What to Expect in an AIARE 2 Course: Take Your Avalanche Skills to the Next Level

If you’ve already completed AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue and have a season or two of touring experience under your belt, AIARE 2 is the natural next step in your avalanche education. This advanced course is all about deepening your understanding of snowpack, improving your tour planning, and developing leadership and decision-making skills in more complex terrain.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what AIARE 2 covers, how it differs from AIARE 1, and what you’ll need to succeed in the course.

📚 What Is AIARE 2?

An AIARE 1 or AIARE 1 + Rescue, is an excellent place to start your avalanche education. These introductory courses provide a baseline of knowledge and skills to understand the factors that increase avalanche hazard and a framework for how to plan tours and manage risk. Students freshly out of an AIARE 1 have a lot of skills and tools at their disposal to start planning and executing safe and fun ski tours, but when it's time to start managing elevated avalanche hazard, it’s hard to feel confident without direct experience to guide decision making.  

Our  AIARE 2 Avalanche Course builds on the foundation of those introductory courses. You'll gain understanding of how your instructor chooses appropriate terrain to manage risk and be given an opportunity to use more in-depth tools to prepare and plan your tours.

This course is ideal for anyone who wants to:

• Plan and lead tours in more serious terrain

• Track and evaluate persistent weak layers over time

• Apply structured tour planning and observation tools

• Refine communication skills and leadership with partners

It’s also a prerequisite for those considering professional-level avalanche training (e.g. AIARE Pro 1).

An avalanche observation from the Tahoe Area December 14, 2022 crown lines from previous avalanches.  

Monitoring and managing avalanche problems in consequential terrain is difficult without a lot of real-world experience. It's a huge leap to go from having a theoretical understanding of the avalanche hazard to making decisions in a snowstorm while trying to accomplish a safe ski tour. 

The hardest part about gaining experience in high-risk situations is doing it without exposing yourself to excessive risk. This period when you have knowledge and tools without a solid foundation of experience is a vulnerable time for backcountry skiers. Making decisions based purely on freshly acquired knowledge is prone to error and, in the backcountry, the consequences of mistakes can be huge.  

A narrow escape from a persistent slab avalanche. 

The question is, how do you gain the vital experience you need without exposing yourself to big risks?  One approach is to make very conservative decisions each time you go into the backcountry.  By avoiding avalanche terrain when problems exist, you can easily limit your risk, but this comes at a cost. One cost is that you'll build experience very slowly and you won't develop a deep understanding of managing avalanche problems. Another cost is that you'll miss out on a lot of really fun turns! If you're ok with these sacrifices, this is a really safe way to approach the problem.

If you want to fast track your experience and manage the risks, the best approach is to continue your avalanche education with an experienced  guide on an AIARE 2 Avalanche Course.   

💡 How AIARE 2 Differs from AIARE 1

📅 Course Format: What to Expect Each Day

Online Course (Completed before Field Day 1): 

• Review the different types of avalanche problems, how to recognize them & human factors in avalanche incidents

• Case study on the 2019 Silverton Avalanche School Fatality

• Module on managing uncertainty in the backcountry

Evening Zoom Webinar (1-3 Days before Field Day 1): Meet your instructor & student group

• Deep dive into snowpack structure and avalanche problems

• Tour planning with travel strategies for persistent weak layers

Field Day 1: Snowpack Tracking, Observations & Travel

• Use of field books, observation forms, and mapping tools

• Group discussion of leadership roles and decision frameworks

• Field-based snowpack observations and tests (e.g. CT, ECT)

• Evaluating terrain and travel options in real time

• Group travel strategies and communication systems

• Data recording and debrief on terrain use and risk management

Field Day 2: Tour Leadership & Decision-Making

• Student-led planning and execution of a full backcountry tour

• Assessment of changing conditions and group behavior

• Debrief and coaching on group leadership and communication

🧠 What You’ll Learn in AIARE 2

By the end of the AIARE 2 course, you’ll be able to:

• Track and interpret evolving snowpack conditions throughout the season

• Manage terrain for various avalanche problems, including persistent slabs

• Lead group tours using structured planning tools

• Conduct field tests and make informed stability assessments

• Apply decision-making frameworks in complex terrain

This course is where your avalanche education starts to shift from reactive to proactive.

AIARE 2 picks up where AIARE 1 left off: everyone taking an AIARE 2 avalanche course should have a baseline understanding of avalanche problems, snowpack, weather, terrain and human factors. During your AIARE 2 Avalanche Course you will learn to:

• 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.

Refining these skills in the field with an experienced guide will provide with a broader base of experience to draw on when you go on your next tour.

Case Study: How AIARE 2 can improve your decision-making in the backcountry

Let's take the early December 2022 snowpack in Tahoe, when a lot of snow fell onto a very weak, faceted snow surface. In an AIARE 2 during this avalanche cycle, we would discuss the persistent weak layer: how it formed, where it exists and the specific terrain that is most prone to the problem. From there, we would evaluate terrain options where we would be able to avoid that problem in the field based on the weather and snowpack. As an experienced backcountry traveler with AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue Course under your belt, you would be heavily involved in the decision making and discussion around what terrain is appropriate or not.  

Determining which snowpack tests to use and interpreting the results are an important part of AIARE 2.  

After deciding what types of terrain would be appropriate, we would pick a venue with a few different route options. The final route options would be decided in the field based upon observations of snow and weather as we approached our decision-making points. A big part of building this plan would be to choose which observations to make, where they should be made and when we should make them to inform our final decision on where to ski.  

These concepts are introduced in an AIARE 1 course but it can be difficult to know how to apply them appropriately.  Given the persistent weak layer, we might choose to do more extensive tests like a Propagation Saw Test or Extended Column Test. For wind slab or storm slab problems we would use faster, on-the-go observations as well as weather and visual clues. Mentorship and instruction during the AIARE 2 course make these the application of these skills much more tangible.

While the concepts in AIARE 2 course are the same as AIARE 1 course, the tools we use and the way we process the information that we gather are more involved. The goal of an AIARE 2 course is to gain more experience and be able to better apply the tools at our disposal to have higher confidence in the terrain that we choose.

👥 Who Should Take AIARE 2?

AIARE 2 is designed for those skiers and riders who:

• Have completed AIARE 1 + AIARE Avalanche Rescue courses

• Have at least one full season of touring experience

• Regularly plan and lead tours with partners

• Are interested in moving into bigger terrain with more hazard exposure

If you’re still getting comfortable with transitions, navigation, or group travel, consider gaining more experience before stepping into AIARE 2. A great way to do this is to book a Private Backcountry Tour with one of our AIARE Instructors to refresh your knowledge.

🛠️ Skills & Gear You’ll Need

Technical & Physical Requirements:

• Advanced resort riding skills: Confident on black diamond terrain in variable conditions (crust, windboard, deep snow)

• Strong gear familiarity and transition efficiency

• Fitness to tour 4–6 miles with up to 2,500 vertical feet/day

• Ability to manage all your systems independently in winter conditions

Required Gear:

• Touring setup (AT skis or splitboard, skins, poles)

• Avalanche beacon, shovel, probe

• AIARE Field book, map, compass, and route planning tools

• Snow saw, crystal card, and thermometer (some provided)

• Backpack (30–40L), layers, food, water

If you require gear rentals, you can rent an Avalanche Kit (Backpack, Beacon, Shovel, Probe) from Blackbird, and touring equipment from local gear Shop Partners.

🎯 Pro Tips for Success in AIARE 2

• Keep an AIARE field book during the season before your course to build observation habits

• Review your AIARE 1 materials and Avalanche Rescue skills beforehand

• Show up with recent touring experience, not just resort laps

• Be ready to lead conversations and make decisions in the field

📌 Final Thoughts

AIARE 2 is where avalanche education gets real. It’s a big step forward, requiring preparation, field experience, and the willingness to take on a leadership mindset. But it’s also one of the most empowering tools you can gain as a backcountry enthusiast.

If you’re ready to lead your group on ski tours, manage complex terrain, or simply feel more confident in your assessments, AIARE 2 will give you the tools to do it.

📚 Want a complete overview of all AIARE courses? Read our complete guide to all AIARE courses

🎿 Ready to level up your avalanche skills? Find an AIARE 2 Course Near You:

• AIARE 2 in Tahoe

• AIARE 2 in Mammoth Lakes

• AIARE 2 in Washington (Snoqualmie Pass & Mt Baker)

• AIARE 2 in Oregon (Mt Hood)

About the Author

Zeb Blais is an IFMGA Mountain Guide and AIARE Course Leader based in Truckee California. He loves all the disciplines of mountain guiding - ski, rock and alpine climbing - but skiing is his first love.  In the winter he enjoys backcountry skiing, guiding local and international ski trips, and teaching avalanche courses across the west coast, from Bishop, California to Mt Baker, Washington.