AIARE Pro 1&2 serve as follow-ups to the AIARE Level 1 (it gets a little confusing here with 2 different sets with the same numbering).
The Pro series is intended for professionals, either as a useful supplement to existing mountain work, or as an entryway into guiding or even teaching backcountry exploration yourself. If you add in the Avalanche Instructor Course as well, you’re actually approved to teach AIARE courses after the Pro series.
Conclusion
The AIARE Level 2 can give you the confidence required to safely plan and guide some intricate backcountry routes. It will get you to the point where you can start ticking some seriously amazing adventures off of the old bucket list.
More importantly though, it should continue to make you a safer and more knowledgeable mountaineer. While the skills you pick up may open up new territory for you, they should more serve to better inform your approach to all territory.
Completion of this course should leave you a confident backcountry explorer, able to assemble mounds of data points into a coherent plan of action.